Planning Manager - Boksburg at RCL Foods

Job Description    

• This specific position that we are recruiting for is in SIQALO Foods Pty Ltd, a Remgro Group Company and market leader in Spreads with the well-known brands Rama, Stork and Flora. SIQALO Foods works in partnership with RCL Foods.
• Our Talent Team are currently looking for a dynamic Planning Manager to join the SIQALO Foods Business. The role will be based at the Siqalo Plant in Boksburg and report to the Panning and Logistics Executive.

The Planning Manager will be entrusted to manage the overall processes and resources of:

• Inbound Raw and Packaging Material Store
• 3rd Party onsite store
• Production Planning
• Demand Planning
• Overseeing the 3rd party production and Planning
• Customer collaboration

Minimum Requirements    

• Degree, preference given to the fields of logistics, supply chain management and Finance.
• Minimum of 5 years experience in a planning role, Management of a team is advantageous.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in a Supply chain operational role, preference given to specific Planning experience.
• Fully operational in “Plan” processes
• Working knowledge of S&OP
• Understanding of “Make” and “Source” processes.
• FMCG experience

Duties & Responsibilities    
Strategic Planning

• Define the degree of forward planning (3 - 6 months, 2 years etc.) and execute accordingly.

Functional Strategy into Action Operationalisation

• Work in conjunction with the Logistics manager to co-create the outbound national strategy, based on a 1-2 year's view of requirements.
• Ensure the agreed SIA is implemented through team targets and that these targets align cross functionally within area of responsibility.
• Collaborate with the internal supply chain to ensure optimal run strategy to meet demand while keeping Stock covers low.

Demand Forecasting and Management

• To assist in driving the Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process by reviewing of the customer demand and supply resources, in order to reconcile the GAP and achieve the S&OP “one number”.
• Record the assumptions behind the demand plan, risks and opportunities and provide these as input into the S&OP process.
• Prepare and issue the S&OP packs for the S&OP meetings and input into the board pack.
• Manage the demand forecasting process by customer and product group, where appropriate for 0 – 12 months, rolling.
• Drive the delivery of a rough cut business forecast for months 13 – 24 to enable a longer term business forecast that will be used to drive decisions within the inbound supply chain.

Short Term Supply Planning (Production Planning and MRP call-off)

• Drive the delivery of a detailed production plan to the factory taking into account factory constraints (line capacity, labour/ shift patterns), distribution constraints (warehousing and transport) as well as internal inbound constraints (transporting of inhouse materials from other facilities) and external supplier constraints (eg: ingredients and packaging materials).
• Manage detailed production planning and line scheduling. In daily and weekly buckets.
• Ensure that the materials requirements plan supports the detailed weekly production plan, and that the call-off of these materials is done timeously so as not to impact production.
• Ensure that products are prioritized in line with the “planning for profit” mindset and that the forward production plans issued to the plant will maintain stock covers for all SKU’s at the agreed days cover targets.
• Manage production that is made at a third party.

Stock Management (Finished Goods, Raw Materials, Packaging and Ingredients)

• Manage national stock covers, ensuring that the minimum and maximum days target covers are set in a manner that takes into account variability of both demand and supply (ie: using an appropriate inventory planning model).
• Manage stock builds to ensure that customer service levels, profitability and cost targets, as well as peak period capacity constraints are met.
• When/where appropriate, agree stocking holding of specific materials or facilities with the Warehouse and Logistics Manager (FG).
• Drive reductions on key cost drivers such as working capital, stock write-offs, transport and other stock variances. For raw and packaging materials, ensure sufficient focus on delivering improvements to ordering methods and stock holding policies, to drive down the costs of holding stock and improving business cash flow.
• Liaise with the Warehouse and Logistics Manager to ensure that action is taken to prevent unnecessary costs and maintain a clean stock system.

Material Requirements Planning (Packaging & Ingredients)

• Ensure that the national material requirements plan that is generated is appropriate and meets the forward packaging and ingredients requirements for a rolling 12 month forward plan in weekly buckets.
• Manage the company’s financial exposure to excessive stock holding and potential write-offs.
• Work closely with the procurement team to determine opportunities for reduced stock holding, minimum order quantities and reducing overall complexity in packaging/ingredients through standardisation.
• Ensure that the requirements plan for ingredients and packaging is completed for the annual budget process.
• Oversee the packaging and ingredients stores to ensure appropriate stock levels to meet production requirements.
• Oversee the Packaging and Ingredients Stores to physically protect stock, manage stock count variances and ensure availability of stock for production.

Continuous Improvement

• Drive continuous improvement in both forecast bias and customer service excellence by making recommendations for change using facts and trends learnt through appropriate analysis of data.

Promotions Effectiveness

• Work closely with the sales team to complete promotional effectiveness analysis and provide input into pricing decisions where appropriate.
• Challenge the promotions grid where assumptions seem vague and/or off-take is out of line with past trends.
• Work with the customer team to determine promotional activities volume and track the effectiveness of the promotions (costs vs. promotional volume increment).

Innovation

• Work with Marketing and Customer teams to develop the forecast for new products and to manage the discontinuation of products out of the business.
• Drive the discontinuation process to ensure effective stock sell through, minimise write offs, maintain master data integrity.

Portfolio Management

• Complete the data analysis to provide input into discussions on portfolio management.
• Make recommendations on where opportunities exist to remove SKU's from the portfolio using agreed guidelines.

Customer Service Excellence

• Work closely with the extended supply chain team to deliver customer service excellence (using data analysis on ordering patterns to make recommendations on lead times, order quantities, frequency of deliveries and input into the distribution incentives process).
• Provide input into the distribution requirements planning process by sharing knowledge on promotions with the national supply planning team.
• Deliver improved customer service reporting.

Master Data and Hierarchy Management

• Manage the maintenance and setting up of master data and hierarchies in accordance with both demand planning and sales requirements.
• Manage the master data integrity through violation reporting to avoid delays in demand planning tool ability to forecast at SKU and customer level.

Project Delivery

• Participate as an integral member of cross functional teams to deliver business projects.
• Initiate and drive improvement project within demand and supply planning to streamline the demand planning process.

Staff Management

• Monitor staff performance and provide regular feedback.
• Establish sound staff and labour organising and communication structures and systems.
• Lead the team towards meeting the strategy and targets through regular communication.