Demand Planning Excellence Manager

Founded in 1920, Eastman is a global specialty materials company that produces a broad range of products found in items people use every day. With the purpose of enhancing the quality of life in a material way, Eastman works with customers to deliver innovative products and solutions while maintaining a commitment to safety and sustainability. The company’s innovation-driven growth model takes advantage of world-class technology platforms, deep customer engagement, and differentiated application development to grow its leading positions in attractive end markets such as transportation, building and construction, and consumables. As a globally inclusive and diverse company, Eastman employs approximately 14,000 people around the world and serves customers in more than 100 countries. The company had 2021 revenues of approximately $10.5 billion and is headquartered in Kingsport, Tennessee, USA. For more information, visit www.eastman.com.

Responsibilities

The Demand Planning Excellence Manager is a key role within the global IBP Center of Excellence (COE), responsible for serving as an expert resource and consultant to drive demand planning transformation and best practices across all Eastman businesses and regions. They work with Eastman COEs and business partners as a valued thought leader to identify challenges and opportunities, generate creative options and build consensus towards a solution. They leverage their demand planning knowledge, data-driven mindset, and ability to influence and lead change, as well as external benchmarking in best practices and emerging trends. They are a critical resource in business transformation, innovation and digitization. This is a full-time position, preferably in Kingsport, TN, St. Louis, MO, or Rotterdam, Netherlands or could be remote for the right person in support of our supply chain or commercial strategies.

• Identify, problem solve and drive solutions for demand planning challenges and improvement opportunities within business units and/or business functions
• Serve as a data-driven demand planning thought leader to add value to Eastman
• Work with Sales, Product, Pricing, Finance and Marketing and other Eastman COEs to understand and lead improvement in role, technology and business needs in relation to demand planning processes
• Evaluate and coach teams on how to apply and leverage IBP demand planning principles and best practices
• Invest time increasing knowledge and remaining up-to-date on industry and demand planning best practices and emerging trends
• Serve as an expert resource, change champion and coach on:
• Leveraging OMP and PowerBI to maximize digitization opportunities
• Improving forecast accuracy through collaborative forecasting (sales, marketing, product, customer & statistical as inputs)
• Utilizing scenario planning to generate options and optimize value
• Developing robust assumption management processes
• Using macroeconomic and additional internal and external variables in forecasting to understand high-level and longer-term trends
• Product life cycle management within the demand planning process
• Work within the IBP COE team to optimize end-to-end supply chain processes

Qualifications

Education:

• Bachelor Degree from an accredited college or university is required (Data Science, Supply Chain, or Engineering all preferred)
• Masters Degree (MBA, Supply Chain or Math/Statistics) preferred
• Certified Professional Forecaster (CPF or ACPF) from Institute of Business Forecasting & Planning (preferred – must be willing to complete in first year after hire)
• APICS/ASCM CPIM or CSCP Certification (preferred)

Experience:

• 6+ years of experience with demand planning and forecasting techniques
• End-to-End Supply Chain working knowledge and experience
• Experience working with forecast systems (OMP most preferred, SAP, Logility, JDA, and others acceptable)

Required Skills:

• Demand forecasting – best practices to build short-term and long-range demand plans
• Forecast performance management, scenario planning and analysis, data analysis techniques
• Excellent interpersonal skills – coaching, collaboration, compelling written and verbal communication, facilitation, conflict resolution, developing others
• Strong technology aptitude – OMP/Forecasting Software, Microsoft suite, BI tools, SAP, etc.
• Data and business acumen – financial, chemicals market, customer/sales process, marketing, etc.
• Understanding of applied statistics and typical forecasting methods plus associated parameters
• Strong prioritization, time management and project management skills