Demand Planner

Role Summary

Olli Brands Inc. is a GMP-track cannabis edibles manufacturer. The Demand Planner owns the planning cycle end to end: taking Commercial's forecast, exploding it to materials and components, netting it against on-hand and on-order, testing it against finite capacity, and publishing a constraint list on which every line carries a named owner and a date. The output is a single agreed number and a published production sequence - not a forecast that has never been tested against what the plant and the supply base can actually do.

The role sits in Operations, reporting to the [Operations Manager], and drives the planning lane across six lanes - Commercial, Planning, Purchasing, Inventory Control, Production and Scheduling, and Warehouse and Shipping. It is a peer to the Purchasing Specialist: the plan is this role's, the purchase order is theirs. It suits someone who runs a cadence without being chased - who will publish an incomplete list on time with its gaps named rather than a complete one late, and who is willing to say out loud that Commercial's number and Operations' number do not reconcile.

Key Responsibilities

1. Own the weekly planning cycle and hold it to its dates: refresh the demand number [Wednesday], explode and net it to materials and components [Thursday am], test it against capacity [Thursday pm], and publish the constraint list by [Friday 12:00].
2. Publish a constraint list on which every line carries a named owner and a date, chase owners for their answers [Friday pm to Monday am], and publish on time with the gaps named rather than late and complete.
3. Run the [Monday] review at which the open constraints are decided, record each decision against its owner, and publish the committed production sequence the same day [Monday pm].
4. Run the daily [10-minute] attainment review - plan against actual, with a reason code against every miss - and keep the reason-code set small enough to be used and specific enough to be acted on.
5. Maintain the three planning horizons and who owns each - [3-12 months] with Commercial, [2-13 weeks] netted and capacity-tested, and the current week committed - and confirm the horizon stays longer than the longest live packaging lead time, including artwork approval and excise stamp issuance.
6. Own the monthly cycle: demand review with Commercial, supply review with Operations, reconciliation of the two, and one signed number; escalate to [the CEO] when the two cannot be reconciled.
7. Own the capacity model as the cycle's single critical input - one named active workbook, with run rates, changeover times and available hours by line kept current - and do not run the capacity test against a model nobody owns.
8. Maintain the planning data the cycle depends on with Inventory Control, Quality and new product development - bills of material for the top [25] SKUs, item master records and product data sheets for every live SKU - and ensure new and multipack SKUs enter the plan at launch gate, with packaging, artwork and excise lead times attached, rather than after their first order.
9. Maintain and report the planning measures - forecast accuracy and bias, plan attainment, constraint-list ageing and closure, and inventory cover against target - at the [monthly] review.
10. Act as planning process owner through the ERP and MES implementation, take part in root cause analysis and Kaizen where a planning miss is a cause, and work to GMP, site security and Ontario OHSA requirements at all times.

Required Qualifications

• Post-secondary education in supply chain, operations, engineering or business, or equivalent experience; able to pass the site screening required under Olli's cannabis licence.
• 5+ years in demand planning, S&OP, master scheduling or production planning in a manufacturing environment.
• Demonstrated ownership of a planning cadence that other functions were held to - a weekly cycle with published outputs and named owners, not a forecast file maintained in isolation.
• Able to explode a forecast through a bill of material, net it against on-hand and on-order, constrain it against finite capacity, and explain the arithmetic to someone who disputes it.
• Advanced Excel, including modelling capacity and lead-time coverage; working knowledge of MRP/ERP planning - master production schedule, MRP, order policy and safety stock.
• Willing to publish a number that names its own gaps, and to tell Commercial and Operations when the two do not reconcile.
• Available on-site [5 days], with the fixed days and times of the cycle taking precedence over ad-hoc demands.

Preferred Qualifications

• Licensed cannabis, food or natural health product manufacturing, including excise stamps, artwork approval and packaging lead times.
• Experience standing a planning process up, not only running an established one.
• CPIM, CSCP or equivalent ASCM/APICS designation, held or in progress.
• Experience as planning process owner through an ERP or MES implementation.
• Daily visual management and reason-code discipline on a production floor.

Key Competencies

• Cadence discipline - the file lands on the day and at the hour, every week
• Numerate transparency - shows the arithmetic and the assumptions, so the number can be challenged rather than believed
• Constructive friction - says what Commercial and Operations do not want to hear, with the evidence
• Follow-through - carries a problem to a person with a date on it, and closes the line
• Systems thinking - sees the second-order effect of a sequence change before it is published
• Composure - keeps the cycle running while the plan underneath it moves

Working Conditions

Primarily office-based on an active cannabis edibles manufacturing site, with daily time on the production floor, at the visual management board, and in the warehouse. Gowning and PPE as required by area [hairnet and beard net, smock, safety footwear, hearing and eye protection], with full compliance to GMP, sanitation and personal-hygiene requirements and to the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act. Site access and personnel screening are governed by Olli's cannabis licence. Day shift structured around the fixed cycle - [Wednesday] refresh, [Thursday] netting and capacity test, [Friday 12:00] constraint list, [Monday] review and published sequence, and a daily attainment stand-up. Month ends, product launches and audit periods carry peak workload and occasional overtime.