Demand Planner

ABOUT THE COMPANY

For decades, Furlani Foods has combined a rich heritage of making great quality specialty garlic bread products, with an entrepreneurial spirit. We’ve always been passionate and committed to transforming everyday meals into memorable experiences that everyone can enjoy together. The Company operates from four state-of-the-art bakeries in Oak Creek (Wisconsin) and North Liberty (Iowa) in the US and in Mississauga (Ontario) in Canada. We manufacture and distribute specialty topped bread products to North America’s leading retailers and food service operators. At Furlani Foods, we are bakers at heart. We are fueled by a passion for bringing added joy to consumers’ meals, success to our partners, and well-being to our team. We are grounded in our principles of integrity, courage and the relentless drive towards excellence in everything we do.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are seeking a Demand Planner who will be accountable for managing sales forecasting at the item-customer-location level and leading consensus planning and S&OP Demand Planning Reviews across cross-functional teams to minimize the gap between forecasts and actual orders, while proactively avoiding supply issues, excess inventory, and customer fines.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Demand Planning

• Manage forecasting & demand planning at an item/customer level.
• Maintain DSCP by choosing the right parameters and set-ups and update daily/weekly/monthly manual batch runs
• Review and cleanse exceptions in DSCP.
• Monitor demand and analyze forecast exceptions; root cause to identify errors and take necessary corrective actions to drive continuous improvement in forecast accuracy and bias performance.
• Partner with Sales, Commercialization and Customer Development to develop new product initiative forecasts
• Responsible for creating demand plans for Long Term Capacity Planning and annual budget for the market segment assigned
• Tracks and analyzes KPIs (key performance indicators). Implements and recommends actions to improve best practices across team.
• Assist and co-ordinate with Trade Promotions Analyst to evaluate/analyze promotional activities and establish meaningful projections for future promotional volumes.
• Develop and maintain an unconstrained demand plan, while capturing and analyzing key inputs from Generating Demand Events.
• Drive fast and appropriate actions to minimize the impact of deviations from the Demand Plan.
• Establish strong relationships with peers and work cross-functionally with supply planning, procurement / purchasing, customer service, marketing, and finance teams.
• Build relationship with Sales team and ability to interact seamlessly across hierarchy.

Fines

• Champion root cause analysis for fines, by providing actionable insights and coordinate action plans with the right stakeholder and liaison with Sales to re-coup invalid charges.
• Provide monthly results for fines and projections for key customers

Sales and Operations Planning

• Responsible for the monthly demand plans over a 24-month rolling horizon.
• Partner and lead with Sales, Marketing, and Customer Development to understand demand forecast drivers through consensus forecasting.
• Align on risks and opportunities with Sales and Customer Development.
• Participate in the b--weekly Sales and Operations Execution Review and lead the Monthly Demand Review with Sales and Customer Development. Presents forecast roll-ups including assumptions, risks, and opportunities.
• Partner with Supply Planning team to drive the monthly Supply Review.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

• Minimum 3 years of experience in Demand Planning
• University degree or College diploma in Supply Chain, Engineering, statistics, mathematics, or other related fields.
• APICs certification a plus.
• Lean, or Six Sigma, training is considered an asset.
• In-depth knowledge of demand forecasting/statistical modeling techniques and inputs
• Strong understanding of ERP concepts and processes
• Advanced Microsoft office skills, including Excel, Word and PowerPoint.
• Preference with previous experience with Alteryx or comparable data management and data blending tools

OTHER SKILLS REQUIRED

• Strong teamwork and customer service mindset
• Positive, adaptable, and results-oriented
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities
• Able to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment
• Experience improving forecasting processes and performance
• Good understanding of supply chain planning processes
• Proficient with Excel and reporting tools

SALARY RANGE

• $80K – $85K CAD annually

Furlani Foods does not use artificial intelligence (AI) to screen, assess, or select applicants. All hiring decisions are made by our Human Resource team and hiring managers.

Furlani Foods is committed to fostering an inclusive and accessible workplace.

Accommodations are available upon request throughout the recruitment and selection process.