Demand Planning Analyst at Roche

Job ID: 202101-101070
Locations: Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos
Job type: Full time

Job Description

• Roche in Johannesburg, Nairobi or Lagos is seeking a Demand Planning Analyst to build sales forecasts (instruments, reagents, consumables) in cooperation with the countries in South Africa and Sub Saharan Africa region, which will be used as basis in the Sales and Operations Planning.
• The role will involve managing the supply of Finished Goods, reagents /consumables, instruments and packaging Materials (PM) (excluding spare parts). Ensuring that these are systematically delivered to local 3PL facilities complete in quantity, in good quality condition, on the most economical and timely basis (Distribution costs, costs of inventory, scrap costs). The role will ensure the continuous improvement of thesales forecasting processes, systems and interfaces to distributors.

Key Responsibilities
Among other duties the role will entail:

Demand Forecasting:

• Planing future market demands in cooperation with countries, marketing and other S&OP stakeholders; maintaining data in SAP APO, providing input to Sales and Operations through demand review meetings with countries.
• Preparing background information (demand history, sales trend and seasonality) to support sales forecasting.
• Liaising with Marketing to include relevant information on supply chain disruptions (bottlenecks, allocations) or product lifecycle changes (phase-in, phase-out).
• Working with the Sales and Marketing teams to integrate market intelligence into the forecast.
• Preparing and supporting the Forecast Review process.
• Measuring and reporting on forecast accuracy.
• Leading root-cause analysis into major forecast variances.
• Leading initiatives to improve forecast accuracy.
• Developing and monitoring SAP settings  for “consuming the forecasts” and accepting orders.
• Working with the New Product Development team to forecast sales of new products and changes in product lifecycle (phase-in and phase-out).
• Monitoring and reporting on significant variances between sales forecasts, budgets and business plans.
• Coordinating with production planners (global planners or divisional logistic hub) in handling exceptions.
• Ensuring that the sales forecasting systems are used effectively.
• Providing input to the development of inventory policies and parameters.

Liaison with Material Master Administrator:

• Ensuring that material setup in SAP when requested by local Marketing or when the product is launched globally and needs to be added it in affiliate’s assortment.
• Continuous maintenance and updates of master data, according to the life cycle of each individual item.

Liaison with Inbound Logistics Manager and Inventory Controllers:

• Warehouse coordination and communication: coordinate stock movements, claims and issues with the warehouse.
• Shelf Life Monitoring - Guarantee that stock in the warehouse meets the predefined minimum shelf life (MSL). Define MSL per product, whenever applicable.
• Informing Marketing and other internal stakeholders about the MSL per product.
• Liaising with Inventory Controllers to ensure that products that are blocked or under investigation by quality department are under quarantine (not available for sales orders).
• Prevention of local supply chain vulnerabilities (e.g. supply interruption, write-offs, expiries) and apply CAPA thorough liaison with other Suppy Chain roles (e.g. Inbound Logistics Manager, Inventory Controller) and considering forecasted demand and outputs from stakeholders (global planning communications, country reviews, marketing, Sales and Operation Planning process).

Customer Relationship Development:

• Develop robust planning procedures in close collaboration with the logistics proxy in the countries, develop robust planning procedure and liaison with distributors.
• Developing and roll-out Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for the sales forecasting processes for South Africa, East Africa, West Africa and rest of SADC and for each country of the region.
• Development and roll out standards on S&OP process that guarantee smooth processing.

IT Improvements and Testing:

• Developing and requesting IT improvements in SAP with local and/ or global IT department.
• Processing of tests for changes in SAP, coordinated by global or local IT.

Job Requirements
You, as an ideal candidate, will have the following skills, experience and education:

• B.Sc degree in Supply Chain or Business Administration or equivalent (based on professional experience)   
• At least 5 years of experience in Supply Chain / Demand Planning
• Expert in SAP / APO module would be an advantage

Must have knowledge of:

• Demand forecasting
• Sales and Operation Planning