Demand Planner Role: 6 pillars to become an Expert

how to become a demon planner expert and leader in your field this is one of the most strategic jobs in supply chain and in this video I'm going to show you all the secrets and tools that you should

Master to become a very good Demon planner I'm going to share my own Journey as a demon planner manager recruiter trainer and teacher I'm going to share what is what is the job of

demon planner today why it's a strategic job in supply chain what is what are the salaries and are really good in for demand planner roles what is the future as well of the job because we have a lot

of change happening right now how to become a demon planner if you're not yet a demon planner what are the Strategic tools that you should Master what are the Strategic skills and how to become a

top performer leader as a demon planner to also open your doors and what are the new career paths before and after what can you do after demon planner because you have many many opportunities if you

done this job correctly and I'm going to tell you as well how we can help you to become a very good demand planner with ABC Supply

[Music] Chain so I've been working in demand planning for the last 15 years in many different countries all around the

planet for very small companies and large companies as a project manager for example at Deaton and also in collaboration with the MIT to develop new models for demand planning as an

analyst for demand planner as a demand planning manager recruiting managing and coaching demand planner as a consultant as well managing and leading projects in

demand planning forecasting Inventory management and as an instructor training and teaching more than 20,000 demand

planners all over the the world in um big big companies small companies and today I'm going to share with you all the insights you need to know to become a very good demand planner so what is

the role of demand planner you have three flow in supply chain you have the physical flow to move the products you have the information flow basically this

flow will plan and make work all the physical flow from where to produce what how how much what are the what are the forus what are the quantities what is

the price all the distribution so all the intelligence of the physical flow is managed by the informational flow and also the financial flow which is a

specific one uh driven by fin as well and the good thing about demand planner is you are in the middle you are managing the informational flow that's why it's a very strategic role because

you in the middle of everything in the company in the operations in the supply chain from sourcing to distribution you are in the core of the supply CH that's

why it's a strategic role okay so now let's talk about salaries and for salaries I'm going to also give you the different position but in a small business usually you have an operation

director and maybe a su manager and below that you have a coordinator you have an analyst analyzing data and you have the famous demon planner managing

in the same time the demon planning where which is mostly forecasting and inventory management okay so you can see the salaries uh around

$90,000 us for Mid City's midsize company from 8 to 15 years working total not only in the demon planner role so just to give you an idea and you can check for your own country we also did a

specific video on YouTube if you want to check we have all the salaries and we also have a salary s simulator but just to let you know this is a very good salary uh that you can also increase if

you're a top performer before maybe becoming Supply CH manager and for large companies large corporation we tend to split what we call the planning on one side with

Supply CH coordinator planner and Supply planning manager and on the other side we have the the data we have more the demand so we have the supply chain analyst we have the inventory management

expert and I've done this job for many years and it's a very powerful skill and job uh because I was managing more than 2,000 stores and 60 warehouses by

implementing new models of inventory management before becoming demand planner and demand planner manager so you can see that you will make you will have more responsibility but most of the

times in large companies will focus more on the forecast and less on the planning because you'll have a planning team taking care of the shortterm midterm and long-term planning the execution of the

forecast of of the plan uh in the supply chain from production to distribution transport and Logistics okay so this is where you are in demand planner and after that you have the demand planning

manager and I've became a demand planning manager in Australia as well you can see very good salaries and then you have the SNP manager and the supply

chain director okay so this is a core job and I'm going to tell you first what is the future and how to become a demon planner what are the pillars for that so first of all the future of demon planner

because it's important if you want to become one or a very good one you have to know what's going to happen next next and I've done a conference recently in Paris and I was talking about the future

of demand planning roles and there is a lot of concern about AI what's going to happen to us and I can tell you machines won't take all the jobs especially in supply chain for sure we'll have more

automation for the short-term Supply planning like Amazon today but uh the machine will help us we will become more efficient we spend less time

manipulating data we'll have models that will generate for example more automatic forecast for us and we will spend much more time to feed the machine with the right information will become like for

me the mini the for me the goal is to become the mini Supply chair manager and snop manager of your own perimeter for for example if you're responsible to

forecast uh the shoes or raet tennis racket you will become the the business owner the supply share manager of your own perimeter as and what I call it

facilitator of your own business so the future for me is you're going to spend less time manipulating the data and more time feeding the forecast collaborating

and also reviewing to improve your process and also becoming a Super demand planner okay so that's the direction I really feel and I was I became more and more a facilitator before becoming

supply chain manager and supply chain director in my company so now the question is how to become a demon planner maybe you are not a demon planner today but how to become a very

good Demon planner so the first you have six pillars to become a good demand planner you need to have practical experience you need to have to master the tools and methods you need to have

the right art skills the right soft skills you need to become a top performer to reach your goals have good kis and you need to have if necessary

diplomas or certification okay so I'm going we're going to talk about this first of all how to have practical experience maybe you're not a demon planner today what are the jobs before

demon planning so the best would be to be for example supply chain analyst you can start maybe as a supply chain coordinator Supply planner but it's it's good if you move into like the field

where you really crunch a lot of data okay not too much into the operations and more into analysis and one of the great steps should be for example to

become very good at Inventory management so I had this this spice and many of the people I train went through this direction and so I recommend to focus on these skills and jobs and I'm going to

give you later what are the most important skills to become a demand planner okay if you come for example from Logistics I also recommend to uh

maybe really try to practice as much as you can even if you work in a warehouse for example try to implement a new tool a new Inventory management system anything that show that you you you will

be able to manage the demand planning in the future to the recruiter to your current company all right so now the tools of the demand planner you have many many tools for the demand planning

you have the classic Erp system they can be very old and rigid this is the reality for most of you and for me I've been working with

sap or Microsoft na vision for many years not always very efficient uh but yeah you also have the demon planning softwares so this these software they're

going to connect to your Erp system extract the data and they will you will be able to for example forecast plan or manage inventory and then they will they will send back the data to to your

system it's great the challenge is which one should you learn because you have more than 1,000 demand planning softwares I even try to do my own compilator to give you okay which one is

the best and I can tell you I don't know which which one is the best because it really depends on your business your field your activities and even even if you learn for example sap you have so

many version of sap that it's very difficult to become good at one tool so I will not recommend one you have big ones like anlan or even Amazon you have

just one full ecosystem just for Shopify you have one specific on forecasting or the ones on demon planning other the ones on snop what is important for me is more to focus on the Deep skills okay so

I'm going to give you first you first Master the Deep skills and I can tell you whatever the tools I'm comfortable forecasting and managing demand planning because I have the right timel skills to

manage this software and once you are in the company you can train you can have the training of the company to be uh to become even better okay so you also have

the python and what we call AI agent so this is a new python is not a new trend but AI agent is a new trend is you're going to extract data with these tools and you're going to generate models that

will generate for example automatic forecast this is also an alternative not very common in companies because most of us work with ERB system or Excel that's

the next one but this is a new trend and we talk a lot lot about a agent this is just the beginning we have we have a new ecosystem to create around that and for sure they will you will have a lot of chance the next few years around copilot

CH GPT for now it's still the early phase but I'm going to tell you more about this Trends later what I can tell you as well you don't need to Learn Python today I think it's always good to

learn how to code but just at the basic level but don't spend three years learning about python because the new trend of AI tools will help you to become much more faster without having

to to code for years okay but the next the next solution is Excel you have more than 1.2 billion users whatever the

company you are for sure they use Excel 99.9% and most of my job I had an IP system but I was also using Excel to extract consolidate clean forecast

visualize optimize my inventory and I was also using them to improve my Erp system so you can also learn and manage G playing Excel this is the reality the

secret reality for most of the company in the world of course it's good to have um have done I've done a lot of tools to manage inventory of course I already had

ANP system with me but the reality is you want to start very quick you want to practice you want to analyze you want to learn also because using these tools is a very good way to learn to improve your

deep skills around demand planner and that's why I recommend to practice very quickly then to explore new tools and new new ways and as a supply chain project manager also had the job to

optimize install new softwares and improve my current IP system but this project can last up to 6 months to three or four or five years so go step by step

and really focus on delivering result as quick as possible that's why I want to talk about the next one the most important for me if you want to become a good demand plan a very good demand planner is to really focus on the

Timeless art skills okay so what are the most most important art skills for a demon planner you have four of them you have to be very good at manipulating

data especially with Excel because this is an universal language whatever the job you don't have you will for sure use this tool okay so Excel and data then you have the analytics be able to manage

track your performance especially around demand planning like your forecast accuracy or the quality of your inventory and then the two core skill of the demand planner is to manage

inventory Inventory management and to demon to forecast the demand okay forecasting so if you manage these four skills whatever the job whatever the

tools that the company is using you will be good for a very long time because they are the most important ones and whatever the job you do in demand

planning okay after that you have complementary skills uh I do feel that every demon planner should become the the the new snop manager of these parameter so sales and option planning

is very strategic as well if you are very curious about data science and AI you can also explore this field but it's going to be more and more automated so don't spend five years unless you really

enjoy data and you should train about this new it tools softwares andp once you are in the company uh because it's always good to master these tools you

have other skills I'm going to share it for other position in supply chain but for now this is focus on the most important first uh and that will be very

important for you and then you can focus on the tools inside your company once you work for someone so the next question is how to improve your art skills and the first you need to know which one are the most important I

recommend the green ones and then you need to prioritize which one do you think you have to assess your level and we can help you we also have suly and skills assessment to give you a score from zero to 100% then prioritize which

one is the most important for you in your job learn it and the best way to learn is to practice with example and we can help you for that we have many tools tutorials master class and full training

uh to help you to manage and to create the own tools you need immediately for your job okay so quickly we also have the soft skills uh because this is not

about the technical and we need a lot of people and even planners having a great communication collaboration of course synthesis you have all this um all these

soft skill that are also very important and the best way to learn them one more time is to practice to have big project with big responsibilities uh to embrace the soft

skills then how to become a top performer leader as a demand planner okay so you are a demon planner but how for example you just got the position how to become a very good demand planner

you have to deliver results okay deliver result what does it mean you need to deliver good service for your customers it means for the kpi good service rate

or good avability rate in your stores in your Warehouse in your factory the the the availability of your components for your production line that's the most

important one you need also to minimize the inventory the with the better inventory turnover as possible we have specific videos for that with the best

capis also this the quality of your inventory as little obsolete stock slub as possible and you want to also minimize the costs and for that the best

switch is to have the best forecast accuracy as possible because if you can predict the future allocate the right resource at the right time you will minimize the cost of inventory the cost

of Transport you won have Express like Air Freight transport you will minimize the cost of storage and life would be much easier so if you focus on these three ones and if you deliver very good

results you have clear goals I can tell you you will become a top performer but the main challenge for demon planner is always to find the right balance between service and the right level of inventory

to maximum the profit for the company so good luck with this job and I have many tools and trainings that can help you for that okay so also don't never don't

only do your job continuously optimize everything solve problems repetitive task and why I become very quickly a demon planning manager and expert is because I was not just doing my job I

was always creating new tools and methods to simplify the life of all my demand planning team okay and not only for me so I had my so I could become a

top performer in my team and then the next step was to facilitate and shine so I was creating these tools then I was sharing them to my team and everyone had better results then I was traveling the

world to share all my tools to all the countries uh in the demon planning team and for me that's why I really want to highlight that if you want to become a top performer expert leader don't only

do your job as a demon planner but become a facilitator a coach and then probably one day you'll become a manager and a leader in your field with more collaboration more communication and

become the coach of your uh demon planning or the demand planning roles in your organization without forgetting that you should never stop learning there isn't me that you know how to do

the job today that you you have it for the rest of your life I always locked one to four hours a week in my calendar uh since the beginning to learn practice

focus and build new tools and to become better and better so I really recommend you to do that and by learning and always practicing you will create what

we call The Compound Effect and if you become better in forecasting analytics or Inventory management you will use these skills the rest of your career and you will have amazing uh Adventures you

will have a better salary and you will have the freedom to choose your next job okay so that's my recommendation and now what can you do after if you are if you

became a demand planner you will have many opportunities in your career like me you can become obviously a demand planning manager so I became a demand planning manager and I was coaching my

team I was facilitating uh all the demand planning in my organization then I became an snop manager which is very strategic especially in large organization to bring more collaboration

and trust and then I became a su director okay so this is the classic pass that I recommend in from demon planner and after with very

good salaries as well and opportunities and I had the chance to also travel the world from Brazil to Australia to also I worked in Malaysia so it was a

beautiful Journey thanks to my demon planning skills and uh jobs okay you can also become a project manager so you can become a if inside the organization if

you had the experience it's very good TOS then like me I also optimize the job of demand planning because you have so much money involved and U and value if you can reduce the inventory improve the

forecast accuracy improve the the quality of your supply chain like you can become a project manager inside the company or you can become outside the company consultant for uh demand

planning you have a lot of opportunities as well you have also very good salaries if you love data you can also become data analyst and scientist uh and even AI engineer you won't have many any of

them but they're really good and they can have even better salaries than their own manager because they are the Superstar of the data so you have many

opportunities and uh to finish just an example of career pass a classic one from my ABC Supply Chain members maybe today you are supply chain analyst or logistic coordinators you're going to

learn the most important skills like forecasting and inventory management practice and you will become a demand planner congratulation you will become a top of planner then become a supply

chain manager after two or three years then you will become an snop manager for a larger group um maybe in a different cities as well if you want to travel and then

you'll become a supply chain director so this is a classic pass before and after uh becoming a demon planner and for that focus on the most important skills like

excellent data Inventory management experts and forecasting expert okay so this is you have many of them but I hope this is helpful for you one last thing don't

forget to become proactive okay if you just stay passive in your career uh you can you can stay as a coordinator for a very long time but if you say you know what I want to start training on for

example analytics or Inventory management I really want to to really don't wait but become proactive you can go much faster moving from maybe a coordinator to analyst and expert

position and if you change your field and your position and if you become really like an expert in your field you can also become a manager and a director and this is the multi the multiple the

multiple of your salary as well so you'll have much more opportunity and also opportunity to have better resources and also new projects

that can be also very exciting for your carers okay so this is don't forget be proactive in your career I think my my example can um can be maybe interesting

for you to see what what was my pass from World worker to supply chain director consultant and instructors today and yeah and if you are curious we have these six pillars about demon

planner are the one we are really giving to the D DM planners we train we train more than 20,000 people as explained before very small companies and very

large companies as well trust us to uh to support your demon planning position and also we provide official certificate to prove that you have this new

strategic skills uh for your current job or your next ones so you can check on lincolin where have we have a lot of members sharing their certificates and

skills online and the idea is really uh to practice with examples to have the right tools and methods that you can Implement immediately and learn the the job or become even better in the job you

are already doing if you are a demand planner today so for that we have a Dem planner training pack from Junior to senior and you can you will have the full practical experience art skills and

soft skills Timeless deep skills that you're going to use the rest of your career and also the toolbox that you can Implement immediately in your demon planning uh position with the official

certificate so if you curious about that you can discover and customize your own training pack Bas on your experience and ambition I recommend you to book a call with my team and we're going to tell you

what would be the best best demand planning pack for you to help you to become a top performer and to also open the doors for new opportunities in your

career

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