Associate Manager, Demand & Supply Planning

Position Summary

This role leads the bottom-up consensus demand planning for designated categories within the Cluster, ensuring alignment among commercial and operational teams. The objective is to guarantee product availability with optimal freshness, maintain ideal inventory levels, and consistently achieve service goals to support Cluster growth and increase market share.

Daily Responsibilities

• Lead the Monthly Business Planning Cycle (MBPC) for assigned categories in the Cluster, developing an 18-month consensus demand plan that aligns with Cluster, Category, and Channel strategies. Facilitate pre-alignment and sign-off meetings with Cluster leadership, sales, category development team, and marketing.
• Utilize Sellout and IMS data to develop consensus demand plans by category, district, and SKU, ensuring adherence to stock coverage policies. Conduct sales bias analysis at SKU and district levels to enhance forecast decisions.
• Perform advanced price elasticity simulations anticipating currency devaluation, collaborating with commercial teams to assess multi-scenario volume impacts across product portfolios, identifying risks and opportunities to support data-driven decisions.
• Work closely with District sales senior managers to analyze second-tier wholesalers, aiming to improve forecast accuracy throughout the distribution network, particularly before price adjustments.
• Partner with commercial teams to manage Internal Control Price (ICP) settings and create baseline demand forecasts for new product launches and promotions, ensuring assumptions are realistic and aligned with market conditions, competitor pricing, and sales ambitions.
• Oversee end-to-end Purchase-In-Process-Out (PIPO) plans monthly to prevent stockouts or overstock situations, coordinating based on MBPC outcomes, supply alerts, and prior performance.
• Collaborate with sales support to evaluate monthly sales landing impact on replenishment and annual sales targets, taking proactive steps to optimize stock levels at trade.
• Coordinate across clearance, category supply planning, demand support planning, and logistics to ensure timely supply with the right freshness and optimal inventory levels, providing visibility to commercial teams for on-time availability.
• Contribute to reducing bad goods through Market Service Review (MSR) meetings with stakeholders, ensuring aligned action plans within MBPC, appropriate financial provisions, and escalation of unmitigable risks.
• Continuously monitor key performance indicators such as On-Ground percentage, tonnage growth, Demand Plan Accuracy (DPA) with 1- and 3-month lag, bias, Cost of Finance, stock cover, and bad goods, aiming to improve service levels, forecast accuracy, and reduce end-to-end costs.
• Maintain and share a Demand Plan Accuracy learning log with Cluster, Category teams, and the Analytical Hub, detailing deviations from actuals with reasons.
• Coordinate with the local Advertising and Promotion (A&P) team to ensure timely execution and availability of promotional stock according to SOPs.
• Support order fulfillment management including root cause (reason code) assignment for out-of-stock situations, establishing improvement plans to enhance customer satisfaction and mitigate issues where needed.
• Manage monthly pallet space projections through close collaboration with warehouse and logistics teams to ensure warehouse capacity availability, anticipating demand fluctuations, build-ups, and supply chain contingencies.

Qualifications and Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or Supply Chain Management.
• Minimum of 2 years’ professional experience in demand planning.
• Experience in the Food & Beverage industry is advantageous.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite.
• Excellent stakeholder management abilities.
• Strong communication skills.