Rich’s, also known as Rich Products Corporation, is a family-owned food company dedicated to inspiring possibilities. From cakes and icings to pizza, appetizers and specialty toppings, our products are used in homes, restaurants and bakeries around the world. Beyond great food, our customers also gain insights to help them stay competitive, no matter their size. Our portfolio includes creative solutions geared at helping food industry professionals compete in foodservice, retail, in-store bakery, deli, and prepared foods, among others. Working in 100 locations globally, with annual sales exceeding $4 billion, Rich’s is a global leader with a focus on everything that family makes possible. Rich’s®—Infinite Possibilities. One Family.
Purpose Statement
The role of the Strategic Demand Planner is to collaborate with key customers and gather insights to improve the demand signal. During the forecasting process, this person will be responsible for understand customer’s demand, inventory on hand (if available), product shelf-life status, and end-to-end order lifecycle.
This is NOT a remote position. Must be able to work a flexible daytime HYBRID scheduled of working from home Mon & Fri and working onsite Tues-Thurs at our world headquarters in Buffalo, NY.
Key Accountabilities and Outcomes
The Strategic Demand Planner is responsible for the following activities:
Develop and manage 24-month forecast and demand plan at multiple levels of aggregation for multiple time horizons (operational and strategic).
Evaluate accuracy of forecasts generated by demand planning tools and cross-functional forecasts provided by sales managers, marketing managers, customers, and other stakeholders and determine the forecast value add (FVA)
Coordinate cross-functional activities during IBP pre-meetings to reconcile significant variances between system generated forecast and functional forecasts, and refine the demand plan to reflect updated sales and marketing assumptions.
Support sales managers and marketing managers in creating scenarios to address main gaps between the demand plan and annual operating plan.
Evaluate past performance, assumptions and forecast-value-add in collaboration with Sales, Marketing and Finance to ensure that current and accurate information is used for generating the forecasts and consensus demand plan in current planning cycle
Participate in Demand Review meetings of IBP to present analysis and options around exceptions.
Participate in Supply Review meetings to understand demand fulfillment risks, understand fulfillment options and provide guidance on demand probability.
Release the consensus demand plan on a weekly basis, to support the tactical inventory and supply plan generation for the short-term
Prepare and release the consensus demand plan on a monthly basis to support the inventory planning, rough cut capacity planning and decision-making under the IBP process.
Assist and support sales managers in their collaboration with strategic customers, to get understanding of medium to long term outlook around
Their customer demand and their priorities
Customer order forecast for RICH’S distribution centers
Share past fill rate performance and forecast accuracy
Understand the product and service attributes they value and attributes they can negotiate on.
Identify opportunities for sharing insights and information to drive accuracy and stability in demand signal
Knowledge, Skills, and Experience Bachelor’s degree required and a minimum of 3-5 years of experience Strong understanding of statistical modeling Strong communication skills, with a proven ability to understand key concepts and communicate with business stakeholders Ability to drive action and influence decision making at all levels of the organization Strong understanding of Sales and Operations Planning Strong understanding of Blue Yonder Strong organizational skills, as well as the ability to perform under pressure and manage multiple priorities with competing demands Strong analytical and problem-solving skills Proficiency in process improvement Ability to work within high-performing teams in highly collaborative environments Quantitative and qualitative data analysis, including business process metrics and measures linking to business KPIs Self-starter who is organized, resourceful and motivated Diagnose problems with standard work product and work to solution
Business Acumen
Activity - Proficiency Understanding of demand influencers for categories and customers - Proficient Understanding of demand planning performance KPIs - Expert Understanding of impact of demand planning KPIs on organizational and cross-functional KPIs and vice-versa - Expert
Soft Skills
Activity - Proficiency
Negotiation - Proficient
Decision-making - Proficient
Communications - Proficient
Presentation / Storytelling - Proficient
Technical / Analytical Skills
Activity - Proficiency
Knowledge of BY LDE, BY Demand and D360 capabilities - Proficient
Knowledge of forecasting algorithms and parameters - Proficient
Data analytics - Proficient
Problem solving - Expert
Scenario planning - Expert
Data driven Insight generation - Proficient
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COMPENSATION
In accordance with state law, the rate or range provided is Rich Products Corporation, its subsidiaries and affiliates ("Rich's"), reasonable estimate of the base compensation for this role. The actual amount may be higher or lower, based on non-discriminatory factors such as experience, knowledge, skills, abilities, shift differential, and location.
Annual Range/Hourly Rate
$84,998.90 - $114,998.51
Rich Products Corporation, its subsidiaries and affiliates (“Rich’s”), are committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity and will not discriminate against an applicant or employee on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, sex, age, physical or mental disability, veteran or military status, genetic information, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status or any other legally recognized protected basis under federal, state, or local law. The information collected by this application is solely to determine suitability for employment, verify identity, and maintain employment statistics on applicants.
Applicants with disabilities may be entitled to reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act and certain state or local laws. A reasonable accommodation is a change in the way things are normally done which will ensure an equal employment opportunity without imposing undue hardship on Rich’s. Please contact Rich’s Human Resources department at hrhelp@rich.com if you need assistance completing this application or to otherwise participate in the application process.