This position provides centralized inventory and demand-planning support across GMS Canada, helping ensure the right products are available in the right locations while optimizing inventory investment, improving visibility, and reducing excess and obsolete inventory.
Position Summary
The GMS National Inventory & Demand Administrator is responsible for supporting the planning, analysis, and coordination of inventory and product demand across GMS Canada.
The role will work closely with Purchasing, Operations, Sales, suppliers, and GMS business units to improve inventory visibility, support forecasting and replenishment decisions, identify potential supply gaps, and help ensure appropriate inventory levels are maintained across the organization.
A key focus of the position will be balancing product availability and customer service requirements with inventory investment, while identifying opportunities to reduce excess, aged, slow-moving, and obsolete inventory.
The role will also provide centralized analytical support to the GMS Canada Purchasing team, helping translate sales trends, supplier lead times, customer requirements, seasonality, and business initiatives into actionable inventory and demand-planning information.
Key Responsibilities
Inventory Management & Analysis
- Monitor inventory levels across GMS Canada business units and locations.
- Analyze inventory positions, usage trends, inventory turns, days of supply, and product movement.
- Identify potential inventory shortages, overstock situations, and imbalances between locations.
- Support initiatives to optimize inventory investment while maintaining appropriate customer service levels.
- Identify aged, slow-moving, excess, and potentially obsolete inventory and coordinate appropriate action with Purchasing and business-unit teams.
- Support inventory balancing and product-transfer opportunities between GMS locations.
- Monitor changes in product demand that could create inventory or service risks.
Demand Planning & Forecasting
- Analyze historical sales and usage patterns to support product-demand forecasts.
- Work with Purchasing, Sales, and Operations to incorporate known projects, customer requirements, promotions, new business, seasonality, and market changes into demand planning.
- Monitor actual demand against forecasts and identify significant variances.
- Support the development and continuous improvement of demand-planning processes across GMS Canada.
- Assist Purchasing in anticipating future product requirements and potential supply constraints.
- Provide visibility into unusual or emerging demand patterns requiring Purchasing or supplier action.
Purchasing & Replenishment Support
- Provide inventory and demand information to support purchasing and replenishment decisions.
- Review inventory requirements against supplier lead times, minimum order quantities, freight considerations, and purchasing programs.
- Help identify opportunities to consolidate purchases and improve purchasing efficiency.
- Support the development and maintenance of appropriate stocking parameters for nationally managed products.
- Assist with inventory planning related to supplier transitions, product conversions, new product introductions, and discontinued products.
- Coordinate with Purchasing when changes in demand require adjustments to supplier orders or inventory strategies.
Supplier & Supply-Chain Coordination
- Work with suppliers and the Purchasing team to maintain visibility into product availability and anticipated supply issues.
- Monitor supplier lead times and communicate material changes that could affect inventory availability.
- Assist in identifying products or categories where supply constraints may create customer-service risks.
- Support Purchasing with information required for supplier forecasting and supply-planning discussions.
- Coordinate inventory requirements relating to national supplier initiatives and product rollouts.
New Product & Program Rollouts
- Support inventory planning for new products, customers, locations, and national programs.
- Coordinate initial inventory requirements with Purchasing and applicable GMS business units.
- Monitor inventory and demand following product or program launches and recommend adjustments where appropriate.
- Support inventory planning associated with Home Depot programs and other strategic national customer initiatives.
- Assist in ensuring appropriate inventory is positioned to support customer and operational rollout requirements.
Inventory Reporting & Performance Measurement
- Develop and maintain inventory and demand reports for Purchasing leadership.
- Track key inventory measures such as inventory value, inventory turns, days of supply, stock availability, excess inventory, and aged inventory.
- Develop exception-based reporting to highlight inventory conditions requiring action.
- Provide regular visibility into products with unusually high or low inventory positions.
- Support supplier and category reviews with relevant inventory and demand information.
- Assist with ad hoc inventory, purchasing, and supply-chain analysis.
Cross-Functional Coordination
- Serve as a central resource for national inventory and demand information.
- Work closely with Purchasing, Operations, Sales, Finance, and GMS business-unit teams.
- Help translate customer and sales requirements into inventory and supply needs.
- Coordinate resolution of inventory issues involving multiple GMS locations or business units.
- Support national initiatives designed to standardize inventory management and demand-planning practices.
- Promote greater consistency and visibility in inventory decision-making across GMS Canada.
Key Performance Areas
Success in the role would be measured through areas such as:
- Product availability and appropriate service levels
- Inventory turns and days of supply
- Reduction of excess and aged inventory
- Identification and prevention of potential stock-outs
- Demand and forecast accuracy
- Inventory investment and working-capital efficiency
- Supplier lead-time and supply-risk visibility
- Effective inventory positioning across GMS locations
- Accuracy and timeliness of inventory reporting
- Successful inventory execution for new product and customer-program rollouts
Qualifications & Experience
- 3+ years of experience in inventory management, demand planning, purchasing, supply chain, replenishment, distribution, or a related analytical role.
- Experience within building materials, construction products, wholesale distribution, retail, or a multi-location distribution environment would be considered a strong asset.
- Previous experience supporting inventory or demand planning across multiple branches, distribution centres, or business units is preferred.
- Understanding of inventory-management concepts including demand forecasting, replenishment, lead times, safety stock, inventory turns, days of supply, and excess inventory.
- Strong analytical and numerical skills with the ability to interpret large quantities of inventory, sales, and purchasing data.
- Advanced Microsoft Excel skills, including experience working with large datasets, PivotTables, lookup functions, inventory models, and analytical reporting.
- Experience working with ERP, inventory-management, business-intelligence, or demand-planning systems would be considered an asset.
- Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple product categories, priorities, and deadlines.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to clearly communicate inventory requirements, risks, and recommended actions to Purchasing, suppliers, business-unit leadership, and cross-functional teams.
- Strong problem-solving skills with a demonstrated ability to identify inventory issues and coordinate practical solutions.
- High degree of accuracy and attention to detail.
Key Competencies
- Analytical Capability: Translates sales, inventory, purchasing, and demand information into actionable insights.
- Inventory Discipline: Maintains a strong focus on balancing product availability with appropriate inventory investment.
- Planning & Forecasting: Anticipates changing product requirements and identifies potential supply or inventory risks.
- Commercial Awareness: Understands the impact inventory decisions have on customer service, sales, working capital, and profitability.
- Organization: Effectively manages multiple categories, locations, suppliers, and priorities.
- Problem Solving: Identifies inventory exceptions and drives issues toward resolution.
- Communication: Clearly communicates inventory requirements, risks, and priorities across the organization.
- Collaboration: Works effectively across Purchasing, Sales, Operations, Finance, suppliers, and individual business units.
- Continuous Improvement: Looks for opportunities to improve inventory visibility, reporting, forecasting, and replenishment processes.
The (range of) compensation for this position is $80,400.00 to $96,500.00Job Location: GMS Family of Locations - Concord635 Westburne Dr Concord, ON L4K 4Z1
SRS Distribution Inc., including all its subsidiaries, is committed to providing equal employment. All employment decisions are made without regard to any ground protected by applicable human rights legislation, including but not limited to race, colour, sex, gender, identity or expression, pregnancy, sexual orientation, age (except as provided by law), religion, ethnic or national origin, or disability.
If you require an accommodation during any stage of the recruitment process due to a disability, please contact Human Resources at 855.556.3221, or by email at: HR@Help.SRSDistribution.com with the nature of your accommodation request and include the Business name, location and title of the job opening. Please allow one (1) business day for a reply.
Employment offers may be contingent upon successful completion of a background check that could include a criminal reference check with law enforcement authorities, a verification of your academic credentials and an employment verification with former employers, as permitted by law.
Medical, Dental, Vision, Disability & Life Insurance, Wellness Benefits, Group RRSP, Employee Stock Purchase Program, Paid Holidays & Vacation Days, Professional Growth Opportunities, Development & Training Programs. All benefits subject to eligibility.
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