Integrated Planning Specialist

Unilever is currently hiring for a Integrated Planning Specialist

Reports to: Site Lead Planner

Scope: Local

Location: Indonsa Factory (Durban)

Terms & Conditions: Full time

With 3.4 billion people in over 190 countries using our products every day, Unilever is a business that makes a real impact on the world. Work on brands that are loved and improve the lives of our consumers and the communities around us. We are driven by our purpose: to make sustainable living commonplace, and it is our belief that doing business the right way drives superior performance. At the heart of what we do is our people – we believe that when our people work with purpose, we will create a better business and a better world. 

At Unilever, your career will be a unique journey, grounded in our inclusive, collaborative, and flexible working environment. We don’t believe in the ‘one size fits all’ approach and instead we will equip you with the tools you need to shape your own future.

CATEGORY/FUNCTION INTRODUCTION

Customer Operations drives superior experiences for our consumers by ensuring product availability on line and on shelf and superior customer experiences through being the no. 1 supplier. The department links the supply and demand sides of the organization through digital platforms and ensures accurate forecasts, optimized inventory, superior customer service, reduced logistics costs and efficient order to cash processes.

JOB PURPOSE

Unilever is the place where you can bring your purpose to life with the work that you do – creating a better business and a better world. The Planning Specialist is the Planning representative at the Indonsa Factory from PM perspective. To agree and manage the procurement (call off) of all packaging as per the production plan in order to ensure maximum plant operating efficiency and deliver optimal customer service.

Ensure adequate cover for the production plan while at the same time managing stock levels within Working Capital Targets.

WHAT WILL YOUR MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES BE

Material Requirements Planning

• Ensure that the production plan sent by the production planners can be met timeously by calling off raw and packaging materials in advance.

• Stock is to be managed within working capital targets.

• Works closely with the production planner, ensuring that where supply constraints exist, these are built into the forward plans.

• Go through all MRP Material Exceptions on SAP on a weekly basis and ensure that all orders are placed within the stipulated lead-times.

• Ensure that all MRP orders in SAP are based on the latest production plans in SAP.

• Ensure all Purchase Requisitions are converted to Purchase Orders with no need for manual purchase orders.

• Escalate any need for manual PO’s immediately to Supply Management.

• Run material shortage reports and expedite orders for materials needed to meet the production plan.

• Ensure the integrity of material forecasts generated by SAP and work closely with suppliers to ensure available capacity and confirm supply availability.

• Issue purchase orders to suppliers within the agreed procurement lead times and according to the agreed lot sizes.

• Maintain delivery due list with warehouse personnel.

• Keep track of usage versus contract amount and flag concerns to Procurement Ops accordingly.

• Review and maintain forward material requirements within working capital targets for packaging and raw materials.

• Co-ordinate material planning activities to meet production plans at both In-house and 3rd Party Packers, where relevant.

• Monitor shelf-life management and ensure that the correct FIFO is being applied in the warehouses.

• Manage integrity of materials by ensuring prompt write offs of obsolete stocks.

• Assess exceptions raised for viability and impact on ongoing supply.

Manage relationship with suppliers

• Meet suppliers on a regular basis to identify and manage possible constraints.

• Work with Procurement to manage Supplier On time in Full Scores and Vendor Rating scores (achieved through accurate maintenance of PO’s).

• Attend supplier meetings with the Procurement team, when needed.

• Input into the development, maintenance and monitoring of stock holding policy for materials at suppliers in line with projected volume requirements and agreed volatility (owned by Procurement Ops).

• Inform Production Planner, Supply Planner & Procurement Teams of any supplier quality problems.

• Ensure all returnable materials on site get collected by suppliers on a regular basis.

• Ensure suppliers deliver as per JIT model to manage warehouse space reduction

Procurement

• Ensure the timeous delivery of stocks to site and escalate to Procurement, where needed.

• Track working capital of packaging and raw materials on a weekly basis.

• Continuously check on possible shortages in production and liaise with warehouse and Production Planner on any issues impacting supply.

• Liaise with warehouse on overdue deliveries and follow up with suppliers.

• Liaise with warehouse and suppliers for best delivery days.

• Liaise with suppliers of rejected materials and ensure that all materials are returned to the suppliers.

• Ensure that all GRN related queries are resolved and closed off within a 5-day window.

SAP Maintenance

• Maintain all SAP master data relevant to Materials Planning (incl. MRP screens) for Raw, Packaging and Returnable Materials.

• Ensure that all new materials are correctly maintained and extended on SAP in order to ensure innovations or renovations are delivered on time.

• Support the monthly Stock Count team.

• Input lead time assumptions and MOQs into vendor master data (Procurement Ops to own).

• Maintain all SAP master data relevant to Material Planning.

• Maintain and clean out old Purchase Orders.

• Maintain Master Data as defined by the Master Data templates.

• Run Master Data Health Checks at regularly defined intervals.

• Review trend regarding Master Data health issues, adequate measures are put in place to ensure accurate Master Data health.

• Ensure that materials are timeously marked as ‘ND’ (no demand) in the case of discontinuation.

Working Capital

• Work closely with the Procurement team and suppliers to ensure appropriate stock levels are maintained both on-site and at the suppliers to ensure that service level targets are met.

• Use appropriate tools and Inventory Planning Models to determine safety stock targets.

• Manage call-offs to suppliers in a manner that meets both working capital targets (covers and rand value) and cash flow needs, e.g. management of order size and frequency of call-offs

• Identify opportunities to reduce stock in transit values through reduced lead times.

• Conduct monthly analysis of full working capital portfolio and identify the key drivers and opportunities for stock day reduction.

• Managing slow and obsolete R&PM and ensure that provisions are raised timeously.

Projects

• Manage material write offs at launches, re-launches, SKU rationalisation, VIP projects, working closely with the factory scheduler to ensure that all plans are optimized, and run-out schedules are accurately maintained.

• Calculate estimated bleed outs of packaging and/or raw materials at the beginning of the project to ensure that material write-off risks are identified and any write-off provisions are included in the project plan.

• Advice the supplier of all changes in stock holding policy to ensure that stock is appropriately managed.

• Liaise with R&D on all new packaging items.

• Place orders for Capability and Launch in line with the various Innovation Gate sign offs.

• Provide timeous write off documentation and ensure that all materials are disposed of accurately and that these are correctly removed from the SAP system.

Reporting

• Ensure the plant shortage report is issued weekly.

WHAT YOU NEED TO SUCCEED

Experiences & Qualifications

• Tertiary degree with Supply Chain and/ or Business Management is preferred.

• 3-5 years experience in the general supply chain will be an advantage

• Further studies in supply chain, including APICS/SAPICS qualification, would be beneficial

• Planning and functional business process knowledge

• Strong Business Acumen

• Business partnering experience

• Understand S&OP process & cadence

• Experience working and interacting with all levels in a business.

• FMCG experience will be advantegeous

Skills

• Tertiary degree with Supply Chain and/ or Business Management is preferred.

• 3 -5 Experience in the general supply chain will be an advantage

• Further studies in supply chain, including APICS/SAPICS qualification, would be beneficial

• Future fit planning skills is an advantage (Curiosity and Agility; Impact through technology)

• Excellent communication skills and ability to influence stakeholders to achieve results

• Strong change, service and agile mindset

• Strong accountability and responsibility

Contacts:

Internal:

• Factory management and operational teams

• Inbound stores

• L1 Planning team

• Procurement Teams

External:

• L2 Planning Hub

• Material Suppliers

Leadership

• You are energized by delivering fantastic results. You are an example to others – both your results and your resilience. You are constantly on the lookout for better ways to do things, engaging and collaborating with others along the way.

• As an individual you are the one responsible for your own wellbeing and delivering high standards of work. You must also focus on the Consumer and what they need. You are humble and have your head up, looking around to interpret evidence and data smartly, spot issues and opportunities to make things better.

Unilever Behaviors

• Care Deeply: We care deeply about how consumers experience our brands every day, everywhere; about our people’s growth and development, and our impact on the planet. We care about our performance, to a point where it hurts when we don’t win.

• Focus on What Counts: We ruthlessly prioritise what truly matters, and so do fewer things brilliantly. We set clear goals & direction and recognise others for maximum impact.

• Stay Three Steps Ahead: We think boldly and creatively to make breakthroughs in performance. We are always curious and confident - anticipating and staying ahead of consumer needs and external trends, to beat the competition.

• Deliver with Excellence: We deliver excellence in what we do at pace. We take personal ownership and hold each other to account – always finding a way to do what we said we will do.

Unilever embraces diversity and encourages applicants from all walks of life! This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity. 

Unilever is an equal opportunities employer and committed to diversity and inclusivity in the workplace.  We are intentional in employing the best talent that reflects the demographics of our country and which will help build representation of currently under-represented groups. We therefore invite applications from all candidates representing diversity of age, sex, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion or belief. When appointing potential candidates, the South African Employment Equity and Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Legislation will be considered.   

We are required by law to verify your ability to work lawfully in South Africa. If you are applying as a foreign national, please note that you may be requested to provide supporting documents supporting this. 

This is an factory-based role in Durban and requires 100% of time attendance on site.

Unilever is an organisation committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you! Thus if you require any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of your application so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.

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