Job Title: Head of Supply & Third-Party Operations
Reports to: Chief Operating Officer (COO)
Location: Blue Bell, PA (N.W. Philadelphia area)
OUR COMPANY
Building upon a heritage of more than 165 years, Acme-Hardesty prides itself on its commitment to lead with trust, respect and integrity. This is why our employees provide solutions where others may only see problems. We offer refuge to professionals who value excellence.
Acme-Hardesty, a division of Jacob Stern & Sons, Inc., is one of the largest distributors of renewable palm oil derivatives and castor oil and its derivatives. The company serves as the bridge that connects customers in North America with suppliers around the world. Acme-Hardesty brings raw materials, needed by thousands of manufacturers, to create products that benefit millions of consumers.
POSITION OVERVIEW:
The Head of Supply & Third-Party Operations is a newly created position at Acme-Hardesty which will report to the Chief Operating Officer. This position will be responsible for providing supply chain and third-party operations functional leadership across the Acme Hardesty network, resulting in effective inventory management / replenishment in combination with transportation / freight and warehousing strategies achieving the Company’s overall annual operating plan objectives. Major areas of responsibility include:
- Managing and improving upon the S&OP / inventory control processes to assure leading customer service levels, while also maintaining working capital targets
- Working closely with sales to balance inventory needs across North American warehouses while also achieving the best possible total landed Costs
- Actively negotiating, managing and optimizing all third-party inbound / outbound freight – air / ground / ocean / rail - and warehousing activities / vendors
- Migrating / transforming manual processes to an automated ERP environment inclusive of change management and training / learning development
- Establishing the proper governance and KPIs across operations to capture improvement opportunities, driving excellence across the organization while also meeting budgetary requirements
- Developing and maintaining a high-performing team of professionals that each work together as a single-unit serving our customers with excellence
- Across the Operations functions, ensure proper / proactive business continuity measures are in place and ready for implementation, where appropriate.
- Ensuring full compliance with quality and regulatory requirements
RESPONSIBILITES AND ACCOUNTABILITES:
Inventory Planning & Control:
- Lead “end to end” supply chain processes from point of customer demand through sales & operations planning (S&OP), and materials management/control.
- Team with Acme-Hardesty leadership team to assure the highest level of communication and customer satisfaction is in place.
- Build a strong working relationship with Finance, Sales, Quality & Sourcing. Proactively plan for inventory and solve challenges inhibiting the highest levels of customer service, measured via On-Time-In-Full (OTIF).
- Meet financial targets / objectives.
- Establish Critical Succes Factors / KPIs, to continuously monitor success and areas for improvement across the Value Chain.
- Work to have a high level of visibility of orders, inventory status, in A-H ERP / Power BI, with current status via live feeds where feasible.
- Drive data / analytical decision making in all processes to make informed business decisions.
- Continuously develop and implement progressive material replenishment strategies to support customer service, lead-time, inventory, and financial objectives, regardless of order-type.
- Work with business leadership to manage inventory allocation process in a supply constrained environment.
Third Party Management:
Warehousing
- Actively manage all third parties / agreements / processes, to achieve a high performing network that consistently meets customer expectations / high customer-service levels.
- Actively monitor the need for / use of Third-Party warehouses, ensuring the network is designed for the most effective / efficient needs of the Company.
- Ensure that storage / movement of product takes into consideration the unique characteristics of the individual products, whether bulk or packaged goods, inclusive of all regulatory & safety requirements.
- Work to have a high level of visibility of product status in A-H systems, and live look ups, reporting available to those who need the information to best serve the customers.
- Ensure that inventory is adequately balanced among the many Third-Party warehouses to meet customer service needs while reducing the risk of obsolescence.
- Establish effective techniques to manage each warehouse against A-H Policies, with regular site visits and audits as deemed necessary.
- Ensure all storage types are adequately maintained.
Transportation (in-bound / outbound)
- Negotiate and manage all agreements, ensuring the highest levels of performance are achieved at the most efficient cost.
- Work with Third-party carriers (Air, Rail, Ocean, Truck), to ensure networks are designed and operating to ensure that the highest level of customer service.
- Strategically negotiate and implement proper broker arrangements for material in-bound / outbound to/ from the U.S., and ensure all A-H processes are effective in safe / timely transport.
- Periodically complete lane assessments to ensure that our sales organization is positioned to meet customer service needs.
- Implement a Transportation Management System to improve “live” visibility / status of shipments at both the warehouses and in-transit, and actively solve for any transportation disruptions.
- Continuously drive improvements in our cost structure.
- Ensure storage / transportation regulatory requirements are met, e.g., cold chain, hazmat, lot traceability, etc.
Management:
Continuous Improvement – ERP Transformation
- Through data / analytics, lead continuous improvement efforts across the Operations Organization to improve upon our ability to act swiftly across all of our processes, end-to-end.
- Develop an Operations Dashboard, that continuously measures critical success factors / KPIs to best identify areas requiring attention / resolution.
- Serve as the lead for Operations, as we transform into an increasingly automated environment and reduce manual activities / processes / controls.
- Implement change management techniques to ensure all resources impacted successfully transition into the new environment, and that the intent of the system is fully adopted.
- Document and train all staff on all processes, activities, controls to be implemented and ensure the documentation is maintained current into the future.
- Implement a training program, in concert with Quality, to ensure all employees training is up to date and documented per Company and regulatory requirements.
- Partner with business leadership to continuously align supply chain initiatives and direction to profitable growth strategies and initiatives.
Communications
- Develop strong relationships with key stakeholders throughout the business and become recognized as a strategic partner in driving company strategies and objectives.
- Implement methods of communications that keeps internal stakeholders, customers and third party business partners timely informed of all business decisions, flow of inventory and order management.
People Management
- Embrace and demonstrate company cultural beliefs.
- Mentor and coach supply chain leaders and oversee the professional development of team.
- Work with each employee to develop a Individual Development Plan. Ensure the plan is put into effect and followed-through resulting in both employee and company benefits.
KNOWLEDGE, ABILITIES, AND SKILLS DESIRED:
- Bachelor’s degree in supply chain management, business, or related field preferred.
- Technology (well versed in mid/higher tier ERP & Supply Chain Planning Systems
- Advanced MS Office (primarily advanced Excel) and Power BI.
- Demonstrated experience in successful supply chain transformation and S&OP leadership.
- Collaborative and influential leadership coupled with the ability to lead and manage change.
- Team building and talent development.
- Broad understanding of the full scope supply chain functionality, customer order through to product shipment.
- Financial P&L acumen as it relates to operational costs, external supply costs and working capital.
- Understands and has ability to apply lean (or similar) methodology and concepts into supply chain processes.
- Minimum 10 years of supply chain experience including senior leadership within a cross functional matrix organization across multiple sites and virtual teams.
- Experience moving products to and into the U.S. via air / ocean.
- Experience with outbound transportation including air, ocean, rail, road
- Demonstrated team building and talent development strength.
- Innovative leader, thinker, and strong demonstrated change agent.
- Excellent interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to lead problem solving and root cause analysis.
- SM or APICS certification desirable.
- Lean and Six Sigma certification desirable.
Job Type: Full-time
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- Dental insurance
- Employee assistance program
- Flexible spending account
- Health insurance
- Health savings account
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Parental leave
- Professional development assistance
- Referral program
- Retirement plan
- Vision insurance
Schedule:
- 8 hour shift
- Monday to Friday
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Blue Bell, PA 19422