Svp / Vp Merchandise Planning, Replenishment, Analysis And Inventory Productivity
Cleveland/Akron, Ohio Area
Reported to President and Chief Customer Officer, managed 3 VP’s and a staff of 124 directors, managers, and analysts with an annual budget and payroll. Responsible for the planning, forecasting, and replenishment of merchandise inventory for 2,500 stores and 2 distribution centers and an ecommerce fulfillment center. Key duties include merchandise planning, assortment planning, item forecasting, allocation and replenishment, promotion planning, pricing, and analysis of over 27,000 rebuy skus.• Reduced 2017 year-end asset inventory by 10% with improvements to more productive store assortments and lower warehouse inventory, while maintaining >95%+ in-stock levels.• Served as a leader supporting the Zale Corporation acquisition, including integration and harmonization of Sterling inventory management best practices. • Achieved 2017 payroll efficiencies of 13% through redesign of workflow. • Had a leadership role in combining two regional Distribution Centers with a focus on merchandise receipts, replenishment and reverse logistics.• Improved Zale gross margins through implementation of best practices from Sterling.• Reduced Zale year-end asset inventory by 8% through assortment rationalization initiatives, enhanced clearance processes and initiatives to limit unproductive warehouse inventory.• Improved clearance inventory management practices for the ecommerce channel and outlet channel stores. • Introduced a test and learn analytic tool (Applied Predictive Technologies) resulting in significant margin benefit through faster and more accurate decisions. • Chaired an inter-departmental taskforce that improved the sales comps and profitability of the regional brand stores. • Improved profitability of Ultra Diamonds acquisition, by driving development of a new and focused outlet-channel pricing/discount structure and promotional cadence. • Collaborated on the functional design, testing and implementation of Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne ERP.