Job closed
Job description / Role
Company Profile:
Every Day, Around the World, People Reach for Unilever Products. Our Brands Are Trusted Everywhere And, By Listening to The People Who Buy Them, We've Grown into One of The World's Most Successful Consumer Goods Companies. In Fact, 150 Million Times A Day, Someone Somewhere Chooses a Unilever Product.
Look in Your Fridge, Or on The Bathroom Shelf, And You're Bound to See One of Our Well-Known Brands. We Create, Market and Distribute the Products That People Choose to Feed Their Families and Keep Themselves and Their Homes Clean and Fresh.
Our Corporate Strategy Aims to Double the Size of Our Business While Reducing Our Impact on The Environment By 2020. As A Result, In the Months and Years to Come, We Envisage Many Opportunities for Our Staff to Progress and Gain Vital Experience. It's Never Been Such an Exciting Time to Join the Unilever Team.
Job Scope
• Job Title: Demand Planner
• Department: Supply Chain
• Location: Dubai, UAE
Background
• To own and administrate local company sales forecasting and demand management for their respective categories across Gulf markets.
Roles & Responsibilities
Main Accountabilities:
Base Demand Plan
• Identify the right historical sales horizon to use for the baseline generation
• Clean the historical sales data from any outliers
• Identify the most appropriate statistical forecasting algorithm and models that should be used
• Generate the baseline using the model selected and adjust where necessary
• Communicate the generated baselines to relevant stakeholders
• New Product Demand (NPD) Plan
• Analyse the NPD bottoms up volumes provided by the Sales & Marketing team by using like model and scenario planning techniques
• Challenge the NPD volumes (if required) then incorporate them in the demand plan
• Work closely with Supply Chain and Category teams to ensure landing the NPD OTIF in all markets
• Monitor the NPD performance for the first 3 months and highlight the need to amend forward forecast to the Category team
Facilitate the Demand Planning Process
• Own the forecast in any of the S&OP meetings (monthly cycle) and in the weekly operational meetings
• Build the activities (that are over and above the baselines) provided by the Sales & Marketing teams
• Maintain an assumptions tracker that would be used to evaluate the performance of the activity and challenge volumes going forward
• Present the exceptions in the activity meeting and facilitate the process of reaching consensus on the final agreed unconstrained demand
• Minute all the forecast changes that take place in any forum to ensure all stakeholders are aligned
• Upload agreed unconstrainted demand in APO, ensuring Master Data related to each product is maintained on system to ensure accurate data flow
• Send finance a constrained plan basis the demand and supply reconciliation output
• Communication with Extended Supply Chain
• Communicate the most updated demand plan with the relevant Supply Planning and Customer Service teams
• Work with Customer Service team to ensure stocks availability in all markets and to develop scenarios to mitigate supply gaps (if any) through demand adjustments
• Ensure the promotional plans are aligned with the Promotions team
• Continuous Improvement
• Analyse forecast accuracy and bias to identify and implement process enhancements to improve these KPI's
• Present the KPI's to the Category team in order to find ways to improve them
• Champion the development of changes to current processes
• Coach the Category team on forecasting techniques to facilitate discussions while simultaneously improving KPIs
Requirements
Key Competencies & Skills - Standards of Leadership
Qualifications:
• Industrial Engineering (preferred) or engineering degree, Business graduates with statistical courses, Supply Chain specialized degree.
• Fresh graduate or maximum three years of experience
• Proficient in MS Office (knowledge of SAP, APO and R-studio is a plus)
• CPIM or CSCP certification is a plus
Key Competencies
• Analytical and critical thinking
• Adaptable to changes in a fast-pasted environment
• Challenger to the status quo
• Bias for action and proactivity
• Excellent communication skills
• Standards of Leadership:
• Purpose & Service
• Personal Mastery
• Agility
• Business Acumen
• Talent Catalyst
• Consumer Love
• Passion for High Performance
About the Company
Unilever is one of the leading FMCG company with 400 brands spanning 14 categories of home, personal care and foods products, no other company touches so many people's lives in so many different ways.
Our brand portfolio has made us leaders in every field in which we work. It ranges from much-loved world favourites including Lipton, Knorr, Dove and Omo, to trusted local brands such as Blue Band and Suave.
From comforting soups to warm a winter's day, to sensuous soaps that make you feel fabulous, our products help people get more out of life.
We're constantly enhancing our brands to deliver more intense, rewarding product experiences. We invest €1 billion every year in cutting edge research and development, and have five laboratories around the world that explore new thinking and techniques to help develop our products.