IND_Demand Planner

Role overview

IND_Demand Planner at Lowes India

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to support product lifecycle milestones, ensuring accurate demand planning for new items.
• Monitor and ensure KPI metrics consistently meet business goals.
• Track and report on significant changes in sales forecasts, budgets, and business strategies to drive informed decision-making.
• Manage new store forecast adjustments, ensuring optimal inventory allocation for store openings and early sales phases.
• Build strong partnerships with SSCM Demand Planners and Inventory Replenishment teams (SSCM & SSCB) to drive seamless operations.
• Skill Set Required.

Employment details

• Demand Planner creates and maintains accurate item/location level forecasts for a group of product categories.
• Location: Bengaluru [Karnātaka] [India]

Additional role details

• The Demand Planning team is responsible for achieving desired forecast accuracy metrics, supporting sales and profit goals while achieving inventory productivity and in-stock goals.
• Incorporating business intelligence, historical performance, and insights gathered from merchants, suppliers, marketing, planning & replenishment, and other sources into the demand forecast.
• Demand Planner is responsible for achieving desired KPIs – forecast accuracy and bias metrics, supporting sales and profit goals while achieving inventory productivity and in-stock goals.
• Responsible for maintaining the highest degree of forecast at item and stores level based on industry trends and demand patterns.
• Conduct forecast review and analysis to assess demand trends, measure forecast accuracy and recommend data-driven adjustments.
• Propose and implement forecasting improvements to enhance demand accuracy and efficiency.
• Partner with SSCM (US stakeholders) to review KPIs, gather market insights, and translating market insights into actionable forecast adjustments.
• Oversee reset execution, ensuring product availability aligns with merchandising strategies and store needs.
• Provide weekly performance recaps, including ASE performance reviews, root cause analysis, and action plans aligned with business operations.
• Update promotion forecasts in systems for planned events.
• Address demand-related issues promptly and effectively to minimize disruptions.
• Attend Monthly forecast review meetings to align forecasts with business objectives and market trends.
• Participate in business meetings, translating market insights into actionable forecast adjustments.
• Identify areas of opportunities and drive collaborative projects.
• Overall 2-4 years of Experience. 2 years of experience in Supply chain Management or Inventory Management. 2+ years’ experience demand planning. 1+ years’ experience reporting and data analytics.
• Required Minimum Qualifications.
• Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering, Supply Chain Management, Operations Research or Related Field.
• MBA or master’s degree in Supply Chain or operations management.
• Experience in demand planning, forecasting, or supply chain management.
• Strong attention to detail to ensure accuracy in data analysis and reporting.
• Moderate proficiency in forecasting tools and inventory management systems.
• Ability to collaborate cross-functionally with merchandising, supply chain, and operations teams.
• Experienced in any of the planning tools such as SAP APO, o9, JDA, Oracle Demantra etc.
• Excellent writing and communication skills, support in developing analytical documents for presentation to management.
• Excellent problem-solving and time management skills.
• Secondary Skills (desired).
• Experience in Data mining and visualization tool such as Power BI, SQL, MS Access and Excel.
• Experience with JDA Fulfillment and Allocation.
• Experience of retail industry.