Abhishek Mandal

Demand Planning & Inventory Operations professional with 5+ years' experience in retail, FMCG, and e-commerce, specializing in forecasting, S&OP, and inventory optimization. Skilled in building data-driven planning frameworks to improve forecast accuracy, optimize stock, and enhance service levels.

DEPUTY MANAGER (INVENTORY PLANNING OPERATIONS) at RELIANCE JEWELS (2022-05 – Present)

• Owned end-to-end demand planning for a portfolio covering 3000 kg of gold and 70000 cts of diamond annually across a pan-India retail network.
• Designed and implemented weekly S&OP strategy to optimize the Bullion requirement plan.
• Defined inventory norms at both company and AKU levels in response to fluctuations in gold prices.
• Developed weekly GAP analysis framework to systematically identify and bridge stock shortfalls for gold and diamond jewelry, enabling proactive order placement.
• Developed interactive dashboards in Power BI and Excel to track key inventory KPIs (stock turns, ageing, sell-through), delivering actionable insights that enhanced management's decision-making.
• Ensured stock alignment across AKUs by redistributing excess inventory through pullbacks or inter-store transfers to bridge stock gaps.
• Drove non-moving inventory clearance through timely discounting and melting decisions, recovering working capital tied up in aged stock.
• Categorized designs into Head, Belly, and Tail segments to underpin Model Stock development, ensuring planogram alignment with sales velocity.
• Improved stock turn ratio from 1.2x to 1.6x across gold and diamond categories through demand-led allocation and structured liquidation of non-moving designs.
• Projected Annual Operating Plan (AOP) through SAP IBP by integrating historical sales, Gold price trends, margin & Gold purity into year on year inventory forecasts.

DEPUTY MANAGER (INVENTORY OPERATIONS) at GROFERS INDIA PVT. LTD. (Blinkit) (2021-06 – 2022-05)

• Designed a new demand forecasting logic for Fresh & Vegetables (FnV) sourcing at Central Processing Centers (CPCs), improving forecast accuracy for perishable SKUs.
• Streamlined vendor network and standardized daily PO workflows, enhancing coordination across CPCs, vendors, and dark stores.
• Collaborated with technology team for designing an ARS model to forecast the quantities required at the forward dark stores.
• Conducted demand-supply analysis to align procurement with regional consumption patterns, reducing excess inventory and improving turnover.
• Maintained 90%+ availability of all dark stores pan-India, minimizing stockouts of FnV items.

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT TRAINEE at FERRERO INDIA PVT. LTD. (2020-06 – 2021-06)

• Led pan-India Distributor Consolidation project — consolidated C-category distributors with nearby A/B distributors across all regions, improving distribution efficiency for 500+ outlets.
• Achieved 100% temperature monitoring compliance for ad-hoc vehicles, ensuring cold chain integrity for Ferrero's premium chocolates.
• Coordinated with 19 CFAs to geo-tag all distributor locations, building the foundation for route optimization and territory planning.
• Conducted Cost-Benefit Analysis of CFA-distributor realignment, identifying savings of Rs. 12 Lakhs annually in outbound logistics costs.

MBA in Operations Management – Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management, Pune (2018 – 2020)

B.TECH in Mechanical Engineering – NMIMS, Mumbai (2012 – 2016)