Our company:
Tokyo-headquartered Bridgestone Corporation is the one of the world’s largest manufacturers of tires and other rubber products as one in five vehicles in the world drives on our Bridgestone, Firestone or Dayton tires. We employ over 140,000 people around the world and sell our products in more than 150 countries.
Bridgestone Middle East & Africa (BSMEA) operates from locations in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Kenya and Ivory Coast. From these locations BSMEA covers 68 markets.
Role Summary
LSCM CENTER OF EXCELLENCE (COE)
Reporting to the Head of LSCM BSMEA, the CoE Manager is responsible for the Strategic aspect of the value chain, driving value and optimizing processes/tools/data management/procedures with the spirit of standardisation and continuous improvement.
The LSCM COE function will have Three Key Streams:
- LSCM Strategic Initiatives: Working within MEA and EMEA collaborate on various Network Design, Logistics Service Level/Cost Improvement Projects, Digital Innovation Tool deployment, including Data Integration and Master Data Management (e.g. Robotic Process Automation, KPI Mgt) with a strong linkage to EMIA COE Function and their strategic initiatives
- MEA Procurement: Manage LSCM OPEX spend (Logistics) and Identify Opportunities, Manage Supplier Master, Manage & Implement Bridgestone Procurement Policy
- Continuous Improvement: Drive Kaizen events to improve and scale up processes / tools to improve efficiency, visibility and accountability.
In short, this function involves taking action to provide added value and optimize supply chain / business processes, tools and policies.
Role Requirements:
Degree qualified, with over 5-10 years’ experience as team leader, experience in Continuous Improvement, Procurement, Logistics and Network Design, Digital Tools (ERP Systems, BI Tools, RPA). As Center of Excellence Manager, a big part of your job is to define standardized work for business processes to drive accountability and improvement opportunities.
You must also monitor performance through key performance indicators (KPIs), detect and suggest problem resolution as quickly and accurately as possible, as well as manage and drive high performance.
Key qualities: You must have constant quest for innovative improvement, rigor, excellent relational capacities for managing teams and faultless sense of organization.
Analyze Business Processes
LSCM CoE Manager must drive change across the organization and in collaboration with stakeholders. First by analyzing existing business processes using various methods such as Value Steam Mapping, Six Sigma, Gap Analysis. This allows them to find opportunities for improvement as well as losses, which they troubleshoot further to determine root causes / corrective Actions.
Deploy and monitor the Bridgestone Procurement Policy which includes analysing, evaluating supplier bids/ quotations support supplier negotiation and commit to purchases (within established limits of authority) with terms that are in the organization’s best interest.
Develop Strategies
Act as a business consultant, supporting the development of short- and long-term strategies/policies for the organization. The goal is to facilitate progress (service level up) and reduce costs, both in terms of sales and workflow inefficiencies.
Lead Activities
It’s the job of CoE to coordinate and lead key projects for improvement across all levels of the organization. They may supervise several teams directly or collaborate with managers to re-engineer processes.
Monitor Progress
A crucial aspect of the continuous improvement methodology is monitoring progress in order to check if changes yield desirable results. Establish measurable standards at the start of a project and then compare actual project results against these, regularly generating detailed update reports for management.
Major responsibilities:
- Design and Lead Collaborative Improvement Projects to drive more value in the supply chain (lead Kaizen events)
- Deployment and Governance of Bridgestone Procurement Policy business wider specifically manage the OPEX spend on Indirect Commodities/Logistics Cost
- Develop Processes and Digital Tools to set up data collaboration platforms internally and externally
- Champions change and effectively manages the implementation of new ideas
- Structure / Centralise / Improve Data Management and Structure – Supplier, Customer, Order, Performance, Cost
- Identify and champion the best solutions that meet the goals with best-in-class supply chain systems
- Promotes and embodies company core values and policies, implementing the guidelines as well as fostering talents in the team and exploiting bottom up contributions
Required capabilities
- Proven leader with ability to :
- think strategically, with drive and focus execution
- build solid and collaborative relationships with team members (internal and external), foster a productive team environment, quick learner and result oriented
- deal with ambiguity and uncertainty
- lead others through complex situations.
- Lead transformations
- Have a strong project management methodology background, including schedule, scope, issue and risk management experience, change management, strategic planning and analysis
- Deliver strong business results by taking an End-to-end approach
- Ideally have an expert understanding of supply chain processes and tools. Drive organizational buy-in and facilitate change management
- Analytical approach while managing priorities & tight time pressures
- Problem Solving
- Fluency in English is essential, Arabic/French is an advantage
Bridgestone Behaviors:
Qualified candidates need to demonstrate the following behaviors:
- Agility – to work in a matrix, complex and fast paced environment.
- Courage – to share ideas, challenge the status quo.
- Ownership – to see the bigger picture and take ownership by thinking and acting beyond the role (self-starter).
Bridgestone Leadership Essence:
Qualified candidates for this important position will therefore need to demonstrate the following:
- Establishes strategic direction and effectively communicates the vision: Communicates a clear and inspiring vision for the business; drives competitive and innovative strategies and is able to generate alignment against the strategic direction
- Demonstrates business acumen to achieve results through others: Understands, educates and applies the fundamental business concepts by which a company operates in order to deliver results and create a climate that fosters personal commitment to excellence
- Promotes and enhances company culture: Champions the organization’s shared values and beliefs
- Effectively manages across cultures: Achieves effective collaboration, alignment, and communication across multiple dimensions of cultural diversity
- Demonstrates self-awareness and emotional intelligence: Recognizes one’s personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and limits. Understands emotions and their effects
- Intellectually curious in support of learning agility: Actively identifies new areas for learning; regularly creates and takes advantage of learning opportunities; uses newly gained knowledge and skill on the job and learns through their application
- Embraces and leads change and innovation: Encourages different and innovative approaches to address problems and opportunities; facilitates the implementation and acceptance of change within the organization
- Identifies and develops organizational talent: Attracts high calibre diverse talent , leads and guides others to accomplish organizational goals and objectives through on-going development and collaboration
