Business Planner

JOB SUMMARY

 • Play a key role in: 

• Top Down Long term planning (5-18 months), o capacity planning based on demand uncertainty / scenario planning 
• Demand Supply reconciliation (1-18 month), 
• Innovation planning for RSVs and New Products,
• Business Tradeoffs between Growth Opportunities, Working Capital and Operational Costs.

Works closely together with the Forecasting Excellence team on Forecasting and continuous improvement, CD on Demand uncertainties, P&I coordinators on Innovation planning, and upstream SC (Category, SU, Procurement) on short and long term delivery. 

YOUR MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES 

Supply Chain MCO: 

• Dispatch Rate and Obsoletes – using available data and analytics to generate business insights and action plans for different scenarios. 

• Managing appropriate stock levels, driven by forecast uncertainty insight (event mgt, season mgt, Assumptions risk and opportunity planning). 

• Part of the project team for implementation of next generation planning systems.

Service 

• Drives the service performance to the agreed service targets 

• Collaborates with forecast excellence team & CCBT to define the constrained plan and risk mitigation plans •

 Collaborates with European category teams to identify supply constraints and opportunities 

• Drives the demand and supply reconciliation long term (through RCCP) and mid-term (4wks+)

• Prepares handover of mid-term plan to the Customer Support Squad for execution (1-4 wks) e.g. list of key events, risks and opportunities and risk mitigation

Innovations / relaunches 

• Translate the innovation forecast for the full horizon (5-18 months) in Visual Fabric in cooperation with CCBT team (volume and risk & opportunities) 

• Collaborate with P&I on innovation and launch planning for the go to market 

• Check feasibility of timings and production capacity of innovations and relaunches. 

• Translate phasing in and out plan in planning system in cooperation with Category, Forecasting Excellence, and Customer teams. 

Business Partner 

• Identifies the key trade-offs in running operation, events, and product launches and proposes options to the planning manager and the CCBT lead (trade off cost/ cash/ service) 

• Establish and maintain strong relationships with Sales, Trade Category Management, Brand Building, and Finance business partners for forecast optimization purposes and perfect execution of product launches. 

• Understanding of the drivers of the business in order to communicate and share the SC information in the properly and effectively 

Business Waste 

• Provide transparency about potential risks and obsoletes regarding innovations, delisting’s and relaunches. 

• Focus on prevention and solving of obsoletes through proactive risk mitigation (including approval of the business) 

• Represent Supply Chain with respect to obsolete related topics. 

KEY REQUIREMENTS AND SKILLS 

• Education with relevant Master Degree (e.g. SC management, technical) 

• Minimum 3 years of relevant (FMCG) experience 

• Strong analytical capabilities, ability to work with big portfolio’s, building on modelling skills, and profound system thinking, 

• Operational experience in and knowledge of the Supply Chain 

• Digital mindset & technology savvy (beyond SAP and Excell, i.e. AI/ML) 

• Capability to resolve Strategic and Tactical planning challenges as well as day to day problems • Interpersonal skills: convincing, engaging, deal making, influencing skills 

• Effective communication skills for WL1-WL4 

• Language skills: NL/BE: fluency in Dutch and/or French and proficient of English; 

• Other relevant experience such as factory, marketing or sales 

COMPETENCIES 

• Practical creativity: can-do mindset 

• Analytical ability 

• Entrepreneurial behavior 

• Influencing others 

• Ability to learn