Supply Chain Planning Manager

Supply Chain Planning Manager-2407020884W Description Lead and provide superior End-to-End local Supply Chain process management and added value support to the challenging and diverse markets within the Sub Sahara Africa Cluster. This means ensuring reliable, cost effective, timely delivery of supply planning and material call off from the local factories, supply planning, finished products to customers and sustainable service level. Leading the S&OP and the Demand planning activities across SSA and inventory managment is key job responsibility. Giving support to the Head of Supply chain, plus local country teams, regional supply planning, to deliver innovative and effective E2E Supply Chain Solutions. ·In charge of the Demand Planning, S&OP, Supply Planning, Master Data, Co-Packing, Customer Collaboration. ·Accountability for improvement of performance through Supply Chain Excellence, collaboration with the regional Supply Chain organization, ensuring efficient, compliant and consistent End-to-End Supply Chain processes. ·Strategic customer management - effectively collects and analyzes voice of customer data as input for the strategy. Is able to translate customer agendas into tangible action plans that deliver value to both parties. Strong focus on customer centricity. ·Responsibility for part of the local SC budget, including inventory. Ensure the attainment of operational goals (cost savings, standard cost reduction, optimized supply parameters and agility, inventory optimization, reduction of working capital, relentless SLOB reduction, reduction of distribution costs, service level improvements) for the region. ·Collaboration with Deliver in managing 3PL and transactional customer services. Ensure performance according to specifications and resolve any issues and work on continuous improvements. ·Responsibility to develop and implement a cluster strategy to gain sustainable knowledge of true customer needs, including: ·Culture of closeness to Sales & Marketing for Customer Service people ·Benchmark with competitors and customers to identify 'service gaps' ·Create and implement roadmap to address identified unmet needs ·Share and replicate best practices, pilot and deploy innovative solutions throughout the cluster and the region. ·Embed a culture of customer centricity in the E2E Operations team ·Build the interface between the local commercial teams evaluating and creating a meaningful demand signal, translating it to a meaningful supply signal towards the supply sites with the key aim to ensure stock availability of the right products to the right locations. ·Proactively manage supply constraints to minimize the total business impact. Should identify and trigger implementation of long-term solutions to avoid a reoccurrence of any given supply constraint. ·Support and execution of significant changes to supply chain planning, inventory management and forecasting processes through the implementation of Global S&OP and regional/ global processes and systems. ·Simplification of internal processes & tools (reduce administration and lead times) and lead and participate in relevant Supply Chain projects. ·Management of the interface with the In Market Supply Chain community to ensure the correct priority for key developments. ·Guidance and Leadership to the team and be responsible for attracting, developing and exporting high performing employees. Provide coaching, training and inspiration. Drive a high performance and Credo based culture. ·Continuously work on improvements ·Accountability for local SC dashboards and KPI's related to customer performance. Ensure regular and structural performance feedback to the internal organization (SC and Business) and external Service Providers. Qualifications ·University degree in Logistics or Engineering and/or alternatively MBA or business qualification ·At least 6-10 years of relevant experience in operational or strategic Supply Chain roles required within relevant, comparable companies that have large, complex (matrix) organizations. ·Experience in commercial organization with frequent interaction with Marketing, Sales and Finance essential ·Experience in FMCG and/or pharmaceutical industry ·Very good understanding of the entire value chain and its primary activities and an excellent knowledge of the main elements, dynamics and drivers in the supply planning process (inventory planning, network planning, line scheduling and deployment), as well as in the forecasting process. ·Preferably have experience and a clear understanding of the market environment with a focus on the various logistics operating models that are in existence. ·Experience in leading and supporting the S&OP process including the use of state-of-the-art Supply Chain planning information system (e.g. SAP/APO, Oracle, etc) and tools. Very good working knowledge in ERP and Planning systems. SAP R/3, APO and SNP strongly preferred. Experienced user of MS Office, especially Excel capabilities are required. ·Sustainable track record in identifying, developing and executing international change and process improvement initiatives in the planning, logistics and customer service areas. This includes excellent project and program management skills. ·Well-developed business management capability, and a keen understanding of the business equation and how business and supply chain decisions impact financials (P&L, Balance Sheet). Great financial acumen. ·Excellent leadership and influence skills, able to bring vision to a group and cross departments by showing a strong customer service mindset are required. ·Strong focus on team development and coaching. Needs to be a servant leader. ·The role requires a combination of competencies including ability to contribute at a strategic level to the future state SC, having an execution focus and ability to transfer concepts into practical working solutions, capacity to relate to a multi-country/ culture environment, energy to overcome resistance to change and the appropriate maturity to successfully lead the implementation of change. ·Demonstrate commercial thinking & strong customer understanding, focus and ability to connect. ·Capable of operating within matrix organizations ·Advanced Project Management skills ·Well developed negotiation and influencing skills ·Strong customer mindset, excellent stakeholder insight and relation building ability ·Strong analytical skills with the ability to evaluate large amounts of information leading to sound conclusions for effective decision making. ·A positive minded team player and successful change agent ·Continuous improvement mindset ·A dynamic and self-driven personality, willing to go the extra mile even in periods of high workload. ·Great cross-functional collaborator Primary Location Europe/Middle East/Africa-South Africa-Gauteng-Johannesburg Job Function Inventory Planning/Control