Demand Planner

Gay Lea Foods; Toronto; On-site; CAD 75,000 - 125,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus

Benefits

Retirement savings plan

Paid vacation

Other perks

Job summary

Gay Lea Foods in Canada is seeking an experienced Demand Planner to lead and execute the demand planning process across functions, building an operational plan and improving forecast accuracy for a 24-month horizon.

Reporting to the Director, Demand Planning, you will translate the plan into weekly production views, support IBP discussions, identify risks and opportunities, and drive improvements to maximize supply chain efficiency.

Qualifications

• Post-secondary education with APICS and/or IBF certification.
• Minimum 5+ years’ experience in demand planning and forecasting.
• Experience within a food processing environment; shelf life constraints and HACCP.
• Proficiency in supply chain concepts: safety stock, MRP, scheduling, bottlenecks.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; strong presentation skills.
• Ability to influence change and drive impact; advanced MS Office and ERP/WMS knowledge.
• Analytical, quantitative and data analysis aptitude; strong organization and planning.
• Familiarity with Change Management, Six Sigma and Lean concepts.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development of the demand plan (24+ months) using base forecast and lift activity.
• Act as process leader for Channel Demand Review in IBP.
• Interface with sales to reflect customer requirements and document assumptions.
• Collaborate with customers to develop demand plan assumptions and share insights.
• Translate demand plan into weekly production views for planning teams.
• Identify risks and opportunities and drive improvements to accuracy.
• Drive collaborative forecasting and lead change across the organization.
• Monitor execution and provide performance reporting to the Sales team.
• Support lift activity analysis and recommend corrective actions, including demand shaping.
• Lead lifecycle analysis on product families; manage introductions and exits.

Skills

Forecasting

Demand planning

Supply chain

Communication skills

Change management

Six Sigma/Lean

Education

Post-secondary education

APICS/IBF certification

Tools

MS Office

ERP systems

WMS

Job description

The pay range for the role is $75,300 to $125,300 plus bonus, comprehensive benefits, retirement savings plan, paid vacation, and other perks and opportunities.

Job Scope:

Reporting to the Director, Demand Planning, this position is responsible for leading and executing the demand planning process by working collaboratively across multiple functional areas to create an operational demand plan. Continuously work to streamline demand planning processes, improving demand plan accuracy and creating supply-chain efficiencies. Utilize continuous improvement tools to drive improvements.

Key Accountabilities:

Demand Planning:

• Lead the development of the demand plan (minimum 24 months horizon) based on a statistically generated base forecast and forward customer lift activity through sales intelligence gleaned from sales lift notifications and IBP discussions.
• Process leader for the Channel Demand Review step in the Integrated Business Planning process.
• Interface with sales team to ensure that the demand plan is reflective of anticipated customer requirements, and that all key assumptions are understood and documented.
• Interface with customers to collaboratively develop demand plan assumptions and gain insight into customer order and replenishment process; support knowledge sharing with customer base where appropriate.
• Ensure that the demand plan is appropriately translated into the different views and different levels of detail required by other stakeholders in the business. Notably: ensure that within the short-term horizon, the demand plan is appropriately broken down into the weekly buckets required by the production planning team.
• Identify and summarize risks and opportunities to the demand plan.
• Drive improvements to demand plan accuracy, role model collaborative forecasting and lead change.

Demand Execution:

• Monitor demand plan execution to proactively identify situations where demand plan tolerances may be exceeded (abnormal demand).
• Provide the Sales team with performance management reporting, both proactive (abnormal demand), and post-mortem (Bias and Accuracy reporting) to drive root cause understanding and corrective action.
• Aid in the development and analysis of lift activity – pre and post event.
• Recommend corrective actions to be taken, including demand shaping.

Other:

• In conjunction with marketing, provide life cycle analysis on product families and individual products.
• Take the lead on product introduction initiatives and product exit strategies.
• Maximize forecasting technologies available and look for opportunities outside of the current processes.
• Other ad-hoc projects as dictated by business needs.

Qualifications & Competencies:

• Must have post-secondary education with APICS and/or IBF certification.
• Minimum 5+ years’ experience in demand planning and forecasting.
• Experience within a food processing environment – working knowledge of shelf life constraints, HACCP.
• Demonstrated proficiency in supply chain concepts – safety stock planning, MRP calculations, scheduling constraints, bottlenecks, etc.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; effective presentation skills.
• Demonstrated ability to influence change and drive impact
• Advanced knowledge of MS Office and applications; working knowledge of ERP and WMS systems.
• Highly developed analytical, quantitative and data analysis aptitude.
• Exceptional organization, prioritization and planning skills.
• Familiarity with Change Management, Six Sigma and Lean concepts.

Gay Lea Foods is a Canadian, dairy farmer-owned co-operative with a clear purpose: to enrich life with dairy. Founded in 1958, the co-operative produces high-quality dairy products while creating lasting value for farming families, meaningful opportunities for employees, and positive impact in communities across Canada. As a co-operative, Gay Lea Foods believes that when the business succeeds, its members, people, and communities should succeed along with it. To learn more, visit gaylea.com.

Gay Lea Foods is an equal-opportunity employer and values diversity in our workplace.

Reasonable accommodation is available upon request throughout our recruitment and selection process.

Gay Lea Foods may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support aspects of the recruitment process, including screening and assessment.

We are currently accepting applications for this open position.

Thank you for your interest in Gay Lea Foods.

Wishing you all the best with your career search!