Supply & Demand Manager: Nigel Staines

How long have you been working in your current role?

I've been in the role nine years.

Which company do you work for and what do they do?

I work for Procter and Gamble - they're a Global Manufacturing and Marketing organisation who manufacture 350 household brand names and had a $50 billion turnover last year.

What does your job involve in a typical day?

I do lots of things:

• I manage four core processes (National stock availability, Forecasting, Inventory & Product projects).

• I interact with key business team members in Marketing, Finance and Commercial.

• I interact with other functional groups, such as supplier plants, category planners, distribution centres, account managers etc.

My key responsibilities are:

• To provide direction to business teams to ensure that they set priorities and make decisions which are appropriate to and aligned with business and functional objectives.

• To manage proactively inventory levels, developing improvement plans with the team and initiating any actions necessary to address results which are off target.

• Forecast management at individual SKU level, from 1 week to 18 month outlook, which are communicated to the Wall Street Post each month.

• To maintain a disciplined process driven approach to project CPS (Critical Path Schedule) management, aiming to launch on aggressive timings whilst maintaining a focus on quality of execution, risk, cost & efficiency.

• To oversee the operating procedures used within MRP and to ensure the S&OP (Sales & Operations Plan) is adhered to and the IP (Inventory Parameter) settings are consistent with availability, inventory objectives and plant capability.

• To develop teams capability to deliver continuously improving business results by identifying & fulfilling training needs.

How did you get into your current job, and what were you doing before?

I moved into this role from a Production Planning Manager (Wavin Building Products).

What qualifications did you need for the job?

I have a BTEC National Diploma in Business Studies, plus O' Levels in English and Maths. MRP (Material Requirements Planning) experience was an additional requirement which I gained through my work experience as a Production Planner.

What do you like most about your job?

Procter & Gamble provide an excellent opportunity to work with a massive diversity of people and cultures with offices in 174 countries and 67 languages spoken.

I have the opportunity to travel regularly to many destinations, particularly Europe. Opportunities to grow are only limited by you – P&G provide full support for learning and coaching. Overall as a role, you can never be 100% sure what is going to happen during the day, the further you look ahead, generally the smoother the flow, but supply chains are full of hiccups that require root causing and action planning to fix.

What is your advice to people looking for a job in logistics?

The best piece of advice I was given was to have skin as thick as a Rhino! Production are always seeking the most efficient production runs and least number of products (skus). Sales always want an increased product (sku) line up and last minute forecast adjustments.

I find planning as far ahead as possible and being extremely organised is the only way to survive.

What do you see as your next step?

I have several opportunities to progress from this position, most of which will incorporate taking a step up to a more managerial role including man management.