Inventory Analyst, Canada

Global Industrial

For over 70 years Global Industrial has been an industry leader providing private label and brand name industrial equipment and supplies to businesses throughout North America.

We carry over one million industrial, material handling and business products that are sold through our website, corporate sales people and full color catalogs. We are constantly increasing our product offerings to meet the diverse and changing needs of our customers. Our customers include small to large corporations, institutions, government agencies and consumers across North America.

Key Responsibilities

Inventory Analysis & Optimization

• Analyze inventory levels, turns, aging, and demand patterns across products, locations, and suppliers.

• Identify surplus, low-velocity, and at-risk inventory and quantify financial impact to working capital and margin.

• Develop and maintain inventory KPIs and dashboards (e.g., turns, days of supply, fill rate, aging, forecast accuracy).

• Perform root-cause analysis on inventory imbalances, including forecast error, lead time assumptions, MOQ constraints, and demand variability.

Forecasting & Replenishment Enablement

• Review inventory levels and replenishment signals using cloud-based planning tools, translating insights into data-driven recommendations that inform purchasing decisions.

• Partner with Product Management, Sales, Demand Planning, and Purchasing to improve demand forecasts and replenishment strategies.

• Monitor forecast accuracy and bias; recommend improvements to planning assumptions and parameters.

• Coordinate returns with suppliers for slow moving SKUs to reduce excess inventory levels and improve turns.

• Support new product introductions and product lifecycle planning to minimize inventory risk.

Working Capital & Financial Impact

• Translate inventory performance into clear financial outcomes (cash usage, carrying cost, write-down risk)

• Support Finance with inventory valuation analysis, reserves, and period-end reporting.

• Build scenarios and business cases to support inventory reduction and service-level improvement initiatives.

• Track and report progress against inventory, service, and working capital targets.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Act as a data-driven partner to Product Management, Sales, Operations, Purchasing, and Finance.

• Challenge demand and stocking assumptions using facts and analysis.

• Support S&OP / IBP processes with inventory insights and recommendations.

• Influence decision-making without direct authority.

• Work with warehouse operations teams to root cause inventory discrepancies across the distribution network.

• Coordinate promotional initiatives with Marketing to expedite the depletion of discontinued and slow-moving SKUs.

• Works cross functionally with Product Managers and Vendor Compliance to strategize and resolve supplier issues relating to on-time shipping, responsiveness, and quality.

Continuous Improvement

• Identify gaps and inefficiencies in inventory planning processes, data quality, and execution.

• Support ERP, planning tool, or BI enhancements related to inventory management

• Document best practices and standard operating procedures.

• Develop process improvement plans across the operations teams to enhance the inventory management, planning tools, and reporting capabilities.

Competencies and skills

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in Supply Chain, Business, Finance, Economics, Engineering, or Analytics.

• 3–6+ years of experience in inventory analysis, demand planning, supply chain analytics, or operations finance.

• Experience in distribution, manufacturing, or industrial environments with large SKU counts and demand variability.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to translate data into action

• Excellent verbal and written communications skills are also required

Technical Skills

• Advanced Excel skills (pivot tables, lookups, scenario modeling; VBA a plus).

• Experience with ERP systems (e.g., SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, Dynamics, Infor).

• Strong reporting and visualization skills (Power BI, Tableau, or similar preferred).

• Solid understanding of inventory planning concepts (service levels, safety stock, EOQ, lead times, forecast accuracy).

Critical Success Traits

• Business mindset: understands inventory as cash, not just stock

• Intellectual curiosity and strong root-cause thinking

• Ability to influence without authority

• Bias for action—moves from insight to recommendation

• Strong attention to detail

EEO/AA Statement