Americas - Demand & Fulfillment Planner

Clarks•Needham, MA

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Demand & Fulfillment Planner (Store Planner) will be working at our Needham MA location - Hybrid and is responsible for producing an accurate demand forecast for a respective Clarks owned points of purchase for a given gender(s) across retail, digital and outlet, using Centric to manage the allocation and replenishment of stock from the Distribution Centre to ensure the right product is delivered to the right place at the right time and stock levels are optimized. Additionally, this role is responsible for reviewing and updating forecasts in response to sales, lost sales, promotions and commercial plans to provide an accurate make signal to Supply Chain; managing stock through the distribution center and physical store locations based on the consensus forecast; and ensuring plans can be delivered within the constraints of the regional supply chain including Distribution Centre capacity, store delivery schedules and lead times.

Requirements

BS degree in business or related field preferred.
2+ years in analytical role.
Highly developed numerical, analytical and interpretive skills.
Ability to use analytical tools, e.g. databases, BI, Excel to perform analysis.
Strong interpersonal/communication skills with ability to initiate and build strong relationships with key teams across functions.
Very high attention to detail with ability to spot issues and exceptions when reviewing data.
Knowledge of the merchandise planning process.
Knowledge of demand forecasting methods and inventory concepts preferred.
Good commercial skills and judgement.
Experience and /or good understanding of retail.
Proactive and resilient with ability to prioritize and manage own workload.
Experience of working proactively.
Ability to influence and collaborate with other teams.

Responsibilities

Produce and maintain long-term and short-term forecasts to ensure a result of the right product in the right place at the right time.
Set the time and size profiles at line, category and gender level for feed-in to the seasonal forecasting process (make and sales).
Feed-in to seasonal assortment plan the recommended initial allocation and replen profile.
Work collaboratively with Merchandise to deliver forecasts that meet commercial requirements, including like-for-like matches for new products, planned promotions, store openings/closures, and unplanned events.
Set the seasonal assortment and allocation plan in demand & fulfilment aligned to the merchandising assortment plan and trading plan – challenge any discrepancies to merchandising and align to ensure accuracy.
Optimize the store level profiles and overall size/time phase profile in response to trading pattern.
Regularly check and monitor sales, react accordingly to ensure new product forecasts align with Merchandisers plans.
Manage start of season launch of new product into stores in conjunction with Merchandising and planning teams to ensure accurate on time delivery.
Maintain forecast accuracy and continuously review to improve accuracy and maintain correct stock levels.
Review forecast accuracy exception reports by channel to determine root causes, fix and tune largest error/volume lines and react to large changes.
Ensure stock allocation happens in line with plan (includes occasional manual allocations).
Optimize in-season profiles to optimize availability and respond to changes in the trading plan.
Optimize stock distribution in-season - execute settings and parameters in Centric system to optimize stock distribution in line with the strategy and the forecast in Centric.
Manage through any changes to Demand & Fulfilment profiles as a result of assortment plan changes or recall activity.
Respond to ad hoc requests to adjust profiles on a weekly basis – evaluating impact to inventory position, cover and executing where required.
Escalate issues with product set up such as incorrect assortment with the relevant business teams for resolution.
Manage end of life markdowns and effective distribution of stock to stores to enable the agreed exit strategy through push allocation.