Volume Forecast Data Analyst

BACKGROUND 

The Planning Excellence Benelux team consist of various roles that make Excellent Execution a success. One of these roles is the Volume Forecast Data Analyst. Less time spent on Running the Business to reinvest in Growing the Business whilst Improving Customer and Employee Satisfaction is the vision of Integrated operations. Team members within Planning Excellence embrace the vision and their daily work practice reflects the 4 principles of end-to-end ownership, maximized automation, one version of the truth and continuous improvement. The team effectively works in a cross-country setting, embracing cultural diversity and working in virtual teams.

Competencies key to make Integrated Operations a success, are: 

Practical creativity

Enterprising behavior

Ability to learn

JOB SUMMARY

The Volume Forecast Data Analyst has the responsibility for the full-term volume demand forecast per cluster for the Benelux. In this role, the Volume Forecast Data Analyst will contribute to the standard business process (S&OP), in close cooperation with the Value Forecast Analyst, Supply chain Specialists and Sales. 

This contains the responsibility for the total volume forecast over the Refreshment category for a rolling horizon of 18 months. The main focus is on the horizon of 2 - 6 months providing the business with a robust rolling volume forecast using category market intelligence to translate the plans of sales/marketing and market dynamics into a volume forecast. This volume forecast is input for Unilever’s Supply Chain network to make production plans in the factories. The Volume Forecast Data Analyst is the driver of the demand volume forecast in the S&OP process (Business Forecast Process). 

Further, within the Benelux, we are in a process of professionalizing our planning systems, building principles as artificial intelligence and machine learning into the planning process. The Volume Forecast Data Analyst will have a role in providing feedback on the outcome of these predictive models. Hence, some basic affinity with these principles combined with the ambition to be part of this journey, is important for the right candidate. Some scripting experience or affinity is a pre, in order to understand and easily communicate with partners and experienced data- scientist & engineers.

This results in an exciting balance between strategic planning, analysis, actions plans resulting from this, and stakeholder and business management. Strong relations are essential in this role. 

Demand Planning: 

Responsible for both base and promotional planning (0-18 months) 

Responsible for adjustments of the outcome of the promotional predictive model based on data analytics

Responsible for KPI’s as Forecast Accuracy, Forecast Bias, exceptions and outliers 

Integrate top-down forecast in bottom-up 

Manage volume exception driven by sales input in overall volume forecast 

Translate the innovation and relaunches forecast for the full horizon (0-18 months) in Unilever’s planning tools. 

Manage Assumptions, Risks and Opportunities & translate to volume impact

Actively contribute to the improvement roadmap – both in execution as well as in proactively propose potential opportunities. 

Analyze datasets and the outcome of our predictive model

Business partnering: 

Establish and maintain strong relationships with Value Forecast Analyst, Supply chain Specialist, Sales, Trade Category Management, Brand Building, and Business Partners for forecast optimization purposes and perfect execution of product launches. 

Understand the dynamics of the business in order to communicate and distribute the correct information to the business (develop a high degree of business sense).  

Report to the Category Planning Lead

Working on improvement Projects

Help improving the predictive models by doing analysis on our forecast

Start a project from scratch with a third parties/stakeholders/ consulting partner that will help the business to automate a certain process and save costs 

Build your own scripts that support teams, monitor the data quality in the systems or sends an automatic email to recipients that need to perform a task

Visualize your projects with a visualization tool (e.g. PowerBI, Google Data Studio) to let the data speak and influence

Know how to simplify processes and save time by doing so 

KEY REQUIREMENTS 

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE 

A strong affinity with data & technology is a must 

It takes a mix of analytical thinking and creative business thinking to succeed 

Operational experience in either Supply Chain or Sales a pre

Experience in the area of FMCG is preferred

Have a some affinity with new technology developments, machine learning methodologies and artificial intelligence is a pre

Experience with scripting- and/or programming languages is a pre

Know how to work with visualization tools like PowerBI, Google Data Studio or Tableau

Have a basic understanding of databases

Languages: fluent in Dutch is a pre, English a must
 

COMPETENCIES 

Practical creativity

Analytical ability 

Enterprising behavior

Influencing others

Ability to learn

Pro-active mindset

Take ownership

System thinking / dealing with complexity

Critical thinking & problem solving

Data-driven decision making

EXCITED ABOUT THE ROLE?

To apply, you must do so online. Please do not forget to upload your CV and a motivation letter. Your application will be reviewed against our requirements and we will be in touch shortly after the closing date to provide you with an update on the status of your application.