India is among the top ten priority markets for General Mills, and hosts our Global Shared Services Centre. This is the Global Shared Services arm of General Mills Inc., which supports its operations worldwide. With over 1,300 employees in Mumbai, the center has capabilities in the areas of Supply Chain, Finance, HR, Digital and Technology, Sales Capabilities, Consumer Insights, ITQ (R&D & Quality), and Enterprise Business Services. Learning and capacity-building is a key ingredient of our success.Position TitleConsultant – Product Project Management (Supply Planning)Function/GroupGlobal Planning Hub (Supply)LocationMumbaiShift Timing1:30 PM to 10:30 PMRole Reports toManagerRemote/Hybrid/in-OfficeHybrid: Currently 2 days in a week but need to adhere if it changes in future. Over and above days defined in hybrid, need to be in office for additional days as per business requirements
About General Mills
We make food the world loves: 100 brands. In 100 countries. Across six continents.
With iconic brands like Cheerios, Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, Nature Valley, and Häagen-Dazs, we’ve been serving up food the world loves for 155 years (and counting). Each of our brands has a unique story to tell.How we make our food is as important as the food we make. Our values are baked into our legacy and continue to accelerateus into the future as an innovative force for good. General Mills was founded in 1866 when Cadwallader Washburn boldly bought the largest flour mill west of the Mississippi. That pioneering spirit lives on today through our leadership team who upholds a vision of relentless innovation while being a force for good. For more details check out http://www.generalmills.comGeneral Mills India Center (GIC) is our global capability center in Mumbai that works as an extension of our global organization delivering business value, service excellence and growth, while standing for good for our planet and people.With our team of 1800+ professionals, we deliver superior value across the areas of Supply chain (SC) , Digital & Technology (D&T) Innovation, Technology & Quality (ITQ), Consumer and Market Intelligence (CMI), Sales Strategy & Intelligence (SSI) , Global Shared Services (GSS) , Finance Shared Services (FSS) and Human Resources Shared Services (HRSS).For more details check out https://www.generalmills.co.inWe advocate for advancing equity and inclusion to create more equitable workplaces and a better tomorrow.
Job Overview
Function Overview
The GIC Supply Chain team manages end-to-end operations, encompassing planning, sourcing, manufacturing, logistics, and analytics. They strategically plan to meet market demands, optimize sourcing, ensure efficient production, and oversee the seamless movement of goods from production to delivery. The team employs advanced analytics throughout these processes, fostering adaptability and operational excellence. This collaborative approach ensures a well-coordinated supply chain that aligns with both organizational goals and dynamic market conditions. Link
Purpose of the role
The Consultant Product Project Management provides critical support to US-based operations. This role focuses on ensuring the availability and efficient management of raw materials, both ingredients and packaging, across multiple projects and initiatives taken by the business teams.The planner is responsible for project execution support by ensuring raw material related planning system setups, risk identification, waste risk assessment, and gauging & executing mitigation efforts, if required. The planner will collaborate with a cross functional project team to assist in developing new products, executing promotions, and driving results that help ensure business success.This role will work closely with supply chain teams (demand planning, supply planning, materials management, etc.) and other cross-functional teams, including Marketing, Sales, Research & Development, Sourcing, and Manufacturing.
Key Accountabilities
100% of Time-
- Partner with cross-functional teams to support product reformulations, introduction of seasonal items, new product launches, product lifecycle changes, packaging updates, and discontinuances:
- Identify risks related to raw material availability in alignment with critical project timelines.
- Initiate and manage planning system setups for workflows in standard brand planning systems such as STEP, ECLIPS/ GCLIPS, including Bill of Material set up and changes.
- Facilitate intra- and cross-functional coordination to gather required details and ensure timely completion of system workflows.
- Ensure timely raw material order placement and monitor inventory through coordination with the Sourcing and other Supply Chain teams.
- Assess raw material wastage risks through data analysis of internal and external systems and reports.
- Perform waste risk assessments for all projects and communicate any risks or mitigation strategies to project stakeholders.
- Identify at-risk materials, validate inventory, and collaborate with teams and vendors to extend shelf life, reallocate, or return materials to minimize waste:
- Identify ingredients or packaging materials at risk of expiration, and work with supply chain teams to evaluate alternatives.
- Validate vendor and network inventory positions against production needs and work with internal teams and vendors to explore mitigation options to extend shelf life or reposition / reallocate materials to other locations.
- Collaborate with internal (supply chain & cross-functional) and external stakeholders on age extensions, donations, or third-party sales of excess or at-risk materials
- Collaborate with Sourcing to negotiate returns or transfers with vendors and external plants, if required, ensuring minimal waste and efficient resource utilization.
- Manage the raw material write-off budget, oversee the write-off process, and coordinate post write-off inventory cleanup to ensure systems accurately reflect the inventory status:
- Accountable for managing and tracking raw material write off budget monthly/yearly estimate process.
- Coordinate data collection and analysis with business and supply chain teams for building a budget for raw material write-off expenses during the annual planning process.
- Oversee the raw material write-off process, managing mitigation/dispositions through donations, sales, or third-party transfers or escalations to the business teams, if required.
- Collaborate with vendors and internal teams to coordinate age extensions and inventory cleanup and ensure accurate post-write-off inventory updates in SAP.
- Develop and manage a Continuous Improvement (CI) framework, driving process enhancements through CI initiatives, KPI tracking, and a centralized knowledge repository to improve service delivery metrics:
- Design, establish, and maintain a structured CI or Operational Excellence framework tailored to Brand Planning, with yearly process improvement goals.
- Lead and manage CI initiatives through formal program plans, including charters, timelines, and defined schedules.
- Assess and oversee brand planning processes, identifying opportunities to improve metrics, cadence, systems, tools, reliability, engagement, and quality.
- Identify and prioritize CI initiatives based on their impact on time, cost, and resource allocation.
- Track, measure, and report on improvements in service delivery, addressing process and technology gaps proactively.
- Establish and track KPIs to measure the impact of improvements, ensuring alignment with brand planning and broader business objectives.
- Build and maintain a centralized knowledge repository for essential resources, including process documentation, training materials, SOPs, best practices, and templates for brand planning activities.
- Analyse process inefficiencies & collaborate with stakeholders to implement process solutions and tools that enhance service delivery quality and drive CI initiatives:
- Identify process inefficiencies and recurring issues, leading root cause analyses to develop data-driven solutions with GIC and NAR stakeholders.
- Conduct regular meetings with Team Managers to identify and assess opportunities to enhance service delivery quality and consistency.
- Collaborate with cross-functional GIC & NAR stakeholders to prioritize and execute business improvement and digital transformation initiatives.
- Identify and recommend new tools or enhancements that align with process improvement goals, evaluating their impact on brand planning efficiency and effectiveness.
- Implement countermeasures to address process gaps, verifying the effectiveness of solutions using CI methodologies.
- Foster a continuous improvement culture by developing training programs, facilitating knowledge sharing, and promoting formal learning initiatives within the organization:
- Develop and implement training programs, tools, and resources to drive GIC team-wide adoption of the CI framework.
- Provide mentorship and support for CI training programs, offering platforms for showcasing learning and innovation.
- Promote a CI culture by maintaining a strong pipeline of initiatives and encouraging team-driven innovation and efficiency.
- Facilitate peer learning and knowledge sharing within the GIC Brand Planning team through structured knowledge-sharing sessions.
- Advocate for formal learning programs like Six Sigma certification and integrate external insights to enhance internal learning and professional development
Minimum Qualifications
- Minimum Degree Requirements: Masters
- Minimum years of experience required: 6
Specific Job Experience Or Skills Needed
- Ability to gather, visualize and analyze data.
- Strong analytical skills to draw inference and provide meaningful insights.
- Ability to translate data into actionable information.
- Advanced Excel manipulation and analysis skills (i.e., skilled at pivot table, charts / graphs, macros, solver, queries, mathematical functions etc.)
- Strong mathematical skills with good understanding of statistics
- Strong Project Management skills
- Ability to benchmark / conduct external research for the capability and process.
- Ability to execute, multi-task and deliver on commitments.
- Can prioritize and complete multiple tasks on tight deadlines.
- Experience of working with SAP – MM Module / ERP systems
- Continuous improvement mindset
- Ability to coach team members on functional insights and concepts
- Ability to connect the dots and navigate through ambiguous situations.
- Excellent understanding of Supply Chain concepts, inventory management concepts and tools, including calculating total landed cost.
- Proven self-management and time management skills.
- Excellent communication (verbal & written) and presentation skills.
- Proactive and solution-oriented approach along with ability to influence.
- Critical thinking ability to understand granularity of the situation / problem.
- Sound Decision making ability.
- Ability and agility to navigate through change.
Competencies/Behaviors Required For Job.
Workplace and Leadership competencies:
- Problem solving and decision making.
- Teamwork and collaboration
- Accountability and responsibility
- Customer focus (internal & external)
- Planning and organizing
- Enabling technology
- Collaboration
- Innovation
Academic Competencies
- Math, statistics, and analytical thinking
- Applied science and technology.
- Supply chain fundamentals
- Reading and writing for comprehension.
- Foundations of business management
Preferred Qualifications
- Preferred Major Area of Study: Operations / Supply Chain
- Preferred Professional Certifications: APICS – CSCP, Six Sigma, PMP
- Preferred years of related experience:8
Company Overview
We exist to make food the world loves. But we do more than that. Our company is a place that prioritizes being a force for good, a place to expand learning, explore new perspectives and reimagine new possibilities, every day. We look for people who want to bring their best — bold thinkers with big hearts who challenge one other and grow together. Because becoming the undisputed leader in food means surrounding ourselves with people who are hungry for what’s next.
