Shane Kamat

• Demand Management
• • Facilitation and maintenance of the rolling 0 – 18 months Demand Plan by Category & Customer breakdown by reviewing POS data, historical data, expected future sales, seasonality, promotional information.
• • Work closely with channel and regional owners to understand the nuances of each unique sales channel and reconcile significant variances, refine forecasts to reflect updated sales and marketing strategies, and reduce forecast model variance across channels.
• • Lead bi-weekly forecast review meetings and monthly S&OP meetings with sales and marketing to align systematic forecast to the sales estimates and current market trends. Presents and provides demand forecasts as well as background and detail regarding demand forecasts to arrive at a consensus and contribute as required to S&OP decision-making.
• • Responsible for forecast accuracy overall, root cause analysis and action planning. Proactively monitor and strive to maintain high levels of quality and accuracy in the demand forecast, as well as process consistency end to end.
• • Liaison with Product Marketing and Sales relating to New Product forecasting, including updating current projections. Collaborate with Inventory and Procurement teams to plan for material End-of-Life (EOL) transition planning with the goal of ensuring reliable long-term service coverage.
• • Dive deep with product management, sales channel owners, supply planning, marketing, and finance to understand demand forecast drivers and the downstream impacts of forecast changes.
• • Communicate ideas concisely to a wide variety of stakeholders for purposes ranging from informative to financial approval from executives.
• Finance:
• • Collaborate with Finance to reconcile the forecast and budget to provide timely feedback to Sales/Marketing and Manufacturing functions the gap/s between the operating plan and financial measures (forecast gap analysis). Create sales-facing forecasts at multiple levels (in dollars and units), and collaborate with sales and marketing via S&OP; process.
• • Create margin reports and work with sales to improve profitability on SKUs with low margins. Collaborate with Supply team to check different sourcing options to improve margins and overall profitability.
• Supply Management
• • Provide input to Supply planning team in developing inventory strategies on existing items, new products, and product phase-outs.
• • Constantly engage with the supply team to ensure alignment on lead times, inventory days, liquidation plans and inventory ageing.
• • Work with Supply team on establishing/modifying safety stocks.

Demand Management

• Develop initial forecast modeling based on historical data and causal factors. Review trend and statistical analysis based on POS data, historical data, expected future sales, seasonality, promotional information and rain checks.

• Facilitate monthly S&OP meetings with sales and marketing to align systematic forecast to the sales estimates and current market trends. Presents and provides demand forecasts as well as background and detail regarding demand forecasts to arrive at a consensus and contribute as required to S&OP decision-making.

• Evaluate impact of promotional strategy on the forecast for account, including product placement, various promotion types, and acquisition methods; and make recommendations to meet margin and profit goals. Facilitate consensus meetings with the sales and marketing teams.

• Query data to analyze forecasts for accuracy and make any necessary adjustments to match weekly demand to weekly sales. Contribute to the weekly demand review through analysis of forecast accuracy and sales trends.

• Analyze market response to new products and use qualitative and quantitative methodology to develop forecasts for new products. Analyze and make changes to the reserve quantities with the objective of preventing stock outs for strategic accounts while minimizing and managing the back orders for all other accounts.

• Formulate forecast accuracy and bias reports, identify the root cause and develop proactive action plans to address issues/gaps. Utilize system-generated reports to determine priorities and areas of opportunity. Continually challenge forecasting models and develop continuous improvement in forecasting models in systems and processes to meet business needs and requirements.

Sales and Operations

• Collaborate with Finance to reconcile the forecast and budget in order to provide timely feedback to Sales/Marketing and Manufacturing functions the gap/s between the operating plan and financial measures (forecast gap analysis). Create sales-facing forecasts at multiple levels (in dollars and units), and collaborate with sales and marketing via S&OP; process.

• Work effectively with Hillman Purchasing, Marketing and Sales staff to plan and implement projects including but not limited to, promotions, new products, store roll-outs, buybacks, and changes to existing product offering. Support sales and marketing activities for new product introductions, product conversions, and product obsolescence activities.

Supply Management

• Work closely with Supply Planners to review current inventory levels and ensure proper stock levels and allocation for Promotional and Seasonal items. Collaborate with suppliers on buy plans, and demand plan to effectively increase fill rates. Coordinate with transportation team to expedite the purchase orders to meet the customer’s deliver date.

• Provide direction to sourcing team on inventory purchases, including replenishment orders, safety stock, and target inventories for finished goods. Align forecast volume with the supply plan.

• Develop, maintain and optimize demand forecasts (operational forecasts) at multiple levels of aggregation including baseline and promotional demand
• Identify and review visible trends within the various sales channels and provide insight to sales, marketing, and purchasing and product development teams with appropriate feedback
• Analyze market response to new products and use qualitative and quantitative methodology to develop forecasts for new items not yet introduced
• Collaborate with sales and marketing team to collect data for optimal forecast creation of new items
• Provide consolidated consensus forecast for imported and domestic products to respective vendors by leading in the preparation of statistical demand and returns; compiling data and verifying its accuracy and making necessary adjustments to both data and system settings for changing business requirements
• Compile customer forecast accuracy and bias data, identify the root cause and develop proactive action plans to address issues/gaps
• Provide a detailed analysis of each promotional week along with recommendations and findings to the merchandising team to improve the future promotional activities
• Construct plans to manage excessive inventory within the supply chain and recommend carry over events to the merchandising teams
• Compare forecasts to the financial budgets, providing to senior leadership a clear overview of variances, uncertainty and risk areas to the business
• Grow total gross margin dollars by identifying pricing actions that encourage higher sale values, conversion rates, inelasticity, margin rates, and customer satisfaction
• Present pricing and competition analysis at a monthly strategy meeting, with insights, trends, and suggestions
• Coordinate activities between Product, Sales & Marketing, Finance and Supply Chain e.g
• New launch product/pack/ promotion, ad-hoc request to decant/rework demand
• Provide input to the Supply Planning organization in developing inventory strategies on existing items, new products, and product phase-outs during line review meetings
• Reducing risk of write-off exposure during product exit
• Continuously monitor reorder point and reorder amounts to ensure inventory levels are consistent with current usage and customer demand
• Review recommended replenishment import purchase orders on a weekly basis, and place orders adhering to the lead times to maintain adequate levels of inventory.

• Develop demand forecasts (operational forecasts) at multiple levels of aggregation for multiple time horizons as part of a demand planning function
• Review historical sales trends, research demand drivers, prepare forecast data, develop statistical forecast models, and evaluate forecast results
• Utilize a collaborative and consensus approach by working with sales and marketing team to obtain and ensure that current and accurate information is used for demand forecasts
• Analyze types or amounts of equipment, vehicles, materials, or personnel required according to work orders or specifications
• Schedule and dispatch couriers, service vehicles to appropriate locations according to customer requests, specifications, or needs
• Record expenses to accounts and cost centers by analyzing invoice/expense reports.