Demand Planner

Overview:

Reporting to the Demand Planning Director, the Demand Planner position is responsible for all forecasting and demand planning activities associated with customers and products. The Demand Planner creates and maintains forecast models for assigned product lines and customers, incorporating business intelligence, and forecast information gathered from sales, marketing, finance, retailer analytics, and other sources. The Demand Planner is the integration point into the sales and commercial organization. Basic forecast modeling is the responsibility of this position. This position leads the monthly consensus forecasting process and is a key contributor to the monthly SIOP process.

Responsibilities:

To accomplish this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform, with or without reasonable accommodation, each essential function satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to help enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Develops an unconstrained forecast driven by statistics, market intelligence, sales programs, and product life cycle, customer POS, customer inventory data, and error analysis techniques.
• Maintains strong relationships and works closely with Sales and Marketing to understand demand drivers, sales plans and strategies, customer trends and buying plans, and incorporate into the demand and operational forecast.
• Facilitates a collaborative planning process with sales, marketing, and finance to achieve a consensus operational demand forecast.
• Collaborates with SIOP, Executive Leadership, Finance, Product Management, Regional and Local Sales Teams, supply planners, inventory planners, and procurement teams to ensure that all demand plans are in alignment from a top-level perspective to a more detailed customer
• Assists in generating major assumptions package of economic and market indicators that help guide the forecasting and strategic planning
• Delivers the confirmed unconstrained unit forecast at the appropriate level to the supply planning and purchasing
• Works closely with the supply planning and purchasing teams to understand supply issues and future product availability impacting the sales forecast
• Works with supply planning to develop inventory strategies on existing items, new product, and product phase-outs to ensure effective inventory management and customer service
• Manage and maintain forecasting and demand planning systems and software.
• Prepare and maintain relevant reports pertaining to demand planning process

Key Results:

• A demand forecast which incorporates current and accurate market information that allows the company to correctly predict customer demand and provide its supply chain with the appropriate information to plan how to meet that customer demand.
• Strong relationships among sales, marketing, finance, supply chain planners, which will lead to effective knowledge sharing and an optimal consensus forecast to facilitate the decision-making process.
• Refined system and methods to continually improve forecasts to better anticipate customer needs.
• Execute with excellence in the area of customer replenishment and feedback to the Supply Chain group the opportunities and risks regarding customer replenishment performance metrics.

Qualifications:

• 5 + years of experience in demand planning, forecasting, inventory management, supply chain, or related field
• Demonstrated proficiency in statistics, forecasting, and forecasting methods with an understanding of their financial and operational impacts.
• Demonstrated proficiency using root cause analysis to improve forecast accuracy and demand planning processes.
• Ability to independently identify and resolve problems or take advantage of opportunities.
• Strong analytical, organizational, decision-making, and presentation skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to effectively interact with all teams, areas, and levels of business affecting the forecasting process.
• Familiarity with private label fasteners, building supplies, MRO materials, and hardware and/or hand tools, preferred.
• Familiarity with wholesale distribution and complex supply chain networks, preferred.
• Knowledge of advanced demand planning software, preferred.

Education:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management, Economics, Statistics, Business Analytics, Supply Chain Management, or related field, or equivalent experience

Computer Skills:

• Strong proficiency in Microsoft Office skills
• Proficiency with Tableau or PowerBI reporting tools, desired
• Planning system experience – SAP/IBP, Blue Yonder / JDA, Netstock/ Demandworks, SAP APO, SAP, or SAP Business Objects, preferred

BLUEPRINT/ ORGANIZATIONAL COMPETENCIES

All those joining PrimeSource Brands are expected to strive to live our Blueprint to fulfill our organizational “why” – to build our tomorrow, today. The key competencies of the Blueprint are:

• Care -- Leads with care; genuinely invested in the success and well-being of co-workers, customers, and the business.
• Winning Together -- Builds collaborative and positive relationships with team members and customers to win in the marketplace.
• Working Hard -- Reliably and consistently committed to the work at hand, showing up on time, meeting promised deadlines, and putting in the necessary time, energy, and effort to successfully get the job done.
• Working Smart -- Uses time and resources wisely, always seeking a better way to complete tasks and reduce unnecessary activities.
• Working Fast -- Anticipates and quickly adapts to change; moves quickly, fails fast, and efficiently pushes forward to deliver results.

PrimeSource Building Products, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer. PrimeSource Building Products, Inc. is fully committed to equal employment opportunity (EEO) and maintaining a workplace free of discrimination and harassment based on race, gender, religion, age, color, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, genetic information and other non-merit factors. All persons shall be afforded equal employment opportunity at PrimeSource Building Products, Inc.

PrimeSource Building Products, Inc. prohibits discrimination in all aspects of its personnel policies, program practices and operations and relationships with employees and applicants, including but not limited to recruitment, hiring and merit promotion. PrimeSource Building Products, Inc. promotes programs of affirmative recruitment and employment at all levels of PrimeSource Building Products, Inc.. PrimeSource Building Products, Inc. subscribes to, and will implement to the full extent, all applicable laws that promote equality of opportunity.

PrimeSource Building Products, Inc. welcomes and encourages applications from persons with disabilities, and will reasonably accommodate the needs of those persons. PrimeSource Building Products, Inc. is firmly committed to satisfying its affirmative obligations under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, to ensure that persons with disabilities have every opportunity to be hired and advanced on the basis of merit within PrimeSource Building Products, Inc.