Assistant Procurement Operations Manager - Unilever

Global strategic sourcing of products/services, management of the sourcing of Production items – Raw and Packaging materials to ensure continuous and sustainable availability of Production items s at the right price, quality and quantity to support production and growth aspirations of the company.

Also, Marketing Materials, meeting the specified needs of the Business at the most competitive commercial terms for the portfolio Printed materials, permanent and non-permanent POS Materials and Gifting. The candidate will be part of the Strategic Global Marketing Materials team which operates in the Region.

Responsibilities

Buying Negotiations: Mostly locally sourced items and some imported items which are not regionally or globally sourced. This involves the use of appropriate techniques and knowledge to arrive at competitive prices and deals for the business.

Supplier Relationship Management: This involves dealing with each supplier in line with their strategic importance to the business thus developing better relationships and further integrating them into the supply chain process and systems.

Buying Performance Management: This involves the generation and analysis of reports to facilitate effective control and improvement of buying activities. This is done quarterly and sent to suppliers to carry them along.

Order lead-time management: This involves the management of the order cycle to ensure that the supply chain in robustly anticipated to avoid surprises.

Material Forward Planning: This is to avoid gaps in the future and to ensure that key suppliers are fully integrated to know our forward requirements.

Impact On Business

• Margins and of course company profitability is at Risk if buying prices are higher than plan.
• Market share and growth targets may be at Risk when product lines are shut due to material out of stock.
• Responsible for identifying and driving Cost Effectiveness Projects to mitigate the impact of material movement and improve margins.
• Provide key inputs for margin decisions.

Task Horizon

• Responsible for all Production items sourcing and management to all the sites and categories of the business.
• Building and managing external relationships for sustainable service delivery and performance
• Responsible for managing and monitoring regional/global deal prices and contracts in relevant areas.
• Help in identifying cost-effective alternatives that directly impact the bottom line
• Local contract agreement with suppliers and assessment of supplier performance
• Quality assurance
• Support product innovation

Business Challenges

• Managing over 1000 items while avoiding running out of any one of them
• Port congestion and dealing with difficult government agencies
• Managing cost base and in-bound Supply performance
• High import dependence
• Long lead-time, constraining innovation and impacting working capital.
• Dealing with Suppliers around the globe.
• The geographical location of the factories with one being 900km away
• Bad road network leading to high in-land cost impacting on material cost.

Professional Skills;

• Superior stakeholder management, both internal (across all hierarchies and functions) and external (with suppliers and consultants).
• Experience in contract, project and relationship management
• Experience in Make or Buy studies like Commercial Print, Promotional items and Point of Sale materials
• Proactive and positive team player
• Excellent communication skills.

Requirement

Essential

• University degree At least 5 years’ experience in Procurement or Supply Management
• Experience on large-scale change management projects

Preferred

• Experience in international assignments is a plus

Key Contacts

Procurement

• Procurement team
• Procurement operations team, Category
• Procurement operations team, geography
• UPLT

Supply Chain

• Manufacturing
• Quality
• Inbound Logistics
• Supply Chain Category Planning
• Supply Chain Innovation Planning
• MCO Demand Planning (depending on team/portfolio)
• S&OP Planning
• Import / Export

Marketing

• Brand Building Quality

External

• Suppliers
• Agents
• 3 PM and 3rd Party Service Providers

Unilever is an organisation committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you! Thus if you require any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of your application so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.