Head of Planning at Olam International

Olam International is a leading food and agri-business supplying food, ingredients, feed and fibre to over 19,800 customers worldwide. Our value chain spans over 60 countries and includes farming, processing and distribution operations, as well as a sourcing network of 4.8 million farmers. Through our purpose to ‘Re-imagine Global Agriculture and Food Systems’, Olam aims to address the many challenges involved in meeting the needs of a growing global population, while achieving positive impact for farming communities, our planet and all our stakeholders. Headquartered and listed in Singapore, Olam currently ranks among the top 30 largest primary listed companies in terms of market capitalisation on SGX-ST.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Head of Planning

Location: Nigeria

Overview (Product Information – Packaged Foods)

• Olam PFB manufactures and markets a range of branded packaged food products to consumers across multiple African markets. Over the last decade, the PFB business has established regional brand and market leadership positions in multiple consumer categories across targeted markets in West Africa.
• Packaged Foods Business portfolio currently counts eight key brands that are marketed to more than ten South and West African markets. Our R&D teams, working closely with marketing, have helped us surprise and delight our consumers through differentiated and innovative products.
• The consumer categories we are present in West Africa include Tomato Paste, Instant Noodles, Instant Beverages, Biscuits, Confectioneries, Edible Oil, Pasta, and Dairy.

Job Description

• Practical implementation of demand planning, demand communication and performance measurement. Capturing, interpreting and using consumer / customer information and demand drivers to create and communicate relevant and accurate demand information to support key Supply Chain and business decisions.  Co-ordinating closely with Marketing and Sales teams to produce feasible operational plans for Supply Chain and business activities.
• Responsible for the quality of the demand planning process and the quality of resultant numbers.
• Manages key forecasting and demand planning process in conjunction with Sales, Marketing, Finance and related functions within Supply Chain ensuring delivery of financial targets by minimising forecast inaccuracy and bias. Creates a rolling 24-month unconstrained demand plan.

Key Accountabilities:

• Consolidate demand planning activities to create a rolling 24-month unconstrained demand forecast.
• Manage the demand planning process for the relevant categories for 0-3 months, in weekly buckets with SKU detail; by month for 4 – 24 months and focusing on eliminating bias and improving forecast accuracy.
• Communicate unconstrained demand forecasts to Marketing, Sales and other business stakeholders.
• Provides input into company-wide demand planning processes & continuous improvement initiatives in this area.
• Coordinate integration of activity plans coming from Sales and Marketing on top of baseline forecast to produce unconstrained demand forecast.
• Responsible for the producing and managing baseline demand forecast.
• Highlight risks and opportunities in sales volume based on statistical analysis, activity evaluations and Sales feedback.
• Develop and refine the forecasting process, models and tools leading to improved accuracy.
• Responsible for generating and improving the demand forecasts for the business by using a range of methods including base forecasting.
• Complexity Management – regularly review SKU portfolio with extended teams (Sales, Marketing, Finance and Supply chain) and make appropriate recommendations. Coordinate and manage with Marketing teams on new product, innovation and event / promotion plans and demand forecasting.
• Manage and report all the KPIs selected for category / business scorecards (bias, inaccuracy, volume), Revenue channel based, OOS levels etc.
• Give the basic input for promotion evaluation and monitor promotion effectiveness.  Make weekly reviews for operational forecast.
• Ensure updated and agreed volume forecast are submitted for the financial forecasting.  Highlight risk opportunities to create the range forecasting.

Key Deliverables
Key Accountabilities:

• Develop planning policies including inventory policy, and categorization of finished goods and raw and packaging material and align with the system integration.
• Manage stock levels within agreed policy levels for material and finished goods
• Manage the demand planning process for all the appropriate categories; focusing on eliminating bias and improving forecast accuracy.
• Production planning taking account of demand planning, supply chain policy, capacity limitations, and other production constraints
• Materials requirement Planning. Create and maintain the materials requirement plan. Establish material safety stock and reorder levels with accurate lead times. Implement stock plans to achieve stock targets on materials and finished goods.
• Master Production Scheduling
• Distribution requirement planning / replenishment
• Evaluate risks and opportunities creating contingencies and making decisions
• Capacity management planning
• Drive business planning and in particular, the annual volume planning process which includes interfacing closely with sales, Marketing and finance to ensure timeous delivery.
• Support innovation teams in launching new products
• Develop and train the Demand planners and supply planners across all operations

Development Projects:

• Lead ERP projects, integration of SAP MRP. Establish MRP, MPS, and capacity planning processes and align with the system integration
• S&OP lead by Head of Planning
• Complexity Management – regularly review SKU portfolio

Requirements
Education:

•  B.Sc. in Engineering. (M.Sc. or MBA preferred)

Experience:

• Minimum 15 years of experience in supply chain in Leading Global Agri-Manufacturing / FMCG /
• Consumer companies with positions covering Demand Planning, Supply Planning, Stock Management and Primary Distribution. Experience of Lean, Six Sigma and / or TPM strongly preferred.

Application Closing Date
Not Specified.