ROLE SUMMARY

The Supply Chain & Operations Planner acts as a strategic business partner within the market, responsible for planning and executing demand and supply strategies. The Supply Chain & Operations Manager has deep knowledge of the business, products, and industry trends within the responsible market/markets. Through leveraging digital technologies, the Supply Chain & Operations Planner will identify revenue opportunities and patient-centric solutions while ensuring effective communication and issue resolution with key stakeholders.

The Supply Chain & Operations Planner is mainly responsible for demand forecasting, leading Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process, managing new product launches, product change management, inventory planning, supply assurance in collaboration with the Market Planning Hub and special project management. The role requires a strong ability to manage cross-functional teams, proactive problem identification and resolution, issue escalation to regional and/or global teams and effective communication and management of issues and recovery plans to key stakeholders.  

Demand Planning and Supply Management

• Analyze historical sales data, market trends, and customer insights to develop accurate demand forecasts.
• Provide market insights for statistical forecast modeling to automate demand planning where possible in collaboration with Global Demand Intelligence team.
• Conduct monthly brand forecast review meetings to assess accuracy and adjust plans based on root causes of forecast variances.
• Support and/or influence commercial decision-making through a deep understanding of market trend data (such as IQVIA), business, and industry trends in order to provide key insights and create value to the business
• Responsible for the engagement with key customers (first-paying customers, governments…) across the market/s through recurrent platforms (such as GSC/Distributor S&OP) to ensure a better understanding of market trends with a focus on improving performance
• Leverage digital technologies to gather new insights from data and partner with stakeholders to identify/drive upside revenue opportunities and innovative and patient/customer-centric solutions. 
• Partner with the Market Planning Hub to ensure continuous supply and manage supply issues and communicate recovery plans to internal and external stakeholders.
• Challenge the status quo and drive operational excellence through standardizing demand planning and Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) processes. 
• Develop and leverage an in-depth understanding of customer’s operations and sales characteristics, applying these insights to operational and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Accountable for the IMEx (Integrated Manufacturing Excellence -Lean System) ecosystem sustainability in the Process Centric Team (PCT) and serve as point of contact for continuos improvement including best practices sharing and root cause analysis coaching.
• Lead the internal discussions from a GSC perspective in terms of tender management. Identify areas of enhancing tendering process/forecasting.

• Sales & Operations Planning

• Lead local S&OP process with cross-functional team participation to ensure mutual accountability, visibility, and alignment on key decisions to ensure supply continuity 
• Leverage the forum as escalation and alignment where support and agreements are made to execute the business financial plans.

• Product Lifecycle Management

• Act as market project manager of NPLs, leading the coordination at market level and regional level of all the activities related to NPL and acceleration of NPL including product development, RA strategy, planning of the go-to-market strategy. 
• Actively participate in the development of the patient demand assessment with new product launches by having a better understanding of the disease prevalence, market share and trends
• Responsible for alignment of all Product Changes with MPH and local market teams (Regulatory, Commercial and Finance) to avoid patient impact, secure service levels, and achieve business objectives
• Ensure SKU updated LOEs, rationalization, discontinuation and segmentation

• SC Performance Management

• Monitor performance against KPIs (Forecast error, forecast bias, inventory $/MOH, write-offs, statistical forecast adherence, new product launch metrics…)
• Monitor and evaluate inventory levels, sales performance, and market conditions to identify potential risks and opportunities.
• Identify main offenders and continuous improvement projects to improve performance/metrics

• Inventory Planning

• Manage obsolescence risks and identify mitigation plans in alignment with commercial
• Embed continuous optimization of inventory via operational excellence standards
• Maintain optimal inventory levels to meet customer demand; plan and execute inventory replenishment strategies, including reorder points and safety stock levels

• Financial

  Engage with commercial/finance partners during OP/LE reviews to provide supply input and align/analyze unit and financial forecasts for budgeting and forecasting purposes (LRVF, Budgets)
• Report monthly supply gaps, risks, recoveries and upsides
• Lead the alignment discussions on the monthly and quarterly revenue landing including the coordination of inputs from Commercial, finance, regulatory.
• Partner with commercial and finance teams to ensure clear rationalization for gaps between unit and financial forecast 

Technical skills

• BS/BA Degree required. Preferably in the fields of Supply Chain, Logistics Management, Industrial Engineering or alike
• Role/Market Specific: XX years of relevant experience in Supply Chain, Planning
• Experience in S&OP process and execution
• Experience leading cross-functional team projects
• Demonstrated business acumen, industry, and product knowledge; including trends, competitive landscape and industry best practices which can impact the business
• Operational Excellence experience
• Experience in Pharma industry considered an asset
• CPIM or CSCP certification is preferred

Soft skills

• Strong communication and presentation skills, ability to interact with cross-functional teams and external stakeholders
• Ability to interpret/ analyze data, draw meaningful conclusions and influence key stakeholders by presenting comprehensive solutions and recommendations.
• Detail-oriented with strong organizational and problem-solving abilities
• Ability to multitask in a fast-paced environment

System and digital

• ERP system – SAP and Kinaxis

Ability to use digital dashboards for data analysis (Tableau, BI, IQVIA,.)