Inventory & Warehousing Manager at Engie Africa

The Inventory & Warehousing Manager in Africa Operations is a critical resource to support the ambitions of EEA to improve and better control our inventory working capital, to implement policies on inventory management and storage / warehousing, as well as leverage working capital tied in inventory to support country’s profitability goals. The incumbent is a link between operations and finance at global & country level, to ensure unified and reconciled inventory information is booked in EEA’s accounts, as well as implementing improvements in the inventory reconciliation and increase visibility in the process.

This is an exciting role which requires creativity and strategic visioning as well as operational execution and cross-functional work with internal key stakeholders and external partners.  

Responsibilities 

• Work closely with Country Heads of Operations to ensure full implementation of inventory control policies for both forward and reverse logistics products.
• Establish seamless warehousing/storage strategies to facilitate movement of EEA’s products across the forward and reverse logistics value chain – globally investigate and propose sustainable and cost-efficient warehousing solutions e.g., bonded warehouses for respective EEA markets including strategies to outsource/handle in-house such functions / activities.
• Together with alternative warehousing strategies, establish TCOs (Total Cost of Ownership) models for centralized kitting activities for further cost optimization in Africa.
• Implement all necessary policies, principles and standards in storage and warehousing for EEA’s products including but not limited to; 5S (among other lean principles), storage and handling policies, warehouse audit principles, insurance, health and safety in storage areas, security.
• Interact with countries to improve and streamline the inventory reconciliation & accounting processes, including the cross-pollination of good practices that allow the implementation of standardized adoption of inventory reconciliation policies across EEA’s markets (valuation, revaluation, devaluation methodologies). Become the conduit for global inventory validations between global operations and finance teams.
• implement necessary strategies to close gaps in the inventory management process and reduce inventory losses in all EEA markets. Monitor stock losses and leakages (shrinkage) and provide a holistic/global view on a regular basis.
• Work closely with country operations teams and the S&OP process to better optimize working capital tied in inventory for all EEA markets, including creating, analyzing and implementation of strategies to optimize stock levels, deplete Slow-Moving & Obsolete (SLOBS) Items to help with the profitability (EBIT) targets of EEA markets.
• Leverage data analysis to provide a holistic monthly, quarterly, annual, and future view of inventory status of EEA including active / aging inventory pyramid, write-offs, and necessary KPIs and metrics to improve the health of inventory management in EEA.
• Facilitate adoption of critical systems and tools for inventory control (in-house digital platform, SAP, outsourced tools); streamline in-system product handling including part numbers, serialization, version management (working closely with lean operations functions and upstream supply chain and other key stakeholders) – bring all countries to the desired level of digital inventory tools adoption and alignment.
• Organize necessary capacity building and training for markets on all matters pertaining to inventory control and warehousing management practices.
• Manage necessary short-term deliverables and long-term projects on inventory management in close coordination with the Transversal Project Management team and other key-stakeholders in the inventory management value chain in EEA.
• Represent EEA Operations community in all necessary platforms and discussions concerning inventory management and warehousing.

Knowledge and skills  

  Experience: 

• Minimum 5 years of experience (of which minimum 3 years of proven leadership experience) in inventory management, international supply chains, operations management, warehousing and storage management, and logistics management.
• Strong experienced in inventory management, working capital control, storage and warehousing improvement and principles; outsource/inhouse CBAs and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO Models).
• Strong data analytics skills with ability to use multiple tools to analyze inventory positions, working capital, and important stock management KPIs.
• Technical knowledge of formulating and implementing inventory and warehousing related policies, processes and procedures suiting multiple operations to increase efficiency of the planning function.
• Project management skills to facilitate short-term and long-term inventory management strategies.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to interact closely with multiple cross-functional teams to influence desired outcomes.
• Knowledge of managing inventory & warehousing for decentralized asset forward & reverse logistics setups is an advantage.
• Able to travel regularly to support countries to implement necessary inventory management strategies & maintain functionality of such from the operational perspective.
• Tech-savvy experience and practice with digital tools & scalable platforms / solutions for inventory management.
• Ability to work independently in fast paced and scattered value chain environments.

Qualifications: 

• A bachelor’s degree in Logistics Management, Supply Chain Management, inventory management or related fields.
• Professional Certifications in supply chain, Inventory Management, Transport & logistics e.g., CSCP, CLTD, CILT, CPIM, CMA, ASCIM or related are preferred.
• A master’s degree in project management, operations management, supply chain and logistics management or related field is an added advantage.

Language(s):  

• English 
• French is a plus 
• Portuguese & German are a plus

 Technology: 

• Advanced MS Office User; Excel, Powerpoint, Word, Project.
• Working knowledge of data analysis tools; tableau, SQL queries etc.
• Knowledge of inventory management and ERP systems, e.g., SAP,