Demand Planning Manager

Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization:

As the Demand Planning Manager, your role is to create the monthly Wholesale Demand Plan for Reebok US and to upload the monthly buy forecasts for the Direct To Consumer buying team and the Wholesale strategic units.

The Demand Plan (DP) is the basis for Purchasing and significantly influences the inventory management/stock turn and re-order availability. Therefore, it is also the foundation for reaching sales and inventory targets. Demand Plan accuracy is key especially in consideration of availability and inventory levels and in supporting the Senior Leadership Team on tracking overall sales goals and targets.

The manager helps to prepare for key milestone meetings (Hard Launch Buy Review, Mins Review, Monthly Key Rep Calls, Demand and Supply Review, etc).  In addition, the manager supports the team in updating the US Business partners on the order book progression, comparisons to prior years, and sharing consolidated sales rep forecasts and commentary throughout the season.

Key Responsibilities:

§  Own the wholesale demand plan for the US product ranges.

§  Own the sales rep forecasting process (creation and communication of templates, consolidation and analysis of the forecasts submitted). These forecasts are a key indicator of the wholesale seasonal demand signal and help key stakeholders make informed decisions.

§  Create the US seasonal factory capacity forecasts (to global planning 3x a season) by incorporating past season sales/production order analysis, sales and marketing trends, sales rep forecasts and feedback from product managers and commercial finance.

§  Schedule and drive monthly Top Account calls with sales to align on orders to come, factory capacity forecasts, potential strategic buys and to stay informed on status and health of those retailers.

§  Own the wholesale monthly buy demand creation, uploads and validations of strategic buys for evergreen/never-out-of-stock and other key articles by working with sales, marketing, range architecture and finance on key opportunities.

§  Create and communicate weekly ship/open report to give key business partners visibility to the updated order book (including sales, product managers, range architecture, direct to consumer team, account operations).

§  Ensure master account and article data keys are maintained and up to date as they are key drivers in weekly and monthly reporting and business review meetings.

§  Update tools for monthly tracking reporting such as Sales Order to Forecast accuracy and seasonal waterfall comparisons (production po quantities vs. demand quantities).

§  Drive seasonal omni channel meetings with the direct to consumer, product managers and range architecture teams to improve range efficiency before seasonal bookings begin.

§  Run ad hoc reports for business partners on US orders, purchases and/or forecasts.

§  Support the demand planning director in the creation and presentation of monthly demand summaries for meetings with senior leadership and key stakeholders (seasonal model comparisons, account analysis/commentary, latest order book and trends).

§  Support the demand planning team with Ecom and Retail Buy Forecast process as needed (upload/validate monthly demand at size level and assist with any range/size issues ahead of monthly buys deadlines).

§  Heavily involved in the Go Live of new systems including testing, validations and troubleshooting with IT.

Key Relationships:

·       Product Supply, mainly purchasing and inventory teams

·       Sales Team

·       Direct to Consumer Buyers

·       Sales Operations

·       Supply Planning

·       Range Architecture

·       IT

·       Product Marketing

·       Finance

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

·       Strong communication skills

·       Strong analytical skills

·       Strong numerical skills

·       Advanced MS Excel skills

·       Good knowledge of MS Office (Power point, Word)

·       Knowledge of SAP and Blue Cherry a plus

Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications: 

·        Bachelor's degree

·        3-5 years of work experience in demand planning preferred