Buyer Planner

Description Position Purpose Develop and maintain a reliable demand forecast and translate it into a feasible supply plan by integrating statistical analysis, structured cross-functional collaboration, and coordination of inventory transfers between manufacturing plants, distribution centers, countries, and approved supply sources.

This role transforms customer, market, promotional, and inventory information into a consensus demand plan and an actionable supply plan, ensuring product availability, service level performance, and a single source of truth across Demand Planning, Supply Planning, Operations, and Finance, without engaging in direct commercial negotiations with suppliers.

Essential Duties And Responsibilities Forecast Generation and Maintenance

• Develop short-, medium-, and long-term forecasts by SKU, customer, channel, product family, or category.
• Analyze historical sales, customer orders, trends, seasonality, promotions, events, and customer purchasing behavior.
• Apply statistical forecasting models and adjust forecasts based on validated commercial insights.
• Manage new product introductions, product substitutions, phase-in/phase-out activities, intermittent demand, and low-volume items.
• Document forecast assumptions, changes, owners, and demand drivers.

Cross-Functional Collaboration with Commercial Teams

• Coordinate regular demand review meetings with Sales, Key Account Managers, Marketing, and Commercial Leadership.
• Gather and validate information related to promotions, new business opportunities, customer additions and discontinuations, pricing changes, product launches, and exceptional orders.
• Challenge forecast increases or reductions that lack supporting data, customer commitment, SKU detail, timing, or defined probability.
• Translate qualitative commercial inputs into measurable forecast adjustments and track agreed-upon action items.

Supply Planning and Balance

• Develop short-, medium-, and long-term supply plans based on the demand forecast, customer orders, available and in-transit inventory, open purchase orders, lead times, and supply constraints.
• Convert the consensus demand plan into supply requirements by SKU, source, location, quantity, and required delivery date.
• Analyze inventory coverage, safety stock, backorders, critical materials, excess inventory, slow-moving items, and obsolescence risks.
• Validate MRP/DRP recommendations and adjust planning parameters or exceptions when operational conditions require.
• Recommend allocation priorities during supply constraints, considering service level targets, customer criticality, and regional availability.

Inventory Transfers and Supply Sources

• Plan and request inventory transfers between manufacturing plants, distribution centers, countries, or approved supply sources.
• Evaluate the most appropriate supply source for each requirement based on inventory availability, production capacity, lead times, transit times, constraints, and business priorities.
• Monitor transfer requests, transfer orders, confirmations, shipments, in-transit inventory, and receipt of materials.
• Coordinate with Logistics and International Trade regarding shipping schedules, documentation, shipment consolidation, and transportation risks.
• Escalate cases requiring supplier intervention, commercial changes, negotiations, or external capacity support to the Procurement team.

Performance Measurement, Scenario Planning, and Continuous Improvement

• Measure Forecast Accuracy, Forecast Bias, WAPE, MAPE, and Absolute Error across different levels of aggregation.
• Develop baseline, optimistic, and constrained supply-demand scenarios for changes such as supplier delays, capacity reductions, unexpected demand increases, or shifting business priorities.
• Quantify the impact of each scenario on Fill Rate, backorders, inventory coverage, inventory levels, logistics costs, and product availability dates.
• Analyze deviations between forecasts, customer orders, actual sales, and plan execution to identify root causes.
• Segment products and customers using differentiated planning methodologies such as ABC/XYZ analysis.
• Present clear recommendations, planning assumptions, identified risks, and required actions to support business decision-making.

S&OP Integration and Master Data Management

• Deliver a complete, timely, and consensus-based demand and supply plan to all relevant stakeholders.
• Communicate significant changes in demand or supply, potential stockout risks, and inventory reduction opportunities.
• Participate in S&OP, IBP, MRP, executive planning reviews, and budgeting processes when applicable.
• Maintain planning master data, including lead times, transit times, lot sizes, minimum order quantities, order multiples, safety stock levels, and assigned supply sources. Prepare reports on product availability, shortages, inventory coverage, and plan adherence.
• Ensure a single, aligned version of demand and supply data across planning systems and corporate reporting

Requirements QUALIFICATIONS (Education, Experience, & Skills required)

• Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering, Actuarial Science, Economics, Statistics, Business Administration, Logistics, Supply Chain Management, International Trade, or a related field.
• 3 to 5 years of experience combining Demand Planning (forecasting and commercial planning) and Supply Planning (DRP/MRP, inventory management, inventory transfers, or internal replenishment).
• Experience collaborating with commercial and operations teams, and presenting analyses and recommendations to leadership.
• Experience in the automotive, distribution, retail, consumer goods, aftermarket parts, manufacturing, or other industries with a high number of SKUs and multiple distribution locations is preferred.
• Intermediate to advanced English proficiency preferred, along with training or certifications in S&OP, IBP, Forecasting, APICS, or CPIM.