This role is responsible for the overall demand planning for the global enterprise including the engagement and leading of portions of the Sales And Operations Planning Process, the alignment of capacities to the needs of our customers, the inventory planning to support customer needs and the measurement of our ability to meet those needs. It is a position requiring a high attention to detail with solid capabilities in planning and capacity understanding and management both for vertically produced and supplied products. This role is additionally responsible for the development of the next level leadership within the team, aligning new products introduction with source production and launch timing and acting as the leading indicator of market trends and threats.
Essential Functions
- Ensures alignment of all inbound sales orders to lead times and source capacities and governs the issuance of lead times per category and per order through proper management of slotting to capacity.
- Oversees the team responsible for mapping demand to sources and the oversight of the orders through processes to receipt at distribution location or direct to the customer.
- Coordinates with Finance, Sales and Marketing to develop an ever-improving sales forecast using demand history, trends, NPI, seasonality and other market data which is to be used as a demand planning forecast for all sources.
- Own and operate the S&OP process and it’s development to include the implementation of Demand Planning and S&OP Management software as required.
- With the overall business, establish inventory targets by “platform” and measure for effectiveness and alignment to financial objectives.
- Lead / assist Marketing, Sales and Customer Service in managing replenishment systems to meet established goals and objectives for sales, inventory turns, in-stocks, and profitability
- Support the demand planning team members with their abilities to improve the overall operation.
- Ensure all customer required communication is timely and accurate and requests are met with a high sense of urgency
- Report out to the business as required
Metrics for this role are: Lead Time Accuracy, Ship On Time, Forecast Accuracy, Inventory turns overall, Inventory weeks on hand by “platform” by location, Time from order entry to lead time confirmation, Slotting Accuracy, Monthly Market Analysis data generation on time with proposals
Required Skills/Abilities
- Proven team leading and team building skills
- Improvise and dynamically lead the team through issues that challenge the successful operation of the Demand Planning process
- Strong organizational and follow up skills, especially with customers directly
- Ability to research and learn new demand planning systems and adapt best practices
- Creative problem-solving skills
- Strong analytical and quantitative skills
- Ability to foster and maintain strong working relationships with Finance, Marketing and Sales Teams
- Strong Executive Level presentation skills
Required Education and Experience
- At least 10 years of consumer products planning experience
- Strong Microsoft Excel capability
- Bachelor’s Degree
- Demonstrated team leadership and cross team collaboration and project management
- At least 10 years of interaction with Sales and Marketing functions on the launch of new products
- Knowledge of the guitar manufacturing process is a plus
Essential Knowledge
- Demonstrated team leadership, cross team collaboration, project management and problem solving.
- Knowledge of the guitar components and guitars and how they align to compliance requirements
- Strong knowledge in global logistics processes, modes and capabilities
- Knowledge of global freight lanes, seasonal tendencies and especially container movements and limitations
- Ability to foster and maintain strong working relationships with the Finance team
- Strong Executive Level presentation skills
Personal Qualities
- Enjoys analysis/statistics, a Problem Solver
- Ability to handle pressure well
- Ability to clearly communicate requirements
- Ability to lead cross functional teams and team activities
- Must have Player-Coach capability while maintaining a high degree of ownership in the team
- Must be a willing student to then transfer new knowledge learned
- Should be detail oriented and highly organized
- Have a Servant Leader mentality
