Planning Lead at mPharma

Position Description

mPharma is looking for a dynamic individual with exceptionally high work standards  to join our Supply Chain team as a Planning Lead. He/She will add value through planning and organizing the supply of products through optimizing inventory investment and advising on requirements, proactively communicating the business intelligence necessary to achieve relevant customer service goals. Acting as the key interface between demand forecasting, central and regional supply planning and logistics within the supply chain to ensure maximum availability at optimized inventory and cost levels for current and future business requirements that deliver the financial targets in an effective and efficient manner whilst assisting to track the received and existing inventory across the company. Finally, the incumbent will fulfil a central coordinating role between Retail & Procurement departments as well as with outlets and customers, balancing their different priorities and limitations to reach optimal solutions for the company.

Key Responsibilities;

• Use appropriate statistical models and parameters to enrich statistical forecasts aimed at generating accurate base demand forecasts and stable plans in accordance with historical trends, recent events and planned interventions.
• Follow through any deviations from demand and black swan interruptions to achieve swift normalcy while communicating with stakeholders.
• Effective co-ordination with Retail, Wholesale and Marketing teams to achieve consensual, accurate forecasts in alignment with the Formulary and ensure the availability of their needs by coordinating with Procurement function.
• Drive the Sales and Operations Planning meetings, finding optimal solutions to potentially conflicting priorities of Retail/Wholesale and Procurement departments and keeping all stakeholders informed on progress against agreed plans.
• Liaise with department managers throughout the Business Unit to ascertain actual inventories and constraints as well as future inventory flows of each department, so as to assure that planning outputs are accurate, realistic and relevant at all times.
• Align and develop S&OP Plan with Monthly Business Planning/ Quarterly Business Planning objectives and Sales forecast volumes.
• Expand the S&OP process to include tactical planning at least for quarter period.
• Support the planning of introduction of New Products from successful introduction until product retirement.
• Manage and plan minimum stock balances to ensure supplier lead times and stock holding policies are maintained to avoid any stock outs and overstocking.
• Reconcile Safety Stock policy for all items and avoid loss of sales if any.
• Ensure ERP Planning modules/system is working in line with the Sales volumes and re-order point to avoid any stock out situation.
• Adherence to Purchase plan is tracked and monitor improvements.
• Month to month stability in plan and measure Forecast accuracy.
• Clearly communicate constraints that will affect customer delivery dates.
• Establish a well-maintained, accurate Master Data system in alignment with existing formulary and develop & implement technological solution to translates demand inputs to supply.
• Monitor and communicate any imbalance or potential KPI miss with options to mitigate on a weekly and monthly basis. Key KPIs to monitors are Forecast Accuracy, (FA), Forecast Bias, Case Fill Rate (CFR), Inventory, Month End Peak (MEP), Inventory Accuracy (IA), etc and any others are assigned during operations.
• Any other duties as allocated from time to time

Our Ideal Candidate must have:

• High level of integrity.
• Able to build bridges between various operational departments
•  Adaptability and flexibility in environment of change
•  Functional Excellence – Keen to learn latest developments and new things in functions 
• Drive for results – Demonstrating extra ordinary levels of energy & efforts
• Customer Focus – Actively looking for ways to increase value and satisfaction for customer
• Taking ownership – Display commitments and walk an extra mile to achieve the target.
• Business Acumen – Understanding critical leverage points of Business.
• Language requirements – English & Kiswahili 
• Computer literacy – End user of ERP System, proficient with MS - Excel, Word, Power Point, Microsoft Outlook and having exposure of Planning tool is an added advantage.
• Personality profile – Positive, Collaborative, Fast paced and prompt, Energetic and Enthusiastic and committed
• Excellent knowledge and understanding of end-to-end Supply Chain processes and best practices in retail environment.
• Effective Communication skills
• Effective Stakeholder Management and Good Interpersonal skills
• Detail oriented and able to handle multiple priorities in a faced-paced environment.
• Must be analytical and systems oriented.
• Timely decision making and managing uncertainty in Supply chain

Qualifications

• Minimum academic qualification: Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain or related field
•  Qualifications as an added advantage: Certified Course in Supply Chain
• Professional registration: IIMM / IFPSM / CIPS / APICS
•  General work experience of 3+ years in ERP based Supply Chain with at least 1 year experience working in a similar role
• Experience in Consumer goods, Pharmaceuticals preferred