The Demand Planning Manager Ghirardelli Chocolate Company will be tasked with developing and maintaining an 18-month unit forecast at the item level and drive the entire forecast process for 350 forecasted items. Protect the financial performance of the company by identifying potential APO modeling and or JD Edwards data related issues. Develop models and processes to forecast new business and items. Lead monthly forecast review meetings with sales planning team as well as play a key role in the financial budgeting process. Advise sales, marketing and finance of variances between existing forecasts, plans and actual. This person will need to work closely with supply planning and logistics as these groups will be utilizing the forecast to deliver the business.

Key Job Responsibilities:
• Lead demand planning department consisting of 1 demand planner in a continuous improvement manner.
• Act as process owner for the monthly consensus forecasting process.
• Build cross-functional consensus for new business and new item forecasts.
• Assist in the implementation of APO and JD Edwards enhancements.
• Administer human resource actions regarding reporting associates in accordance with policies (i.e., hiring, salary increases, discipline, etc.) Evaluate associate performance and counsel associates on improvement. Set goals for associate development, identify and create developmental opportunities, and serve as a coach/mentor to others.
• Manage the established forecasting process including using Supply Chain Management principles to comprehend all factors that can influence and affect the forecast and communicate these factors to Sales, Marketing, & Fulfillment.
• Work with Sales/Marketing groups to develop and monitor forecasts on a monthly/seasonal/yearly basis.
• Continuously identify and develop areas for improvement related to weekly/monthly forecasting process.
• Perform trend analysis to report inconsistencies with forecasts and actual sales (root cause analysis).
• Create and maintain performance metrics comparing forecasts to actual sales taking into consideration the lag analysis.
• Communicate the forecasting plan to all parties and monitors progress on a daily and weekly basis.
• Maintain statistically generated forecasts and related parameters.
• Develop and implement standards to support new work processes.
• Minimal Travel

Skills Required:
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
• Excellent communication, interpersonal skills and leadership skills in the area of Supply Chain Management and work processes and the ability to apply related strategy to reality
• Experience with high-levels of seasonal forecasting with SKU counts between 500 and 1000
• Process driven and result oriented
• Strong effective use of forecasting aids such as MS Excel and Access databases.
• Solid knowledge of planning tools and holistic view of Supply Chain
• Team focused and collaborative
• Detailed systems knowledge of APO DP
• Outstanding knowledge in ERP system (JDEdwards/People Soft, SAP, or Oracle)
• In depth knowledge of best practices and future developments in the field of Supply Chain

Education and/ Experience
• College Degree preferable in Finance, Business Administration or Supply Management
• 5 to 7 years of Consumer Products experience in the area of Supply Chain, Forecasting and Inventory planning
• Past experience implementing demand planning utilizing software such as APO DP
• A track record of tangible successes in multi-site Supply Chain and Logistics organization
• A record as change agent and driver of process improvement projects

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