Local Demand Planner

Local Demand Planner
- Supply Chain
- Singapore
- Full-time
- Singapore

**JOB CONTEXT**

The Local Demand Planner creates a forecast for future sales volumes and plans demand volumes to optimize service levels for the country/MSU.

The local demand planner is part of the Supply Chain organization supporting the Marketing & Sales Unit (MSU). Supply Chain is part of the Operations function which aims to ensure the integration of all key business processes from supplier to customers, providing products, services and information that add value for customers and stakeholders. Operations manages sourcing, procurement, manufacturing, supply chain (supply chain planning, customer service, warehousing and logistics and ensures optimal alignment between demand and supply at a global scale, taking into account efficiency, required flexibility, security of supply and considering costs, working capital, quality levels, service levels, company and society values

**KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES**
- Create a demand forecast representing the prognosis of future shipments to customers based on historical trends and planned activities and events. The Demand planner applies continuous improvement techniques to improve Forecast accuracy & Forecast bias KPI measurements.
- To create the demand forecast the demand planner works in close collaboration with Sales, Marketing and Finance and regional planning to create a plan to maximize business performance; Plans match MSU strategic plans, delivering high service level and low cost.
- Optimizing service level for the country/MSU by communicating product availability (including New Product Developments)
- Identifying & resolving service risks, with escalation to the Regional Supply Planner for decision-making in case of stock shortages or inventory excess
- Provide safety stock setting proposals to Regional Supply Planning (in case of principal MSU).
- Deliver input to the monthly Integrated Business Planning (IBP) meetings and align the forecast with agreed actions.
- Monitor slow moving-, obsolete
- and aging stocks and propose improvement actions for approval by Regional Supply Planning (in case of principal MSU).

**RESPONSIBILITIES**
- Create a baseline forecast representing the demand forecast for standard sales (no events) at customer/SKU level. Clean the sales history from the impact of events (out of stock, promotions, price increase, etc). Use the cleaned sales history for manual or statistical baseline creation. Create a forecast profile in case the statistical functionality of APO is used. Verify baseline assumptions and trends with Marketing and Sales teams.
- Add promotional volumes to the baseline forecast. In cooperation with Sales and Finance department in the monthly IBP meetings and the weekly meeting with Sales and Customer Service update the forecast with decisions made in these meetings. Model scenarios with the impact of uplift, dip and cannibalization patterns on SKU/Customer level in APO Demand Planning.
- Integrate innovations into the demand plan based on the monthly IBP Marketing meeting. Define for new SKUs the local master data. Weekly follow up on actuals versus forecast after launch to update forecast with latest expectations. Manage the phase out of finished goods with guidance of the Regional Supply Planner in case other SKUs will be delisted
- Review and adjust the total demand forecast to ensure an up to date forecast in the weekly process for the release to supply planning. Reflect the agreed volumes in the total demand forecast in the monthly Integrated Business Planning process as a basis for KPI measurements.
- Cross functional alignment. Validate that all functions plan based on the same forecast: Align the demand forecast assumptions different functions in the MSU, such as Sales, Marketing, Finance. Ensure that the aligned forecast of the MSU is equal to the demand forecast the regional planning team is using to develop supply plans. Document the monthly sign off of the general manager on the 18 months rolling demand forecast.
- Perform product portfolio analysis to validate the SKU volumes versus operations and financial hurdle rates.
- Plan the co-packing flows by coordinating the availability of the components and the co-packed item. Align with the co-packing planner in the Supply Chain team to ensure the expected output. Close purchase orders for co-packing in time and ensure stocks of components at the vendor to be equal to system stocks.
- Plan third party supply of finished goods to the MSU. Order finished goods at the 3rd party supplier to fulfil the demand of finished goods. Ensure availability of the stocks taking into account the stock boundaries and the lead
- times of the products.
- Identify service issues and risks by monitoring of out of stock issues and risks and liaise with Regional Supply Planning to resolve the out of stock issue or mitigate the risks and liaise with customer service to allocate stock to customers.

**Qualificat