Demand Planner

TR, part of the Trifast plc group; Walsall; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 58,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days holiday + 8 bank holidays

Christmas shutdown period observed

Job summary

TR Fastenings, part of Trifast plc, is recruiting a Demand Planner for its National Distribution Centre in Walsall. The role focuses on establishing a data-led planning culture, leading forecasting, and linking demand to supply, purchasing, and inventory decisions.

You will embed best practices, work across commercial and operations teams, and drive improvements in forecast accuracy and service levels in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of clear demand planning experience with ownership or significant improvement of a demand planning process.
• Experience in manufacturing/distribution/industrial or fast-paced supply chain environments.
• Strong understanding of forecasting, seasonality, product lifecycle management, and inventory control.
• Advanced Excel skills and ability to analyse large datasets.
• Experience with Power BI or similar analytics tools for insight and performance tracking.
• Experience using an ERP/planning system, ideally Microsoft Dynamics 365.
• Strong problem-solving, communication, and stakeholder influencing skills.
• Experience using AI tools for demand planning and dedicated planning/reporting tools.
• Experience supporting S&OP cycles and new product introductions.

Responsibilities

• Define and embed demand planning processes, governance, and reporting for the new role.
• Lead the demand planning process with clear communications to stakeholders.
• Analyse customer orders, forecasts, seasonality, and market trends to inform planning outputs.
• Use approved AI tools to format forecasts for D365 and validate outputs.
• Review forecast variance with Sales and stakeholders; hand over a clear demand plan to Material Planning.
• Apply ABC/XYZ analysis to prioritise planning focus and inventory strategies.
• Monitor forecast accuracy, bias, service, stock health, and inventory turns for continuous improvement.
• Contribute to the S&OP process by presenting insights and actions to protect service and stock availability.

Skills

Demand planning

Forecasting

Data analysis

Excel

Power BI

Microsoft Dynamics 365

S&OP

Stakeholder management

AI forecasting tools

Inventory management

Tools

Microsoft Dynamics 365

AI forecasting tools

Job description

TR Fastenings (TR) is part of Trifast plc is a leading international specialist in the design, engineering, manufacture, and distribution of high-quality industrial fastenings and Category 'C' components principally to major global assembly industries. It supplies to some 5,000 customers in 75 countries worldwide, serving a range of industries including Automotive, Smart Infrastructure, Medical, General Industrial and Distributors.

We are looking to recruit a Demand Planner on a permanent basis to join our Supply Chain team based at our National Distribution Centre in Walsall (WS2 8DQ).

The Role

We are looking for an experienced, analytical, and commercially aware Demand Planner to join our supply chain team at the National Distribution Centre in Walsall. This is a newly created role and an important opportunity to establish a strong demand planning capability within the business. The business requires someone with clear, proven demand planning experience who can bring forecasting expertise, structure, and best practice to support a more proactive, data-led planning approach.

The successful candidate will help the business operate from a single, trusted view of demand, supporting effective supply planning, purchasing, inventory management, customer service, and operational decision-making.

Key Tasks

• Help define and embed demand planning processes, governance, reporting, and best practice for this new role within the business.
• Lead the demand planning process, ensuring assumptions, risks, opportunities, and recommendations are clearly communicated to stakeholders.
• Analyse customer order history, customer forecasts, call-off order demand, seasonality, market trends, product lifecycle information, and customer & supplier shutdown impacts.
• Use approved AI tools to convert customer forecasts into the required format, ensuring outputs are reviewed and validated before upload to D365.
• Review forecast variance with Sales and key stakeholders, ensuring gaps, risks, and opportunities are understood and reflected in the demand plan. Hand over a clear, agreed demand plan to Material Planning to support purchasing, safety stock, lead time, reorder point, and inventory decisions.
• Use demand and inventory segmentation techniques, such as ABC/XYZ analysis, to prioritise planning focus, improve forecast accuracy, and support appropriate inventory strategies.
• Monitor forecast accuracy, bias, service, stock health, inventory turns, excess stock, and obsolete inventory, identifying root causes and driving continuous improvement.
• Contribute to the S&OP process, presenting insights and actions to protect service, capacity, and stock availability.

The Candidate

You will be a confident and experienced demand planning professional with strong analytical capability, excellent attention to detail, and the ability to turn data into clear insight and practical actions. You will bring hands-on demand planning knowledge and be comfortable working cross-functionally, challenging assumptions constructively, influencing stakeholders, and helping the business build stronger demand planning discipline.

Essential skills and experience

• 5+ years' clear demand planning experience, with demonstrable experience owning, developing, or significantly improving a demand planning process. General material planning experience alone will not be sufficient for this role.
• Experience in a manufacturing, distribution, industrial, or fast-paced supply chain environment.
• Strong understanding of demand planning principles, including forecasting, seasonality, customer demand, product lifecycle management, and inventory control.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills and confidence analysing large and complex datasets.
• Confident using Power BI or similar analytics and reporting tools to create insight, track performance, and support data-led planning decisions.
• Experience using an ERP or planning system, ideally Microsoft Dynamics 365 or similar.
• Strong problem-solving, communication, and stakeholder influencing skills.
• Customer-first mindset with strong commercial awareness and a disciplined approach to data accuracy.
• Experience in using AI tools for demand planning
• Experience with dedicated demand planning, advanced planning, or reporting tools.
• Exposure to structured planning cycles such as S&OP.
• Experience supporting new product introduction, product transitions, or end-of-life planning.

This is an opportunity to make a visible impact across our UK&I business by helping to establish a stronger demand planning capability from the ground up. You will play a key role in improving forecast accuracy, strengthening supply chain performance, and supporting better business decisions, while working closely with commercial and operational teams to shape a more proactive, data-led planning culture.

What we offer

• 25 days holiday + 8 bank holidays. The business does observe a Christmas shutdown period and a maximum of 4 days will be deducted from employees annual leave entitlement.