Demand Planner

As a Demand Planner at Downeast Cider, your primary responsibilities include developing and maintaining accurate demand forecasts to support our production and supply chain planning. You'll analyze historical data and market trends, collaborate with various teams such as sales and finance, and utilize ERP systems like Plex to generate insightful demand plans. You'll also monitor forecast accuracy and update forecasts based on demand patterns, ensuring that our products are always available to meet customer needs.

To thrive as a Demand Planner at Downeast Cider, you should have a bachelor's degree in relevant fields such as Supply Chain Management, Business Administration, or Data Science. Additionally, having 2-3 years of experience in supply chain or demand planning and familiarity with ERP systems like Plex are important. Knowledge of the beverage industry, particularly with alcohol products, is also a plus!

The Demand Planner position plays a crucial role at Downeast Cider by ensuring that the right products are available at the right time, optimizing inventory levels, and minimizing excess costs. By accurately forecasting demand and presenting insights to leadership, the Demand Planner helps align demand planning with our overall business objectives. This ensures that our operations run smoothly and supports our goal to be a world-class brand in the beverage industry.

In the Demand Planner role at Downeast Cider, you'll utilize various forecasting tools and ERP systems, particularly Plex. You'll also work with data analysis tools like Excel and Power BI to enhance your forecasting models. These tools will help you generate demand plans at various levels, ensuring that our cider and other products are delivered to customers efficiently.

At Downeast Cider, the culture is vibrant and collaborative, especially for a Demand Planner. We take pride in creating a fun, inclusive, and supportive environment where every team member can express their creativity and learn from each other. Being a scrappy team, we value hard work and shared success. The company also hosts celebrations and fosters a family-like atmosphere, making it a rewarding place to develop your career.

When answering this question, highlight specific roles where you have developed demand forecasts. Discuss the tools you used and any successful forecasting strategies you implemented. Mention any data analysis and collaboration with other departments, especially how it contributed to improved accuracy in demand planning.

Discuss your approach to monitoring forecast accuracy and the steps you take when discrepancies occur. Emphasize the importance of analyzing data trends, adjusting models, and communicating with relevant teams to realign the forecasts with actual demand patterns.

Provide a specific example where you identified inefficiencies in an existing forecasting process and how you implemented a solution. Explain the impact of your changes on forecasting accuracy or inventory levels, and how it benefited the overall operations.

List the forecasting tools and ERP systems you have experience with, such as Plex, SAP, Excel, or Power BI. Highlight how you have used these tools in your previous roles to analyze data, generate forecasts, or optimize supply chain processes.

Explain the importance of cross-department collaboration, particularly with sales, marketing, and finance teams. Share specific examples of how you have effectively communicated and shared data to align forecasts with business objectives and support overall operations.

Discuss key metrics like forecast accuracy, inventory turnover rates, and order fulfillment rates that you monitor to evaluate the effectiveness of your demand planning efforts. Explain how you use these metrics to make informed decisions and continuously improve forecasting models.

Provide a concise story about a significant challenge, such as a sudden change in market demand or supply chain disruptions. Detail the steps you took to navigate the situation and the results that followed. This shows your problem-solving abilities and resilience.

Share your strategies for keeping abreast of industry trends, such as attending workshops, reading industry publications, or networking with professionals in the field. Show that you actively seek knowledge to enhance your forecasting capabilities.

Detail how data analysis is the backbone of your forecasting process. Explain your methodologies for collecting and analyzing relevant data sets to create accurate forecasts while providing examples of how it has led to significant outcomes in your previous work.

Express your passion for the beverage industry and how Dollar Cider’s mission resonates with you. Highlight your enthusiasm for being part of a collaborative team that values innovation and inclusivity, and emphasize the alignment of your skills and experiences with the expectations for the Demand Planner role.