Operations Director, Asia

JOB SUMMARY

The Operations Director is a key member of the Asian Leadership Team and a critical contributor to the APAC Operations team to align to strategic direction, work on local and regional objectives, and drive company success. This is to be achieved through effective leadership, building a highly engaged, empowered and talented workforce who uphold the company's values, vision, mission and brand in their daily activity.

This role is responsible for managing the effective operations across the 12 countries and 15 entities within the Asian Supply Chain, including warehousing and logistics, Inventory planning and open orders management, facilities and support to drive Westcon Comstor's ESG & ISO programme across ASIA.

The role is Singapore based and will lead an established team of 10 Operations leaders and their teams based across multiple locations across ASIA.

This will be in line with established processes across APAC and require collaboration with other regional peers. In addition, the role will need to act as a conduit between other departments, lead their team in all personal development initiatives, and develop, implement and manage change, whilst continually driving ‎business improvement.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Leadership

• Take an active role as a senior leader in the business across all areas and contribute to the leadership team proactively and constructively.

• Be the SME (Subject Matter Expert) for the ASIAN Operations

• Ensure proper cascading of organisational objectives to all levels of the team so they are enabled to fulfil our vision as a region and company.

• Act as an escalation point for the business, customers and vendors around Operational objectives, and be actively involved in resolving issues where required at a strategic and executive level.

• Actively develop and coach direct reports on all areas of performance including business acumen, people leadership and achievement of goals.

• Review talent quarterly and ensure development actions are set in place and executed within agreed timeline.

• Take an active role in team resourcing and talent acquisition.

• Development of strong relationships and open communication channels with Vendors, Resellers and relevant customs officials.

• Day-to-day achievement of MBOs, ensuring service levels (productivity, quality and Service) and working capital (DIO, Aging, EBITA) objectives are achieved.

• Analysis of team procedures, practices, and processes on a regular basis to improve team efficiency and increase customer and employee satisfaction.

• Create and implement action plans to achieve objectives in alignment with regional peers and APAC Operations Director.

Supply Chain Operations

• Responsible for the development and optimisation of the ASIAN supply chain identifying opportunities for improvement in utilisation and reduction in costs.

• Responsible for the ASIAN regions Distribution Centres and 3rd Party logistics facilities. Working with the country Operations leads to ensure company KPI targets are met through best practice lean methodology to achieve high outputs whilst managing costs.

• Responsible for the ASIAN regions Freight Carriers. Managing costs and driving carriers to ensure the company KPI targets are met.

• Responsible for in country order support team and open order book.

• Responsible for Import team ensuring our importations are correctly classified, lodged accurately and have the relevant licenses in place (Postel, Sirim, etc)

• Responsible for all RMAs back to Westcon including the process of returns to vendors and resupply to customers.

• Oversight and management of all facilities across ASIA, responsible for lease management, facility security and maintenance.

• Oversight of annual audits related to inventory and supply chain.

• ASIA Ownership of ISO certification for Quality, Health and Safety and Environment. Actively participate in Audits, IMS and Strategic reviews.

• Enforce and drive awareness and compliance with the policies, processes, procedures, and requirements aligning with business objectives, ensuring that all operations are compliant with all Health and Safety procedures and local regulations, Groups MOAs, Shipping (Export) and Procurement policies and BCP requirements.

• Prepare business analytics for Monthly/Quarterly/Annual Ops reviews.

Local Country Order Support

• Work with local sales teams, vendors and customers to ensure all orders are delivered to the central sale operations team in clean manner and to the agreed SLAs.

• Work with sales on order forecasting and prioritisation and escalations.

• Drive complete order shipments to reduce aging

Supply Chain Customer Solutions

• ASIAN SME to support and drive Supply Chain Solutions.

• Create, monitor and manage Supply Chain P&L.

• Actively participate in scoping, quoting and presenting Supply Chain opportunities.

• Customer Operational onboarding inclusive of; SOW revision, Tollgate sign off for new projects.

• Support supply chain revenue growth across APAC and in collaboration with the Global Customer Sales division.

• Manage and develop value adding configuration services.

Inventory Planning & Management Oversight

• Plan product inventory levels based on past sales history in collaboration with the global owner.

• Own stock rotation process and ensure maximisation of stock rotations to reduce aged and slow-moving products

• Work with vendor to ensure they maintain high level of performance in product quality, delivery to lead-times, order accuracy and other areas

• Run inventory analytical reporting to ensure proper management of inventory age, availability and inventory health

• Forecast inventory levels for quarter-ends and rolling 3–6-month period and ensure the inventory levels are within the desired business targets

Reporting

• Forecasting on open orders due and invoiced

• QBR vendor preparation

• SLA tracking and reviews

• Monthly Management Operational review to APAC Regional Leadership

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

The Operations Director must interact regularly with many different groups of people and must therefore exhibit a high level of professionalism and interpersonal skills at all times.

Internal:

Employees

Maintain an accessible and collaborative relationship with all employees across the organisation and be involved in areas deemed appropriate to support them in their roles

Operations Team

Day-to-day supervisory duties, Equitable workload allocation, Management of staff concerns, Ongoing personal development.

Sales Leads

Work with the Sales managers to achieve the customer and vendor objectives

Leadership Team

Peers, support in resolving issues and identifying process efficiencies across the business.

External:

Vendors

Communication of order requirements, Escalation path for customer concerns, Assist with QBR and attend where relevant

Resellers

Communication of order requirements and queries, Escalation path for complaints

REQUIREMENTS

Qualifications

• Supply Chain Certification and/or other relevant tertiary qualifications highly regarded.

• Relevant Operations Management experience

Skills and Experience

• High level knowledge of integrated ERP systems (SAP plus) - WMS and PTP modules

• Sound understanding of the IT distribution business

• Expertise in global customs frameworks, including harmonized tariff schedules, customs valuations, import VAT, and strategic goods licensing.

• Solid understanding of facilities and lease management

• Excellent customer service ethic

• Ability to engage employees in a customer and vendor focused culture

• Demonstrable ability to analyse and improve processes and procedures

• Ability to lead rather than manage

• Microsoft excel skills at an intermediate level

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Experience:

• 10+ years' experience in supply chain management and associated functions at a senior level – Regional position preferable.

• Direct experience in coaching and managing people

• Experience in IT distribution industry would be a distinct advantage

Personal attributes:

• Must be able to work independently, with little supervision

• Has a customer first philosophy

• Self-motivated with high energy levels

• Approachable and supportive of direct and indirect employees

• Act with a sense of urgency

• Must be able to challenge the status quo

• Ability and desire to coach staff members

• Great communicator.

• Demonstrable ability to develop pragmatic support processes