EVP – Supply Chain — Export Manufacturing Platform

The mandate

A German export-manufacturing platform is implementing automated planning, supplier collaboration and warehouse systems in advance of its seasonal order peak. The EVP – Supply Chain will lead the operating transition and decide how the automation should be configured and deployed.

Approximately 2,550 employees and material partners fall within supply planning, procurement, supplier quality, inbound logistics, warehousing, trade compliance, outbound fulfilment and customer logistics. The EVP reports to the Group Chief Executive or designated sponsor and partners with operations, engineering, sales, finance and technology. Authority includes the supply-chain organisation, policies, key suppliers and programme priorities, while production and commercial commitments remain jointly governed.

Planning recommendations are only as sound as master data and rules. Lead times, minimum quantities, yield, alternates, engineering effectivity and transport calendars contain inherited assumptions. The leader will identify which fields materially drive shortage and inventory, assign accountable owners and sequence repair around live order risk. A mass data cleanse without operational validation would create false confidence.

Automation must retain human exception judgement. Engineered orders, constrained components and customer-specific documentation do not fit every standard rule. Planners need defined authority to override, record why and feed recurring exceptions back into design. Shadow spreadsheets should be removed only after the approved system can support the necessary decision.

Supplier signals require stabilisation. Repeated schedule changes can cause partners to buy material or reserve capacity that the platform later disclaims. The EVP will distinguish forecast, authorisation and firm commitment and reconcile disputed exposure. Strategic suppliers will participate in recovery; coercive term extensions or unmanaged cancellations are unacceptable substitutes for planning discipline.

Trade compliance is a design requirement. Classification, origin, licence, sanctions screening and document retention must connect to product and shipment data. Automation cannot release a load when required evidence is absent. The supply leader will work with legal and technology to establish stop authority and rapid expert resolution, including for re-export and spare-parts scenarios.

The former EVP departed after a governance disagreement during go-live. An interim leader is protecting urgent customer orders but lacks authority to resolve vendor, functional and organisation decisions. This urgent replacement will receive direct executive sponsorship and an independent programme assurance budget.

What you will own

• Stabilise planning, procurement, warehouse and logistics execution through the automation recovery.
• Reconcile master data, business rules and engineering effectivity to physical supply.
• Define planner exceptions, override evidence and system-improvement priorities.
• Restore credible supplier forecasts, commitments, capacity and disputed exposure.
• Protect customs, export-control, origin and sanctions compliance within workflows.
• Govern shortages and customer allocation with operations and commercial leaders.
• Reset programme vendors, benefits, controls and cutover authority.
• Build resilient supply-chain leadership across plants and regional logistics nodes.

The first 12 months

In the first 30 days, create a safe operating envelope for the automated systems, identify transactions requiring manual verification and protect the peak order book. Trace critical shortages and excess to data, rule, supplier or execution causes. Meet key suppliers and establish one authorised communication channel.

By month six, correct priority master data, reduce damaging workarounds and implement exception governance. Restore stable supplier schedules and automate trade controls only where evidence is complete. Rebaseline vendor commitments and quantify realised benefit separately from installed functionality. Talent changes should strengthen planning, trade and data ownership.

At twelve months, improve confirmed-date performance to 96%, reduce automation-attributable shortages by 70%, lower inventory by 15% and halve premium freight. Supplier schedule volatility should fall 40%, with no material customs or export-control breach. Ninety-five per cent of critical planning fields must have an accountable business owner and sustained accuracy across three monthly cycles.

What the sponsor will measure

• Customers protected while automation is corrected transparently.
• Planners trusting system output because assumptions match operations.
• Human exceptions controlled and used as learning data.
• Suppliers receiving stable, contractually clear signals.
• Trade compliance embedded before shipment release.
• Benefits evidenced in delivery, inventory and cost rather than software deployment.

The person

You have 18–22 years in end-to-end supply chain for industrial, automotive, aerospace or engineered manufacturing, including international export flows. You have personally led recovery from a planning or warehouse-system go-live and can distinguish technology defect from master-data and process failure.

Your prior scope should exceed €1 billion spend or revenue, 1,800 employees and partners and several international logistics nodes. Evidence must include supplier exposure resolution, planning-data repair and a compliant shipment you deliberately stopped. German and English fluency are required, with credible executive and works-council communication.

Compensation and terms

The base range is €250,000–330,000 plus annual incentive linked to service, inventory, supplier stability, trade compliance and automation adoption. This permanent onsite Munich appointment reports to the Group Chief Executive or designated sponsor and requires regular travel. Start timing should address the urgent recovery while respecting responsible handover.

Confidentiality

The platform, system vendors, suppliers, shipments, control findings and recovery actions are confidential. Technical disclosure follows suitability, conflicts and a signed undertaking. Candidates must not contact vendors, suppliers or customs intermediaries to identify the programme.