Demand Planner

Aviat Networks - Austin, TX

Full-time - Mid Level

Austin, TX

Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing

About the position

The Demand Planner will be a key contributor in converting the Sales Funnel to a Supply Plan that can be executed by Aviat's contract manufacturers. The Supply Plan may include material forecasts, safety stock, min/max levels, or other material supply strategies. The Demand Planner must be able to effectively communicate with both internal and external customers. Effective communication must be maintained with internal customers (Sales and Product Line Management) to ensure the Supply Plan aligns with long term product line objectives.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for defining the supply strategies for all commodities used to support the company's business, balancing inventory level (Turns, liabilities, Excess and Obsolescence) with customer satisfaction-driven metrics (ARO, OTD); includes stratification of such commodities and selecting the right combination of statistical methods and forecast-driven inputs appropriate to the variability of the demand associated.
• Interact with Sales and Product Line Management teams to understand demand drivers
• Provide and support methods for planners to execute the strategies through MRP tools such as safety stocks, min-max levels, re-order points, MRP forecasted demand etc.
• Responsible to develop, maintain and recommend strategies for improving key performance metrics for the Operations Planning group.
• Responsible for leading process improvement projects within the Planning group.
• Responsible for balancing inventory between company warehouses based on company needs.
• Analyzes demand trends and actual shipments to develop steady-state/quantum events models for consumption by commodities and by geographical markets, develop service-level based models for order fulfillment based on supplier lead-time and inventory trade-offs.
• Develops and support tools and methods for supply planners to execute the strategies through MRP tools. Develop and support advanced planning workbooks to monitor business exceptions, supply/demand imbalances and data integrity issues.
• Develops demand forecasts and supply plans based on business rules, lead times, customer orders, safety stock requirements, bills of material, etc. (as applicable), escalating shortages and overages to management as required.
• Measures effectiveness of the strategies through service level and inventory turns, applies correctives and improvements to meet overall corporate objectives.
• Communicate material availability status with Sales and Order Fulfillment groups.
• Drive continuous improvement projects related to the planning and forecast process.
• Develop and present Planning KPI's monthly.
• Ability to work on several projects or issues simultaneously.
• Other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in supply chain management or related discipline
• 4 years or more experience, including at least 3 years in a demand planning role within a manufacturing company of Electronics or Telecommunications products
• Experience with a major ERP system, preferably Oracle
• Superior communication skills are required for frequent interaction with senior management. This includes the ability to communicate at an appropriate level to non-technical/operations managers.
• Strategic thinker that is able to analyze and present to upper management.
• Ability to work autonomously with a heavy workload and meet deadlines.
• Statistics and probabilities training is a must, especially as applied to balancing supply, demand and service level in situations of highly variable demand.
• Ability to use one or more Database Management Software, create customized queries to obtain required data from multiple data sources.
• Expert user of Microsoft Office applications, especially Excel

Nice-to-haves

• APICs certification and/or experience using RapidResponse a plus

Benefits

• Competitive benefits package