Supply Demand Planner

Tata Consumer Products - USA•Landover, MD

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Demand Planner is responsible for developing and maintaining accurate demand forecasts for all brands at Tata Consumer Products Ltd. This role acts as a bridge between commercial ambition and operational reality, sitting at the center of Sales, Supply Chain, and Operations. Success in this role requires influencing stakeholders, driving planning discipline, and transforming data into actionable business insights. The demand planner will collaborate with cross-functional teams to gather information impacting demand, monitor sales performance against forecasts, and refine forecasts based on changing customer promotional needs.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree preferred, preferably in Supply Chain Management, Finance, Operations Management or Engineering
5 years’ experience in demand planning within FMCG business
Strong forecast, supply planning experience
Experience with MS Office Suite

Nice To Haves

Project management experience preferred
Strong understanding of supply chain management, logistics, and inventory
Proficiency in using demand planning and forecasting software such as SAP/S4Hana, IBP, O9, Blue Planner, Blue Yonder, Kinaxis is highly preferred
Proficiency in analyzing large sets of data and using data visualization tools to identify trends, patterns, and insight – Power BI, Tableau is beneficial
Self-starter mentality with the ability to work independently
Excellent oral and written communication
Prior CPG experience
Detail orientated

Responsibilities

Improve and maintain statistical forecast models to create accurate demand forecasts for all product categories.
Manage outlier detection, maintain base and promotional forecasts coming from TPM system into GIB.
Evaluate the results of the statistical forecast at customer, warehouse, package, material level and make the necessary adjustment to reflect the most appropriate demand forecast results.
Flag significant variances between statistical forecasts and RSM-entered demand plans to improve accuracy.
Proactively use trend analysis, forecast vs actual results and data input of volume by utilizing customer promotional calendars, history and current information.
Lead the demand planning meetings, prepare and present analysis.
Partner with the Sales VP, Sales Strategy team and Regional Sales Managers to gather data and transfer information into the demand plan.
Work with the sales and supply team to ensure that they’ve reached consensus upon a demand plan.
Challenge assumptions and provide data-driven recommendations.
Prepare and lead the monthly demand alignment meetings between Sales, Finance and Supply Leadership.
Navigate through complex business processes with understanding of upstream (commercial) and downstream (supply planning, manufacturing and logistics) implications.
Collaborate closely with Supply Planners to maintain up-to-date information on capacity, capability, supplier constraints in the supply network.
Own product lifecycle management and distribution tracker to ensure that any add/delete items are promptly updated in the system to avoid impacting forecast accuracy.
Ensure changes in Supply Chain (SKU/Material Intro and deletion, Distribution/Network changes) are managed end-to-end including forecast needs, re-alignment requirements of sales history, maintenance of planning tables and other master data fields in SAP.
Ensure the flow of customer specific demand plans through the planning process and enterprise software tools (TPM, GIB, Clearview etc.) and provide item specific input into the monthly S&OP process.
Contribute to continuous enhancement in the long-term demand planning process.
Continuously look for opportunities to improve processes, identify issues and provide recommendations for improvement.
Propose and implement solutions to improve demand forecast accuracy.