Associate Manager Demand & Supply Planning

About the Role

Nestlé is seeking an Associate Manager Demand & Supply Planning to join their team in Makkah, with operations spanning Jeddah and Makkah. This full-time role focuses on leading bottom-up consensus demand plans for specific categories within the Cluster, ensuring efficient alignment across commercial and operational stakeholders. The primary objective is to maintain end-to-end operational efficiencies, guarantee product availability with desired freshness, optimize inventory levels, and consistently achieve service levels to support efficient growth and increased market share.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the MBPC process within the cluster for designated categories to establish a consensus bottom-up demand plan for an 18-month horizon, aligning with Cluster/Category/Channel dynamics and ambitions. This involves leading pre-alignment and sign-off meetings with the Cluster head, sales, CDT, and marketing teams.
• Utilize Sellout/IMS data to construct the bottom-up consensus demand plan by category, district, and SKU, ensuring trade coverage adheres to agreed stock cover policies. This includes analyzing sales out bias by SKU and district to inform forecasting decisions.
• Conduct advanced price elasticity simulations in collaboration with commercial teams to model multi-scenario volume implications across product portfolios, identify risks or opportunities, and enable data-driven decision-making, particularly in anticipation of currency devaluation.
• Collaborate with District sales senior managers to perform in-depth analyses of second-tier wholesalers, aiming to enhance forecast accuracy and improve demand projection precision across the distribution network, especially prior to price increases.
• Work with commercial teams to manage ICP and develop baseline demand forecasts for new product launches and promotions, ensuring realistic baseline and uplift assumptions in coordination with market size, competitor pricing, APOS ambition, drop size, and competitor performance.
• Manage PIPO end-to-end plans to prevent out-of-stock situations or overstocking on a monthly basis, considering MBPC outcomes, supply alerts, and previous month's performance.
• Liaise with sales support regarding monthly landing and assess its potential impact on replenishment and full-year sales, implementing proactive measures to optimize performance and trade stock cover.
• Ensure timely supply with appropriate freshness while maintaining optimal inventory levels by coordinating with various functions (clearance team, category supply planners, DSP category managers, logistics, etc.) to provide visibility to the commercial team for on-time availability.
• Contribute to the reduction of bad goods through MSR meetings within the Cluster with relevant stakeholders, ensuring action plans are reflected in MBPC as aligned outcomes, provisions are made by the finance team, and escalating risks when necessary.
• Continuously monitor KPI evolution (OG%, tonnage growth, DPA M-1, M-3, bias, COF, Stock cover, and Bad goods) to improve service level and accuracy via the MBPC process while reducing end-to-end costs.
• Maintain and communicate the DPA learning log to the Cluster, Category, and Analytical hub, providing information on deviations versus actuality by reason code.
• Coordinate with the local A&P team to ensure on-time execution and availability of promotional stocks in line with promotional planning SOP.
• Support order fulfillment management and reason code assignment for out-of-stock situations, developing action plans to drive customer satisfaction and mitigation.
• Govern the end-to-end process of monthly pallet projections, collaborating with warehouse and logistics stakeholders to ensure warehouse space availability in anticipation of demand fluctuations, build-ups, and supply chain contingencies.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering or Supply Chain.
• A minimum of 2 years of experience in demand planning.
• Experience in the Food & Beverage (F&B) industry is an advantage.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Tools.

Required Skills

• Strong stakeholder management skills.
• Strong communication skills.