SUPPLY CHAIN OPERATIONS MANAGER, SEA & JP

Role Overview

Supply Chain Operations Manager, SEA & JP leads CPFR(Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment) process with distributor partners across South-East Asia and Japan cluster. The role focuses on establishing reliable distributor data flows and actionable performance metrics, and ensuring demand visibility, product availability, inventory health and supply reliability by connecting distributor plans with General Mills commercial and supply chain processes.

The role partners closely with General Mills teams(Demand Planning, Supply Planning, Customer Service & Logistics, Supply Planning, Commercial, Finance, Marketing, COE and Global Business Support) and distributor supply chain and commercial teams. The CPFR Manager establishes a consistent operating rhythm, recurring planning and review routines, ensures high quality collaborative plans with distributors, improves alignment between General Mills and distributors on IMS, shipment, inventory and replenishment plans along with KPI’s and drives timely action on risks and opportunities.

Job Description

1. Distributor Collaboration and CPFR Governance

• Own the CPFR process and operating model for the assigned distributor markets & cluster
• Establish clear ways of working, meeting cadence, roles, decision rights, inputs, outputs and escalation paths
• Build trusted working relationships with distributor supply chain, commercial, customer service and logistics counterparts
• Lead regular joint planning reviews and ensure required inputs, decisions and actions are clear and timely
• Support distributor partners and planning teams on CPFR principles, forecast quality, inventory management including data requirements, ways of working, GMI processes and order placement timelines and performance tracking
• Build distributor planning maturity through standardized routines, data, performance management and joint accountability
• Ensure the distributor forecast collection, challenge and consensus process at the appropriate market, brand, SKU and time-horizon level
• Ensure distributor demand signals are mapped with commercial plans, promotions, launches, seasonality, market intelligence and historical consumption. Ensure commercial events, launches, portfolio changes and market risks are reflected in the planning cycle
• Drive distributor adherence to agreed order placement timelines per brands/plants
• Monitor distributor inventory (on hand and in transit), stock cover, open orders, and projected availability and ensure they are rightfully reflected in all relevant GMI tools
• Monitor actual sales, stock, shipments, orders, and forecast changes to identify risks and opportunities early
• Define and maintain replenishment parameters in partnership with distributors and internal planning teams
• Provide clear inputs to market or cluster S&OP forums and other business decision forums

2. Business Outlook, Service, Inventory and Supply Risks Management

• Ensure a high quality 12-month rolling IMS outlook to be built with the distributors with identified and actioned risks and opportunities
• Collaborate with demand planning team to identify and improve forecast gaps, demand volatility, supply-demand imbalances and projected service risks
• Coordinate recovery plans for stock-outs, excess inventory, slow-moving or aged stock, supply constraints, expedites and order changes
• Escalate risks with the business impact, recommended action, decision owner and timing
• Ensure order stability and reduce avoidable expedites, delays, cancellations, stock-outs and inventory build-up
• Support scenario planning and quantify the implications of key assumptions, risks and decisions

3. Performance Management, Analytics and Continuous Improvement

• Define and maintain dashboards covering forecast accuracy, forecast bias, primary and secondary service levels, stock-outs, stock cover, inventory health, order adherence and action closure
• Establish performance baselines and targets for each distributor
• Analyse trends and root causes of forecast error, service failures, inventory imbalances and planning instability and lead corrective actions with the appropriate internal and external stakeholders
• Improve and standardize data quality, master data discipline, reporting automation and planning transparency
• Measure the impact of improvements on service, inventory, cost, planning stability and distributor collaboration

4. Cross-Functional Leadership and Business Integration

• Influence internal and external stakeholders without relying solely on direct authority
• Lead through influence across a matrix of distributors and General Mills stakeholders
• Share best practices across markets and contribute to capability building within the distributor-market supply chain organization
• Demonstrate General Mills leadership behaviours by acting with pace, prioritizing what matters, winning as one team and doing the right thing, all the time

Key Performance Indicators

• Distributors forecast accuracy and forecast bias (M-3)
• Case-fill rate, primary and secondary service level, availability and stock-out rate
• Inventory coverage by distributor and category
• Order adherence, order stability and schedule change frequency
• CPFR action closure and process compliance
• CPFR maturity rating per distributor

Qualifications, Skills & Experience

1. Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Business, Engineering, Economics or a related field
• Master’s degree or APICS/IBF certification is a plus

2. Experience

• 3-5 years of experience in demand planning, supply planning, customer collaboration, replenishment, logistics or end-to-end supply chain
• Proven experience working with distributor-led markets or distributors managing CPFR or planning processes across multiple geographies
• Practical experience with CPFR, S&OP / IBP, forecasting, inventory management and exception-based planning
• Experience leading cross-functional projects and influencing stakeholders without direct authority
• Experience in fast-moving consumer goods or a similarly demand-volatile, multi-SKU environment is preferred

3. Skills

• Define and maintain dashboards covering forecast accuracy, forecast bias, primary and secondary service levels, stock-outs, stock cover, inventory health, order adherence and action closure.
• Strong analytical and numerical ability, proficiency in Excel and planning tools (SAP APO/IBP, OMP)
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills across functions and regions with effective negotiation skills
• A proven “doer” who acts with speed and agility to deliver results
• Deep understanding of forecasting methodologies, in market, shipment and inventory dynamics and S&OP processes
• Attention to detail, strong organizational skills, and ability to work in a dynamic environment
• Fluency in English