Job Title: Category Supply Planning Manager

Position Snapshot

Business area:  Supply Planning

Location: North York, ON located at 25 Sheppard Ave W, North York, ON M2N 6S8;

Hybrid

A little bit about us

While Nestlé is known for KitKat®, Gerber®, Nescafe®, and Maggi®. Our recipe for success comes down to one thing: our people.     

We strive to lead a people-focused culture that empowers employees to bring their authentic selves to work each day. There are 3,400+ members of Nestlé Canada celebrated for taking action using agility, courage, and trust to find solutions that benefit the business or greater good. We’re a team of changemakers, who are curious and challenge the status quo, that take risks that will help drive us forward.   

Our focus is not only on nourishing our customers, but also about enriching you. We know that empowerment leads to strong employee engagement, a great work culture, and motivated employees.  

What to Expect:

The role of Category Supply Planning Manager provides leadership in applying best practices and efficient processes to ensure the availability of finished goods at the right stock locations with high freshness, ensuring the required level of customer service while optimizing, total Delivered Cost (TDC) and ensuring Customer centric mindset.

This role will efficiently execute defined Monthly Business Planning Processes including S&OP and S&OE processes within business category & operational teams, of all end-to-end Supply Planning activities. 

A day in the life:

The Category Supply Planning Manager is responsible to effectively lead a team of category supply, inventory, material requirements (MRP), and material Production scheduling (MPS) planners for a specific market/category. They are responsible to effectively apply best practices and efficient processes to ensure the availability of finished goods at the right stock locations with high freshness, ensuring the required level of customer service while optimizing Total Delivered Cost (TDC) and ensuring Customer and Consumer centric mindset.   Moreover, the Category Supply Planning Manager also actively contributes to the Strategic (3 years +) and Tactical (18 months) Business Planning via Monthly Business Planning.  

This role also will act as the lead integrator, as a member of on the Integrated Planning Leadership (IP LT) interacting with Demand Planning Teams and other Operational Stakeholders including Warehousing, transportation and customer facing teams. Additionally, this role also in participants in the business category Operational Leadership team (BU OLT) and represents for the Category Demand & Supply Planning teams on both strategic longer-term and mid-short term strategic planning and execution.  This aspect will require regular interaction and leadership within the Business Unit LT, Planning & Operations leaders, Business Unit Ops leads and BEO.

Role Requirements:

End-to-End Supply Planning Performance & Analytics                                                                                                                        

• Manage and maintain a skilled, motivated team of Supply, MPR, MPS and deployment planners to develop optimized Supply & Inventory plans across the networks to ensure reliable sustainable in adherence to agreed KPIs supply.                                                                                                                                                                           
• Ensure consistent improvement the quality of the Supply Plans and the efficiency with which they are produced based on category specific demand patterns, portfolio/product considerations, and commercialization plans.                                                                                                                                                                              
• Role will drive orchestration and drive improvement. through category supply planning strategies and processes to achieve target fill rates and control excess inventory. 

• Drives root cause analysis in tandem with key partners to continually improve operational efficiency.     
• Collaborates with Demand Planning Manager, planners, BU Operations Leads and relevant stakeholders on issue escalations where central resource is required to drive improvements to ensure optimal resolutions of issues and that proposed solutions are applicable across the enterprise (as appropriate).                                                     
• Role supports key operational strategies on long-term sourcing across global networks, and capacity planning for local factories, where applicable        

Collaboration & cross-functional Integration on key operational workstreams

• In addition to the above mentioned Supply Planning activity leadership and support, this role will be the Planning Leader to manage the relationship and the effective flow of information between the Integrated Planning function , internal business partners (e.g., Order to Cash, Logistics, External Manufacturing,  Procurement, Technical services etc.) and external stakeholders (e.g., Suppliers & Third-Party Manufacturers (Coman and   Copackers).                                                                                                        

• Manage the relationship with Inter-Market Producers and Receivers to ensure efficient and cost-effective replenishment.     
• Contribute to the Nestlé Competitive Planning solution (focusing on a specific category) by active and constructive participation in the Integrated Commercial Planning (ICP), Monthly Business Planning (MBP), Dynamic Forecast (DF) processes & Annual Volume Commitment process.  

Planning Team Strategy & Process Improvement            

• Drive continuous improvement initiatives in collaboration with the Demand Planning Manager, and D&SP Excellence & Digital Leaders and their respective teams. 
• Talent management & succession support across the integrated planning functional team
• Support the stewardship of the superuser communities (SME) in both Supply planning, and DRP/MPS planning to support process and digital resource compliance                                       
• Onboarding, training and performance management for category supply planners, within direct span of control                                                                                                  
• Leadership and support (escalation) for category demand planning supporting assigned category, through informal reporting structure, and inclusion with supply planning team to ensure holistic D&SP efficiency

Preferred Skills

Education:

• Completion of University Degree in Finance, Business Administration or Supply Chain; Accounting Designation (CPA, MBA) beneficial.

Experience:

• Minimum 7-10 years experience in supply chain - cross functional with broad view of E2E value chain.  Demonstrated leadership experience in supply, manufacturing and/or demand planning. 
• Ability to lead multiple teams and projects through significant change management; process improvements; and standardization/ simplification efforts.
• Proven track record in leading and optimization of supply planning and/or inventory management                                                                                   
• Strong Leadership of Supply Planning Principles, Process and Best Practice: Capacity Planning; Production Planning and Scheduling; Manufacturing Performance and management and planning of inventory
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret data and make strategic decisions
• Experience in developing and leading sales and operations planning processes
• Proficiency in using relevant planning software and tools.
• Excellent communication and leadership skills, with the ability to collaborate and influence effectively across departments                                                 
• Experience in managing supply and inventory management with Finished Goods conversion & and re-packing planning experiences

Benefits:

Comprehensive total rewards benefits package including Health and Dental benefits that start on day one of employment 

• Company matched pension plan 
• Three weeks of Vacation and five personal days (Personal Paid Holidays) 
• Flexible and hybrid work arrangements 
• Excellent training and development programs as well as opportunities to grow within the company 
• Access to Educational Assistance & Tuition Reimbursement 
• Bonus eligibility 
• Gender affirmation benefits to ensure access to necessary care, resources, and coverage for gender-affirming procedures
• Fertility Services and Surrogacy Medical Coverage to support the pursuit of a path to parenthood regardless of medical conditions, gender or sexual orientation
• Adoption benefits to remove some of the financial barriers associated with adoption
• Access to the Discount Company store with Nestlé, Nespresso, and Purina products (Located across various Nestle offices/sites) 

What you need to know: