Requirements Planner & Transformation Lead

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join our client, a leading global FMCG company with Brands such as PG Tips, Lipton and Pukka, as a Requirements Planner & Transformation Lead. This will involve a mixture of working from home and working from the office in Waterloo, London.

This is a full-time temporary role working a 37.5-hour week to start ASAP for 12 months, paying up to £43,000 per annum, pro rata.

This is a unique opportunity for someone with strong technical and functional expertise to enhance the capability of the local supply chain team and help to deliver a complex transformation program as ekaterra separates from Unilever Globally and integrates Black Tea and Pukka in the UK and Ireland market.

Key Accountabilities

Proactive identification, mitigation, and communication of supply risks

• Regular and thorough review of portfolio with Planning and Factory teams to identify future risks and opportunities
• Regular review of inventory targets and stock policies
• Timely action and feedback on short notice supply requests
• Clear communication of immediate risks and recovery within the business

• Recommendations on prioritisation and appropriate stock management tools to manage constrained supply with customers
• Lead role in management of unexpected and/or significant long-term supply constraint situation including implementation of specific reports, meetings, and communication plan
• Accurate root causing of service losses and improvement plans to resolve repeat issues
• Responsibility for assigned tasks in the event of a quality issue or incident
• Responsibility for assigned tasks in the event of a logistics capacity issue

Proactive management of all business waste risks

• Regular and thorough review of portfolio to identify immediate and future risks

• Action plan to mitigate and avoid risks

• Adherence to business waste provisions process
• Stock lifecycle management including accurate product code master data status

Transition management & innovations

• Cross functional collaboration to minimise raw material, packaging and finished goods obsoletes and to deliver consistently high service to customers across all types of product change and launch
• Delist, soft change (MRDR only), hard change (EAN), innovations & new listings

• Application of supply chain knowledge to ensure P&I and Marketing have robust launch and mitigation plans in place

• Manage demand signals in collaboration with Planning and Factory teams
• Ensure master data readiness and activation in collaboration with P&I team
• Seamless execution in the local market in collaboration with ekaterra Sales & Commercial teams and Unilever Customer Services & Logistics teams
• Implementation and communication of appropriate stock management practices in accordance with customer switch over/go live dates

• Support ekaterra European Repack and R&D teams in the planning and execution of all UK and Ireland repack activities
• One-off promotional packs, ongoing customised packs, repalletization

• Support ekaterra European Rebranding Planner with project execution in the UK and Ireland market

Transformation Projects

UK and Ireland workstream lead for all supply related transformation projects - to be scoped but indicatively:

• IT system - input and/or testing of new ERP and planning systems where related to supply and demand
• Process - input to supply related processes and/or ways of working with other teams e.g., Customer Services, Logistics, Master Data
• Black Tea and Pukka integration - harmonise the best of ekaterra, Unilever, and Pukka to quickly build capability
• Opportunity to increase understanding of Demand Planning processes and tools and of overall S&OP process
• Help to build ekaterra Planning team community of practice

Key Skills Required

• Demonstrable relevant working experience as a requirements planner in an FMCG environment
• Experienced in use of ERP and planning systems
• Sound knowledge of MS Office, especially Excel
• Fluent English and able to present complex and detailed information clearly and concisely
• Able to work on own initiative and as part of a team
• University level qualification preferred
• Ability to understand the big picture but also comfortable with details and managing the operations
• Strong communication, negotiation and influencing skills with diverse, multi-functional stakeholders
• Independent, self-starter, ability to discover and drive opportunities
• Embrace a growth mindset with strong love for consumers, shoppers, and customers
• Highly adaptable, strong change affinity