Obinna Nwodo is a Provide Chain Skilled and the founding father of the Younger Provide Chain Professionals, YSCP, neighborhood in Nigeria. His function entails managing provide chain actions to extend efficiencies, enhance buyer satisfaction, and stand out from rivals. In an interview with MARY NNAH, Nwodo shares his experience, methods, and views as a Provide Chain skilled
Provide chain administration is a multifaceted discipline that requires a complete understanding of its scope. Might you please present an in depth overview of what it entails for the good thing about the layman?
Provide chain administration is a posh discipline that entails coordinating the circulation of supplies or providers from the producer to the client. It encompasses a number of stakeholders and processes, together with requirement planning, procurement (shopping for), logistics (motion), and storage.
Your profile suggests that you simply specialize in strategic procurement and stock optimisation. What was the attraction? Might you elaborate in your experience on this space?
Properly, initially I wished to be a core logistics man. However after some time, I felt it was too “discipline” for me. I simply wished to do workplace issues. And naturally, procurement and stock optimization gave me that. I do know that it doesn’t matter what, I’d be enjoying within the provide chain.
As somebody who has taken an curiosity on this career, what specialised abilities have you ever acquired to turn into well-versed within the discipline?
To do procurement, you want to have plenty of abilities that lower throughout technique, course of adherence, administration and expertise. Expertise like threat administration, information analytics, negotiation and IT device proficiency are the place ERPs and software program productiveness suites are available. You additionally want delicate abilities that guarantee you’ll be able to handle key inside and exterior stakeholders. Essential.
Rising up did you might have function fashions that influenced your profession path?
I received’t say I had any function fashions within the provide chain as a result of I didn’t. Once I was doing my first diploma, I went for industrial coaching throughout one of many semesters and had my first publicity to procurement and I noticed the identical factor throughout my NYSC service 12 months. So I picked it up and was making an attempt to grasp it. Then someday, my Dad was chatting with me and he mentioned, “Have you learnt about provide chain and logistics?”. After that, I simply made up my thoughts and mentioned I used to be going to do that. And from there, it’s been a really intentional journey in procurement and provide chain
How lengthy have you ever been concerned in stock planning and administration, and what has been your expertise to this point? Do you use as a person or an organization?
I’ve been in stock administration for greater than 8 years. I obtained my first publicity throughout my first job to ideas like FIFO- First In, First Out, security shares, Minimal Order Amount, Reorder ranges and so forth. It additional deepened after I labored in a warehouse in Manchester as an Stock Supervisor and coordinated the automation course of for the gadgets. We went to scale back dispatch errors by 50%. Right this moment, I do extra stock optimization than administration or management and it is because I work as a Procurement Supervisor
What’s your educational background, and if you weren’t concerned in provide chain administration, what different discipline would you might have pursued?
I began at Apata Memorial Nursery and Main College. Then I went to Kings School, Lagos. Sure, I’m a part of the boys that shout Floreat! Then I went to the College of Lagos for my first diploma and my second diploma was from the College of Salford Manchester. That’s the place I obtained my grasp’s in Procurement, Logistics and Provide Chain Administration
Who’s certified to be thought-about a provide chain skilled? What abilities are important for achievement in provide chain administration and what are their duties on this discipline?
A provide chain skilled is somebody who practices within the provide chain discipline and possesses levels or certifications in procurement, logistics or provide chain. To work in a provide chain you may be many issues which embrace however will not be restricted to Demand planning, logistics administration, class administration, procurement administration, stock and warehouse administration, Order fulfilment, operations administration, manufacturing and manufacturing, final mile logistics, buyer success administration, sustainability and after-sales administration.
A whole lot of abilities are required to be a profitable provide chain supervisor however I’d point out just a few like negotiation and contracts, information evaluation, stakeholder administration, market insights and intelligence, time administration, challenge administration, operational planning, analysis and technique, price and spend evaluation.
What could not essentially be a “ability” however is essential for achievement within the provide chain is emotional intelligence. It is because it was very robust and may be demanding with very excessive expectations.
Are you able to present perception into the Younger Provide Chain Professionals (YSCP) neighborhood of Nigeria? What’s the group’s goal, and why was it established?
The Younger Provide Chain Professionals (YSCP) neighborhood of Nigeria is the quickest rising Younger Skilled Group in Nigeria with members from all sectors and throughout many industries who’re properly mentored to place the availability chain because the heartbeat for twenty first century enterprise success with the imaginative and prescient of turning into the cynosure for provide chain excellence in Nigeria. It was established as a result of I felt that there was an enormous hole between the entry-level guys and senior-level executives within the provide chain. So we launched to bridge the hole and to this point we’ve had non-public and public sector engagements and likewise assisted many professionals to safe implausible jobs.
Because the founding father of this group, how a lot of an affect do you assume your actions as a provide chain skilled have had on companies and the nation’s financial development typically?
I do know plenty of younger professionals are watching and I can not fall their hand. So I simply be myself. I’m naturally a value-oriented individual so it’s not troublesome to get into character. From the partnerships we’ve constructed, to the occasions we’ve organised, each scholarly and social by the way in which, to job creation, and plenty of probono work for various sectors, now we have contributed immensely to the social and financial properly being of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in our little means despite the fact that a few of it might probably’t be quantified.
What are a number of the present traits in provide chain administration that have to be utilized to make sure profitable enterprise operations?
Provide chains are getting extra complicated by the day. One of the simplest ways to take care of resilience is thru the adoption of expertise and data-driven processes. These will actualise deepened information for AI adoption, IoT, Robotics, augmented actuality and sustainable options.
What are the important components of stock planning and administration?
Stock administration is an integral a part of provide chain administration. It is because stock is property that straight have an effect on the underside line. The important thing components right here embrace demand forecasting, provider availability and planning, buy transparency, security inventory administration, warehouse administration techniques, information entry and evaluation and inventory reconciliation.
What are a number of the major challenges of navigating this career efficiently? Moreover, what was your most difficult second in a provide chain function, and the way did you resolve it?
Procurement and Provide Chain is hard however it’s the engine of each enterprise whether or not we prefer it or not. Excessive-flying firms are people who compete of their provide chains. There are in all probability one million challenges we at present face, however one notable instance is worth volatility brought on by excessive inflation or FX fluctuations. A really strategic approach to curb these kinds of worth volatility is to signal mounted long-term contracts. The one recommendation will likely be to create a buffer to accommodate these worth will increase. The provider will then be anticipated to strategically leverage bulk purchases and partnerships to fulfil the phrases and scope of the contract. This manner a win-win place has been created. Within the case of sudden circumstances the place both social gathering needs to declare a pressure majeure, then the foundations of termination could apply.
Other than mounted contracts, I’ve additionally used the most effective various technique known as BATNA. That is an analytical strategy to tweaking a BOQ or buy requisition for the reason that circumstances for the earlier can’t be met. A very powerful descriptions are outlined and sourced so in the long run, the choice nonetheless works fairly properly
In conditions the place warehouse shipments are unexpectedly delayed, what measures do you’re taking to deal with the scenario?
When shipments are delivered? Properly, I believe it ought to all the time be anticipated so proactive mitigative methods ought to all the time be in place. The very first thing to do right here is to speak with all stakeholders in order that they’re conscious. Right here, the information will likely be an escalation matrix. Then the precise location of the cargo needs to be decided and the brand new estimated time of supply. After this, security inventory can be activated.
How do you deal with price effectivity, and what’s your course of for managing it?
Price effectivity in the present day tilts in direction of Whole Price of Possession (TCO). Let me provide you with an instance from an article I wrote. Think about you need to buy a automobile. Choice A is N1000 and Choice B is N1500. You instantly assume that going for Choice A offers you an N500 price saving proper? It does at the moment however Choice A wants N100 month-to-month for gasoline and upkeep and Choice B wants N40. By the top of 1 12 months, you’ll have spent N2,200 on Choice A and N1,980 on Choice B. By the top of the second 12 months, you’ll have saved greater than N900 should you went for Choice B. So that you see, specializing in unit price alone isn’t all the time a sustainable approach to decide price effectivity. It must be end-to-end and even consider doable revenues.
What does the longer term maintain for provide chain professionals in Nigeria, notably for younger individuals?
Very vibrant future I have to confess. Increasingly more organisations are creating positions for strategic provide chain and procurement professionals now. Know-how can be altering the sport and that is the place the youthful technology is available in. I additionally consider that for a rustic to work then we have to get this provide chain factor proper. It’s not solely grasp scheduling with combine and quantity now, it’s the whole lot. It’s the system. We desperately want this.
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Increasingly more organisations are creating positions for strategic provide chain and procurement professionals now. Know-how can be altering the sport and that is the place the youthful technology is available in. I additionally consider that for a rustic to work then we have to get this provide chain factor proper