Logistics Manager/ Operations Lead at Roche Kenya

The Position

• Roche Diagnostics in Nairobi or Lagos is seeking an Operations Lead to lead the Operations function for the East and West Africa region. You will be responsible for meeting the market demand, managing working capital components of inventory and reduce supply risks and will lead the team to deliver stretch targets and continuously improve and innovate processes to achieve the company growth targets. You will be responsible for Supply Planning, Inbound Logistics, 3PL Distribution, Warehouse Management, 3PL Relationship Management, Customer Experience and overall supply chain operations. You will also be accountable for Supply Chain Operational Excellence Improvement Plans.

Key Challenges

Supply Chain Management

• Review or update supply chain practices in accordance with new or changing environmental policies, standards, regulations, or laws.
• Ensure alignment of activities to support delivery across countries & working alongside operations and support teams.
• Select transportation routes to maximize economy by combining shipments or consolidating warehousing and distribution.
• Monitor forecasts and quotas to identify changes or to determine their effect on supply chain activities.
• Implement new or improved supply chain processes.
• Collaborate with other departments, such as procurement, engineering, and quality assurance, to identify or qualify new suppliers.
• Define performance metrics for measurement, comparison, or evaluation of supply chain factors, such as product cost or quality.
• Analyze inventories to determine how to increase inventory turns, reduce waste, or optimize customer service.
• Develop procedures for coordination of supply chain management with other functional areas, such as sales, marketing, demand planning, finance, production, or quality assurance.
• Design or implement supply chains that support business strategies adapted to changing market conditions, new business opportunities, or cost reduction strategies.
• Confer with supply chain planners to forecast demand or create supply plans that ensure availability of materials or products.
• Document physical supply chain processes, such as workflows, cycle times, position responsibilities, or system flows.
• Oversee compliance in regards to the export controls
• Identify and assess risk areas and implement mitigating measures to ensure customer experience and business continuity
• Adopt and implement regional supply chain standards, including QA and SHE standards

Relationship Management

• Appraise vendor manufacturing ability through on-site visits and measurements 
• Negotiate prices and terms with 3PLs, or freight forwarders in collaboration with procurement.
• Monitor supplier performance to assess ability to meet quality and delivery requirements.
• Meet with suppliers to discuss performance metrics, to provide performance feedback, or to discuss production forecasts or changes.
• Lead negotiation and conclusion of contracts with suppliers over major agreements working with regulatory, legal and internal stakeholders to ensure business requirements are met.
• Promote horizontal integration of cross functional teams
• Active participation in Supply Chain.

Customer Experience

• Regularly assess how the organization's sales, marketing and service departments work together to deliver seamless customer service. 
• Work with customers or client teams to continually understand, define and then refine the customer base. 
• Employ a variety of analysis tools such as best practice surveys to improve customer experiences. 
• Gather customer feedback, analyze it and then design specific practices that the organizations can put into place positively impacting customer satisfaction
• Champion opportunities to consistently Improve the customer experience
• Map the customer journey and identify opportunities to proactively intervene on the client’s behalf
• Promote ease of doing business through innovative solutions (Automation; digitization)
• Regularly partnering with customers in collaboration with Sales to promote needs identification, innovative solutions and latest technological advancement.

Staff Leadership & Management

• Promote exceptional customer experience through staff, staff  development, assessing and/ or implementing latest leading industry innovations and improvements.
• Define staff requirements by reviewing the workload, defining work allocations and developing job profiles.
• Resource the team by retaining, recruiting, selecting and appointing staff as required.
• Induct staff members by managing the development of an induction programme, monitoring performance and supporting the development of new staff members.
• Manage the performance of staff by agreeing performance expectations, building relationships with staff, motivating staff, providing staff with feedback, supporting staff development, addressing areas of non-performance and implementing corrective action monthly and as required.
• Develop staff members by consulting with staff to identify learning areas and paths, supporting the development of the staff member, coaching and mentoring and tracking impact of learning.
• Manage the implementation of HR policies and procedures by tracking compliance, identifying areas of concern and implementing corrective action as required.

You, as an ideal candidate, will have the following skills, experience and education:

• Qualification: Qualification in Supply Chain, Business Management or equivalent.
• Experience: 5-7 years experience in supply chain / operations, ideally in a Pharmaceutical or Diagnostics environment with 3-5 years management experience.
• Required Knowledge: Cold Chain processes and best practice, SAP and Project Management.