VAS Function Manager, TR Hainan DC

Description

The incumbent is responsible to lead a team that is responsible for the creation of the artworks and working instructions for China labelling, as well as the fine-tuning of the readiness checks for TR in China. With the introduction of CSAR, the majority of products shipped through Hainan will need secondary and/or primary labelling and all products need to be CSAR compliant. The warehouse itself is run by a third-party logistics provider, so the actual workload planning will be the responsibility of this 3PL. This team will be the intermediate partner between the Swiss TR Supply Chain teams and the 3PL. 
VAS is primarily focused on product labelling for China (primary and secondary language labelling), but also includes activities such as sample preparations, Not for Sale, cello wrapping, power checks, etc. 
The incumbent will be linked to QA as well TR Regulatory. The incumbent designs and ensures smooths VAS related processes and communication from a system point of view.  Quality and compliance are also key success factors, to constantly increase our service levels while avoiding costs and minimizing complexity. The incumbent must ensure, together with the third-party logistics provider, the compliance of VAS activities in the Hainan DC as well as the non-saleable DC Kunshan with all applicable regulations (Bonded or non-bonded Warehouse / local vs international HP / “Dangerous Goods” etc.).

Full functional and disciplinary responsibility for the construction of the VAS Excellence Center, with a strong focus on defining and implementing an end-to-end Chinese Label Management process including a third-party logistics provider. The different teams reporting into this position, will be responsible for Label Master data, label creation, work instruction creation, readiness reports and KPI reporting in such a way that the VAS labelling activities at the 3PL can be executed in a timely manner.
VAS and especially China labeling has become a key success factor for the workload planning and customer order fulfillment abilities, and have to establish a successful triangle with Customer Service and Operations. 
The efficient management of the workload planning combined with label creation/ordering/storing activities poses a special challenge to the incumbent due to the complex environment, highly volatile workload, high dependency of China regulations and new customers. The incumbent’s duties include responsibility for 
•    Establishing and implementing the Strategy for VAS Administration while working with a 3PL.
•    Establish close collaboration with the Quality Department, Customer Service, Regulatory, as well as the Brands.
•    Being a role model for the EL leadership principles and demonstrating active management of the individual-targets of subordinates (PDP) & team-targets. Maintenance of Skill-Matrix within the area of responsibility.
•    Leading the further development of the team towards a continuous improvement culture of safety & compliance, performance & agility, efficiency and cost, service and quality.  Initiating and/or contributing to the implementation of projects along the entire process chain in alignment with the counterpart(s) in the DC TRs.
•    Ensure compliance and adherence of artwork and work instructions with HP permit conditions and other applicable regulations.
•    Interpretation of the workload and compare needed resources for a timely execution vs. available resources.
•    VAS-Administration & driving the solution-design to integrate new requirements.
•    Documentation of Processes, Change-Requests and the Execution of User Acceptance Tests.
•    Initiating and implementing E2E label improvement projects.

•   Create Statistics/Reports and Presentations and communicate results to the team and up to senior management.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's in Economics with specialization in Logistics.

• Excellent understanding of international trade, end-to-end logistics, value-added logistics, process mapping, and continuous improvement.
• 10 years of work practice in complex international logistics with a proven track record of cross-functional project management and leadership; experience in leading people directly as well as indirectly.
• Strong background in process mapping, value stream mapping, Lean & Six Sigma.
• Ability to liaise and communicate proactively with people of all sorts of backgrounds and levels.
• Proven record of stakeholder management and able to interact with (semi-) governmental organizations (e.g. customs, aviation authorities) in a professional and sensitive manner.
• Team player, strong communicator, able to lead change.
• Strong process improvement skillsets, ideally combined with Lean Six Sigma.
• Proven track record of turning around a team/organization and ways of working to support changing business requirements.
• Team building ability and coach, track record of organizational development.
• Good language skills in English and Chinese (verbally, read & write).
• Good knowledge of the MS Office-suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook).
• Knowledge of SAP and WMS (Warehouse Management Systems), MRP, DRP and/or inventory planning.
• Strong analytical capabilities, familiar with work in a complex and fast paced environment, process-oriented thinking.
• Able to handle conflicts in a constructive way - strong interpersonal skills.
• High degree of flexibility, work independently and take the right decisions under pressure.