LifeMade Products LLC, a Jadex Inc operating company, is a global provider of disposable tableware and temperature control packaging solutions supporting a variety of sectors including healthcare and food preservation. We are the industry leader in U.S temperature-control packaging and single-use consumer goods manufacturing. Our brands include LifeMade Consumer Products, Lifoam®, Diamond®, FreezPak®, Envirocooler® and ProPak®. LifeMade Products LLC has 8 manufacturing locations in the domestic United States . Our mission is to create superior products that push industries forward, LifeMade strives to make life – better.
Customer Planning Business Manager - Remote
Reports To: Senior Director Sales Operations & Customer Success Location Remote
Company Background:
LifeMade Products, LLC and Shakespeare Company, LLC are operating companies of Jadex Inc. LifeMade is a leading manufacturer of injection-molded plastic cutlery, foam coolers, ice substitutes, and straws. Shakespeare is a top provider of universal fit lawn and garden grass trimmer accessories and high-performance marine antennas and communication solutions.
Position Summary:
Proactive customer facing planning liaison between operations, supply chain, finance and sales to effectively execute and monitor all customer auditing strategies for Disposable Tabletop, Temperature Control and Trimmer accessory category solutions. Responsible and accountable for improving profitability through gross-to-net reduction and recovery while providing world-class service levels to customers. Focus on increasing profitability and reducing inefficiencies. Accountable for focused strategies with key customer partners to meet/exceed all assigned channel/account/geography profit targets. Represent the company with excellence in accordance with its policies in area of responsibility at all levels of our customers.
Essential Functions
- Responsible and accountable for leading all gross-to-net business activities
- Responsible and accountable for weekly auditing, tracking and reporting of customer penalties and recommendations for improvement.
- Responsible and accountable for contract review oversight (customer and broker), service level agreements, dispute processes and retailer portal management.
- Responsible and accountable for PO researching, filing disputes, managing dispute resolution and collection of payment.
- Responsible and accountable for leading a team of two direct reports.
- Works closely with the Sales, Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, Customer Success and other departments to ensure timeliness of information and data accuracy to avoid disruptions within the supply chain. Includes the auditing of customer, logistic providers, warehousing, operations, and supplier service levels to determine the root causes of failures and implement corrective actions to limit their re-occurrence.
- Support Buyer/Planners to lead & advance business’ Sale, Inventory, and Operations (SIOP) process to build a collaborative environment assigning task owners to all functional areas to balance supply & demand requirements to satisfy external & internal customer needs aligning with the organization’s short & long-term objectives.
- Facilitator to continuously advance Supply Chain Department’s utilization of business’s ERP system as the planning system of record minimizing the use of external freestanding tools. Train cross-functional teams on Best-Practices in the set-up and utilization of the ERP system to ensure demand and supply are aligned correctly with production capabilities and the most efficient and cost-effective methods.
- Support new product launches through the Supply Chain Team by assisting the other functional areas to drive improvements within the process to achieve timely and successful introductions.
- Create, implement, and monitor supply chain KPI’s to drive business objective improvements.
Secondary Functions
- The ability to read and understand documents and perform mathematical calculations
- The ability to work cooperatively and communicate with others
- The ability to deal politely with customers and coworkers
- The ability to perform several tasks at once
- The ability to follow direction or instruction
Position Specifications
- Bachelor’s degree or the equivalent work experience with an additional 5 years of involvement in auditing, supply chain, production planning or other related activities are required.
- Proficient ERP system skills with a minimum 5 years of experience working within manufacturing make-to-stock businesses utilizing an integrated ERP system are required.
- Highly analytical with a background in configuration/problem solving of planning parameters on an ERP system is required. Practical experiences operating relational databases, advanced skill sets in Excel, Pivot Tables, Access databases and familiar with creating ad hoc reports is required.
- Progressive SIOP knowledge with a minimum 5 years leading these types of meetings is preferred.
- Retailer portal management; Retail Link, Partner’s Online, High Radius, etc
- Procurement and strategic sourcing capabilities with a minimum of 2 years’ experience.
- Direct management experience required.
- Institute for Supply Management (ISM) C.P.M., CPSM® or CPSM® and The Association for Operations Management (APICS) CPIM, CSCP or CFPIM professional certifications are preferred.
- FDM and CPG experience preferred with Mass Merchant and Home Center/Hardware channel expertise.
- Proven track record of consistent results.
- Must have demonstrated using multiple information sources to develop sales strategies and tactics as well as effectively managing promotional activity and trade spending.
- Syndicated data, sales planning and forecasting experience
- Microsoft Office Suite
- Must show aptitude to effectively interpret and use multiple information sources to develop customer-specific tactical plans and options
- Well-developed organizational, communication and time management skills
- Ability to function in a team environment
- Must be self-motivated
Physical Requirements & Work Environment:
- Sitting at workstation approximately 85 percent of work time. Standing and walking approximately 15 percent of work time.
- Must be able to travel up to 10 percent of work time.
- Ability to work flexible hours or occasionally on weekends with short notice depending on customer deliverables
- Typical office environment with shelves overhead and above work surfaces.
- The above statements describe the general nature and level of responsibilities for this position and are not to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required of this position.
- Company management may assign other relevant, related duties.