Demand Planner (Animal Nutrition)

  • Siloam Springs
  • Simmons Prepared Foods, Inc.
<strong> Purpose of the Position </strong><p> Produces, compiles and publishes a sku-level demand plan for a 24-month rolling period for assigned business unit. Consults with and provides support for sales representatives. Continually looks for more efficient ways of analyzing, modeling, and trending demand. Works within the Demand Planning and Sales &amp; Operations Planning (S&amp;OP) functions to improve the quality, speed, and efficiency of the various plans, metrics, and analysis that come out of those processes. <p><strong> Essential Position Responsibilities </strong> - <strong> This is a Salary Exempt position. </strong><p> Prepares and maintains a 24-month rolling forecast (demand plan). Builds and maintains a monthly demand plan for assigned business units. Provides analytical support and proactive demand signal information to sales representatives and other internal and external data customers. Maintains and improves upon existing statistical modeling tools and processes that generate the statistical forecast. Works with the Demand Manager, planning team, and other business functions to ensure that the demand planning process is consistent across the entire company. <p> Participates in the Sales &amp; Operations Planning (S&amp;OP) process. Provides the demand plan input to the S&amp;OP process. Generates market and business unit insights, both quantitative and qualitative, for the S&amp;OP team to use in building and integrating a company-wide S&amp;OP plan. Builds and presents portions of the S&amp;OP plan to the planning team as well as the executive owners of the various S&amp;OP functional plans. Validates that current and proposed demand plans are aligned with the strategic direction of the organization. <p> Supports process design and continual improvement. Develops and proposes process improvements and updates to evolve the demand planning function within the assigned business unit. Maintains documentation of current demand planning processes, the demand portion of S&amp;OP process, and other supporting processes. <p> Builds and maintains analytics dashboards and data sets. Provides comprehensive analytics to internal and external customers in the form of views and dashboards. Utilizes Tableau and Alteryx to create analytics ready data cubes and visualizations that drive deeper understanding into the current and modeled future state of the business. <p> Interfaces with supply chain and planning departments. Works collaboratively with peers in the supply and supply planning functions on a daily and weekly basis to ensure that the demand and supply plans are integrated and strategically aligned with company goals and directives. Ensures the derivative portions of an integrated plan, such as current and projected inventory, are within tolerance of established metrics. <p> Data / Analytical : Ability to demonstrate an advanced understanding of Excel and other data analysis tools. Tableau, Alteryx, QlikView, Demantra, Microsoft Access are all examples of data management tools that have a direct skill overlap with those needed for this position. <p> Participates as a member of the Team . Participates in the ongoing development, communication and implementation of team concepts, programs and policies; coordinates work to ensure best practices with all team members. Attends appropriate team meetings. As a member of the Team, fosters strong cohesiveness regarding all major issues; e.g., direction, annual plan, budget, policy changes, etc. Accepts responsibility to quickly identify any areas that lack cohesiveness, bringing them to the attention of the team leader and working with the team in a supportive manner to resolve issues and actively look for ways, and reinforce actions needed, to achieve synergy possible within the larger organization. <p> Simmons Operating systems principles and objectives: Is familiar with Simmons' established operating systems (e.g. quality, security, office environment, company policies, LEAN); understands the responsibility to maintain familiarity with the systems and this position's role in support of these systems - including a consideration of the impact of individual actions on the systems and the responsibility to communicate concerns and improvement ideas. <p> Performs other duties as necessary in support of business objectives: This position description is intended to guide the activities of the person in this position and is not intended to limit the thinking and creativity of the person as to the work of this function nor is it intended that this describe all the work that may be required of the person in this position. <p> Physical Activities: Enters and locates information on a computer. Visually verifies information, often in small print. Communicates with Customers, Vendors, or Employees via telephone, in person, and/or electronic mail. May present information to small or large groups. Move about in a manufacturing environment as needed. Move about in an office environment and surrounding property daily. <p> Travel: Travels domestically and internationally to and from multiple facilities or work-sites, possibly requiring overnight stays (10 - 20% travel). <p> Technical Experience: 3 years experience in a data and process centric role, not limited to a Demand Planning role. Finance and analytics are among a number of roles that have a significant overlap in skills with this position. <p> Industry Experience: Preference for food processing organization. <p> Minimum Education : Related Bachelor's Degree or 4 years of related work experience <p> Preferred Education: MBA or Graduate Degree preferred. Technical certification or training in project management, demand planning, etc. Any formal training in analytics tools such as Tableau, QlikView, Alteryx, and others. <img src="https://ars2.equest.com/? response_id=5890b2082daa6d2736b042da19ce9bd5&view" alt=" " width="1" height="1"/>