Production/Supply Chain Manager, Who Gives a Crap*

[danny alexander]

*Yes, our name is Who Gives a Crap. We're one of the fastest growing eCommerce businesses in Australia. More than that, we’re one of this country’s fastest-growing social businesses. We sell eco-friendly toilet paper (and now tissues with more products to follow) and use 50% of our profits to build toilets for those in need. As much as we love toilet paper, the reason we’re in business is the impact we’re having on the world—to date we’ve provided sanitation access to almost 70,000 people.

We have a fully distributed business with all team members working remotely (i.e. from home or a co-working space) most of the time, with a few scheduled ‘office days’ each month. We currently operate in six time zones with team members across four continents... and we’re just getting started.



POSITION OVERVIEW

Most of our growth to date has been organic—friends telling friends—and we couldn’t have achieved that without having a great quality product. As we grow, we want to improve our quality even more and ensure that our product remains best-in-class. This is why we need you!

We’re looking for someone to work with our two existing plants to design and execute production plans, improve quality control systems and manage inventory and ordering. We’re also looking to launch several new products in 2016, so a big part of your job will be product sourcing, building new supplier relationships and bringing new plants online, both domestically and abroad, as we continue to grow rapidly in 2016 and beyond.

 

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Production planning, oversight and coordination with plants, ensuring products are produced on time and to agreed upon standards
• Improving quality control systems to include quality data reporting and full product traceability at all times
• Implementation of systems to pre-empt, identify and promptly correct any operational or quality issues
• Monitoring and tracking customer quality feedback, including speaking directly to our customers when needed
• Management of inventory in five warehouses based on forecasted demand, production lead times, production capacity and transit times
• Coordination of shipping to warehouses
• Sourcing of new environmentally friendly and innovative products, materials, packaging or producers based on the requirements of the business, including carrying out environmental and ethical due diligence on new suppliers and keeping appropriate  records
• Improving operational efficiencies and reducing costs without compromising product quality
• Reporting key metrics, and achieving quality and cost targets
  

MUST-HAVES

• Proven excellence in end-to-end supply chain management, including sustainable and ethical sourcing, bringing new suppliers online, building/maintaining quality management systems and every aspect of lean production
• Experience managing supplier relationships to ensure a consistently high quality product is delivered on time and that our suppliers would walk through fire for us in a crisis
• The ability to travel internationally, especially to China, several times per year
• The ability to work flexible hours, including evenings and weekends when needed. Our suppliers don’t operate on Mon-Fri, 9-5 and neither do we. That doesn’t mean that we work crazy hours, but we need our team to be able to incorporate flexible work hours to ensure we excel at what we do
• A solid understanding of the theory of constraints is a plus, as is experience in a start-up environment
  

LOCATION
Even though this role is primarily remote, applicants from the East Coast of Australia (Melbourne in particular) and Hong Kong / China are preferable

 
SKILLS & STUFF
Production lines excite you
You’ve spent hours wondering how they get the little letter ‘m’ onto the centre of every M&M. You love learning how things are made and finding the clever tweaks that make processes and production more efficient. You don’t take “we can’t do that” as an answer, but as a challenge to work out how to create something that has never been done before.

You’re naturally comfortable in foreign countries
We like to have a regular presence at all of our production facilities, which means you’re going to be travelling to Asia regularly, building relationships, eating chicken feet (just kidding - we know where the good restaurants are!), negotiating with people that don’t always speak English, and spending time in foreign cities both large and small. The idea of travelling solo at least once every 3-4 months excites you - we think it’s a lot of fun and will join you when we can!

Your attention to detail is incredibly high
You recognise that quality comes from many many things being right, so you notice the smallest imperfections and you’re passionate about building systems to eradicate them. You’ve also already identified the imperfection in this Position Description and will let us know what it is in your application.

You ask the hard questions, but are also not afraid to give the hard answers
Things will not always go to plan. You don’t delay or sugar coat the bad news, and will happily own up to mistakes that you’ve been responsible for. You recognise that every mistake takes us one step closer to success.

You take safety seriously
You believe that production should be safe for the team working at the production facility and there are no exceptions to this.

You care about the environment
We exist to make the world a better place, and we make every decision based on this. You’ll always be on the lookout for ways to make our products and processes more environmentally friendly.

You’re always looking six months ahead
You naturally look forward to see what constraints might arise and swiftly deal with them before they can eventuate. Need to add a new plant? No problem. Need additional staff members in-country? You’ve got it under control.

 You’re adaptable and thrive in fast-paced, challenging and constantly changing environment.
We are still a start-up company and to say that every day is ‘uniquely challenging’ and completely different from every other day would be an understatement. Your role may change beyond recognition by next year and you’re ok with that.

You’re a brilliant communicator
Succinct and incisive communication is second nature to you - regardless of whether it’s with a colleague in Melbourne or a supplier in another country. This is a role where over-communicating is critical and we need a candidate who excels at this.

You’re a hard worker and a team player
Be nice, play well with others, don’t be happy with coasting...you get the drift.

You’re driven by passion
...for excellence (in everything you do). The environment. Innovation. Killer systems. Technology. Making the world a better place....oh, and toilet paper (just kidding, we don’t think anyone can be truly passionate about toilet paper, at least not until they become one of us).

You’re tech-comfy
Technology is your friend. It has the power to change businesses, lives and societies for the better and we’re constantly incorporating it in new ways to everything we do.


PERKS
Apart from the endless chuckles you’ll receive when you tell people the name of the company you work for (it’s pretty great!), there are up some upsides of a more tangible nature:

• Competitive salary with the added perk of doing good. Your salary will vary based on your experience and performance, but we like to pay our staff well
• Company-provided private health insurance
• Company-provided 9.5% superannuation contribution
• 4 weeks annual leave plus unlimited unpaid leave (just get your work done!)
• Wear your PJs to work! All the benefits of working from the comforts of your own home
• More toilet paper than you could ever use :)
  

TO APPLY
Think you’re a good fit? Woohoo! Upload your cover letter, CV, and any other materials in the form of a haiku* at http://au.whogivesacrap.org/pages/jobs. Deadline for application is 8 January, 2016.

*Just kidding, sort of. We do love haikus, but send us your application in whatever form you think best captures your experience, personality and why you’d be a good fit for the role.