Assistant Manager-Trade & Logistics

Overview

The Assistant Manager, Trade & Logistics – Asia is part of the regional business partnering team for Asia in the Tiffany Global Trade & Logistics (GTL) organisation. This role requires the deft combination of both customs and logistics knowledge to meet the wider Tiffany business goal of becoming the next generation luxury jeweler.  Assistant Manager, Trade & Logistics – Asia assists the Director in balancing the compliance, cost and speed of shipments moving in and out of the following business locations in Asia (currently 13 retail markets): 

• 100+ retail stores
• 2 Manufacturing locations 
• Multiple corporate offices
• A B2C Distribution Center that supports the China E-Commerce business 
• 3 regional Tiffany Service Centers
• Multiple trade partners

Together with the Director, he/she represents GTL and partners the business for projects taking place in the Asia region. He/She will also partner closely with the Center of Excellence team in the wider GTL organisation and be the point person for all GTL data, process and dashboard projects in Asia.   He/She believes strongly in the concept of Continuous Improvement, is willing to roll up sleeves to unblock issues, and critically, will use the experience to improve the bad process that led to such blockages in the first place.

The Assistant Manager, Trade & Logistics – Asia reports to the Director, Trade & Logistics – Asia and is supported by dotted line peers as well as the GTL Centre of Excellence team. 

Strategic Supply Chain Efficiency (30%) – Provide leadership to strategic projects, and improve the supply chain to support the speed of the ASIA business.  Current highlights of this accountability include: 

• Developing business cases and project plans to continuously improve supply chain efficiency and cost control. 
• Partnering with Supply Chain team to improve the lead-time to ASIA retail stores for merchandise by leverage in-stock KPI, Fill ratio, etc. 
• Partnering merchandising team for high jewelry movements, balancing the trade-off between duty cost and speed for event planning.
• Leading both operation team and forwarders to drive the improvement of logistics lead time performance

Data, Process & Dashboard Maintenance (30%) – Actively partner the Center of Excellence team to develop globally consistent methods of assigning, capturing and analysing data for both customs and logistics areas.  Current highlights of this accountability include:

• Contributing timely and accurate HS code assignment logic rules to the GTL Center of Excellence for Retail Foundation countries.  Reviewing brokers’ entries and Finance background tables to ensure that the same set of HS codes are utilised. 
• Contributing timely and accurate inputs of MFN duty rates, FTA network and FTA rates .
• Regularly reviewing reports to detect material master data issues for high-risk countries in Asia
• Regularly reviewing shipment and store addresses stored in various Tiffany systems to reflect new, closed and relocated stores.  This involves understanding the nuances of consolidation addresses and providing correct shipment addresses for different situations.
• Developing easily maintained key performance indicators for the review of carrier and customs broker performance
• Partnering Asia Finance to develop an efficient invoice review workflow to identify wrongly billed shipments, persistent shipment creation errors, expensive/problematic lanes etc
• Maintaining the Asia Sharepoint site to promote real-time knowledge sharing, and decision-making based on common set of facts
• Maintain freight spending, duty/VAT & brokerage spending report for Asian countries on quarterly basis. 
• Assist Director to host QBR with forwarders on quarterly basis. 
• Design and build reports, dashboards and visualizations of key performance indicators (KPIs) 

Day-to-Day Supply Chain Efficiency (20%) – Actively manage shipments, dissect freight-related spend, and enable data-based decision-making. Current highlights of this accountability include:

• Partnering Creative and Store Development teams to unblock problematic shipments into the Asia.  This will involve the proactive research of HS codes and import licensing requirements.
• Partnering retail stores, manufacturing sites, offices and Distribution Centers to coax staff out of costly, inefficient and incorrect shipping behaviours 
• Partnering E-Commerce and Direct Sales to analyse our E-Commerce delivery proposition
• Maintaining SOP for Asian markets and forwarders/ brokers

Customs Compliance (20%) – Defend the reputation of Tiffany by working with the GTL Center of Excellence team to enhance customs compliance with the least possible operational burden.  Current highlights of this accountability include: 

• Maintaining the delicate balance in compliance, cost and speed, especially for high-profile shipments
• Assisting the Director in customs audit resolution and voluntary disclosures 
• Improving awareness of CITES, customs valuation, classification, and origin concepts among Tiffany colleagues located in stores and offices
• Understanding Customs policies and regulations in Asia and be well kept up-to-date to any changes in the region

• 8+ years of logistics and customs experience in multi-country environment.  Experience in an in-house role is mandatory.
• Bachelor’s degree, preferably with a numerical emphasis 
• Experience in leading large projects with tight timelines
• Deep understanding of Lean, project management and change management concepts
• Excellent IT skills, demonstrating a strong desire to “self-service” and learn new systems, rather than relying on others to extract data 
• Able to deal with uncertainty and make decisions based on best available info
• Strong interpersonal skills, with a genuine interest in working across cultures and pre-empting “lost-in-translation” situations
• Able to find ways to effectively work with a virtual team of direct and dotted line reports

We offer excellent career opportunities, remuneration and benefits to the right candidates. 

(Data collected will be used for recruitment purpose only.)

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