Demand Planning & Insight Manager at Lafarge Cement

About the Role

• This job holder is responsible for driving the continuous improvement in the demand planning and forecasting processes across the regions and strengthen the capability of the demand planning community to deliver standards of excellence through standardized ways of working, processes, templates and data analysis.
• S/He will also coordinate the Commercial Insights workstream to unlock category insights and drive continuous development throughout all trade channels and Consumer segments; supports the Pricing & Margin Manager in competitive insights relating to sales and value chain prices.
• S/He is also expected to assess the Demand Reporting (forecast and Actual) vs. standard metrics to underscore LAP's core ambition of value generation and growth.

What you'll be doing

• Lead the Commercial Demand Planning process and maintain a consistently strong S&OP Compliance amongst all Commercial stakeholders
• Liaises with the Production and Logistics planning team to achieve a seamless and efficient end to end S&OP
• Single Point of Contact for all data analysis relating to the cement supply/capacities, Demand Planning and Cement Industry Insights including obtaining access to all Commercial & Market Information.
• Manage and leverage the demand planning tools (DPT) and systems across the business to create and review statistical and promo forecast by gathering, analysing and validating the data.
• Measure, analyse and communicate the key metrics and monitor adherence with the respective stakeholders.
• Ensures demand forecast is shared with the right details and timing internally with the supply chain partners with the assumptions, risks and opportunities.
• Prepares KPIs reviews (weekly, monthly), identify gaps and support the markets with root cause analysis and actions to fix.
• Drives >95% Sales forecast Accuracy Lag1 and ≥80% Lag3 to deliver value generation and volume growth ambitions vs. key business metrics
• Supports the Pricing and Margin Manager to develop insights and reports.
• Supports the Pricing Manager with operational data and insights to develop contexts into the monthly PCOMM meetings.
• Supports topline commercial managers with data and insights to drive strategic plans
• Contributes to strategy development across units
• Full participation/contribution into the annual Budget/MTP process
• Supports the Field Sales Team with required analysis to improve insight generation from Market Updates and Market Visit Reports
• Collaborates with other Commercial functions, Logistics and Industrial Planning and Commercial Data Teams to improve Commercial deliverables into the S&OP Process.
• Makes recommendations to improve the demand planning and S&OP processes.

Who you'll be working with 

Direct People Relationships:

• Commercial Performance & Planning Manager, RTM&D Manager, Customer Channel Managers, Brand Manager, Head of Sales (x4), Head of Key Account, 
• CRMs/Regional Managers, Commercial Excellence Manager, Pricing & Margin Manager, Country Head of Sales, Head of Marketing, Commercial Data Analyst, Head of Customer Service

Indirect People Relationships:

• Commercial Finance Controller, Logistics and Industrial Planning Managers,  Logistics & Industrial Data Analysts, SOPs, 3rd Party Sales Agents, Customer Service Teams, etc

What we are loking for

• 5 – 7 years’ experience in Sales & Marketing with about 3years in Analytical and Data management role
• Multi-sector and or multi industry experience will be added advantage.
• Prior Data Analysis Experience.
• Understands what’s behind automation and entailed in building and reporting aspects of analytics.
• LOGON, QLIKVIEW, SAP and other ERP reports for generating Insights.
• Knowledge of managing data from multiple sources, build dashboards and report to various levels (strategic, tactical & operational).
• Good story-telling capabilities.
• Sound knowledge of market dynamics, Consumer, Product and Competition.
• Expertise with Excel, and PowerPoint
• Financial acumen

Technical Competencies:

• Strong analytic and critical thinking skills
• Exceptional written, oral, and presentation communication abilities
• Expertise with Excel, and PowerPoint
• Sound knowledge of market dynamics, consumer, product, and competition.
• Be attentive to details.
• Exceptional problem-solving skills
• Strong statistical and quantitative analysis skill