Consumable Planning Specialist – Integrated Supply Chain

About the role

The Consumable Planning Specialist in Japan will own demand and inventory planning for a portfolio of consumable medical products, including capital systems, procedure‑driven consumables, instruments, and service/spare parts. The role works closely with commercial, supply planning, manufacturing, and finance teams to create accurate, executable demand plans that support installations, procedures, and high service availability.

Key responsibilities

• Generate and maintain statistical and consensus demand forecasts for consumable SKUs.
• Consolidate commercial inputs such as sales orders, distributor forecasts, procedure schedules, promotions, and tenders into a single demand plan.
• Support IBP/S&OP activities: prepare demand packs, run local demand reviews, document assumptions, and follow up on actions.
• Forecast consumption tied to installed‑base and procedure volumes, collaborating with Service Ops and Clinical teams.
• Manage inventory risks including expiry, lot traceability, consignment balances, and allocation for constrained SKUs.
• Support launch planning by creating demand scenarios, validating stocking needs, and coordinating staging and allocations.
• Perform root‑cause analysis on forecast variance and implement corrective actions to reduce MAPE and bias.

Required profile

• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Business, Engineering, Statistics, Economics or related field.
• Minimum 2+ years of experience in demand planning, supply chain planning, or IBP, preferably with hospital consumables.
• Fluent in Japanese and English (verbal and written) and eligible to work in Japan.

Required skills

• Hands‑on experience with forecasting/statistical tools and advanced Excel.
• Practical knowledge of planning systems such as SAP IBP, Kinaxis, or Oracle Demantra.
• Strong analytical capability for installed‑base modelling, spare‑parts forecasting, and launch scenario development.