Job Description
Customer Supply Planning Manager
Brakes have an opportunity for a Customer Supply Planning Manager to join the Product Supply team on a Full Time basis. It will be your responsibility to support customer & business supply chain planning requirements, gathering demand insight & managing customer driven change within the network. You will also establish and develop collaborative relationships with Brakes key customers to facilitate best demand change intelligence gathering that supports best service for customers and lowest risk to Brakes.
You'll be instrumental in rolling out and embedding tactical plans in line with our ambitious growth strategy and you'll bring functional expertise to ensure that we deliver, whilst keeping an eye on costs and creating an inclusive team working environment.
Our role is Monday – Friday, 39 hours per week, and is offering hybrid working, with 2 days a week in the Ashford office, so you must be within a commutable distance. The site has good transport links and free car park for colleagues. Occasional travel will be required for internal and external meetings.
Key Accountabilities and Responsibilities:
- Collaborate with customers to gather forecasting insight for key demand events (promotions, allocations, menu changes, category switches events etc). Challenge, validate & analyse the impact & communicate simply and quickly across the Brakes Supply Chain & distribution network, specifically identifying concerns or decisions that need to be made.
- Work with customers to gather insight relating to supply changes (bespoke product switches, bespoke supplier changes etc) and support with managing & communicating that change by working with customers, suppliers and across the Brakes supply chain & distribution network.
- Collaborate with customers to ensure wastage risk against bespoke products is identified & tracked within 6 months of its shelf-life end or with sufficient time to take action to avoid waste.
- Work with customers to ensure that bespoke product discontinuations are cleared from the Brakes Supply Chain & Distribution network within 14 weeks of delist or in line with the customer contract.
- Build the appropriate relationships with internal sales teams to gather insight relating to sales driven change (e.g. customer brand switching or nominated to list line switches)
- Ensure that feedback is provided to customers or sales teams on the quality of their insights
- Live the Brakes values ensuring that change activities and communication with customers, suppliers and across the internal Brakes SC teams meets the criteria outlined in the values handbook.
- Ensure that all customer change activity is understood at least four weeks of the change occurring & is known about / captured on the planning pipeline so that the appropriate resource can be allocated to it
- Ensure that all known change activity is shared across the wider supply chain & that the capturing of product level forecasts are discussed & agreed with the demand team to ensure all information is value adding
About you:
It is desirable that the successful candidate have proven experience in supply chain looking take the next step in their career and join a global organisation or someone who is commercially astute from within a large FMCG, retail or foodservice organisation. You will be proficient in the use of MS Office, in particular Excel and have an analytical mindset and experience of using an ERP system such as SAP. The ideal candidate will be Six Sigma Yellow or Green belt certified or have a good understanding of Lean principles/ continuous improvement methodologies. Previous experience working collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders at various levels in a professional capacity combined with strong negotiation and influencing skills are key to being successful in this position. This role is suitable for a positive, self-starter looking to drive change and continuous improvement with a high level of resilience who can think logically outside the box to problem solve.
What you'll receive:
- A competitive salary
- Generous holiday allowance, with option to purchase 5 additional holiday days
- Pension scheme
- Huge discounts on all sorts of lovely food and award-winning products through our staff shop
- Discounts on Cinema tickets, shopping and earn cashback on purchases through Sodexo.
- Recognition awards and Incentives
- Career progression opportunities - being part of Sysco, the world's leading foodservice business, opens up a world of possibility