Supply Chain Graduate - Supply Chain

This vacancy has now expired, and is not accepting any new applications.

Role types
Grad Scheme
Role description

The Supply Chain function at Heinz is looking to hire graduates with the potential to become the future leaders of the Supply Chain function and the Organisation. Heinz believes it is critical to have a robust leadership pipeline and that graduates joining the supply chain programme have the ability, hunger, passion and ambition to achieve. It is also essential that they are commercially astute and have the ability to work with all of the functions at Heinz.

The Supply Chain in Heinz is organised on a European basis with European functions for all key disciplines such as Manufacturing, Logistics, S&OP and Procurement.  The centre of gravity for this team is in Zeist in the Netherlands where the Heinz Supply Chain hub is situated.  Whilst there are many opportunities for graduate roles in the UK & Ireland, any individual who wishes to develop a Supply Chain career within Heinz is expected to be geographically mobile and is likely to spend time located in the Supply Chain hub.

The role of Supply Chain is to deliver quality products in the right quantities to the right place at the correct time at competitive costs.  Within UK & Ireland there is a team of approximately 2000 people that makes sure this happens. Roles span across manufacturing, engineering, planning and logistics.  There are six manufacturing operations in the UK and Ireland – Kendal, Kitt Green, Telford, Worcester, Westwick and Dundalk.  The Supply Chain team work together to ship around 700,000 tonnes of Heinz products every year.

The diversity of Heinz’s product range, together with the size and complexity of the manufacturing facilities, presents massive scope to make a significant impact on the business. The Supply Chain function is constantly looking for ways to give Heinz a clear advantage over the competition, whether it is through customer-centricity, strengths in operational excellence or by leading the way through business collaboration.

Supply Chain Graduate Role

The two-year programme will see the graduate complete a number of rotations in Supply Planning, Manufacturing Management, R&D, Procurement, Factory Scheduling, Customer Service, Demand Planning and the New Activities team.

Rotations will include (order might vary):

Supply Planning (Zeist – Netherlands)
There is a high level of detail involved in Supply Planning.  This is the team that establishes what needs to be made and when in order to maximise customer service and minimise inventory.  This involves dealing with third party suppliers and Heinz global factories. Examples of specific projects in this area could include an NPD launch, full range change or a brand architecture re-launch.

Manufacturing Management (Factory)
This placement will involve working in a factory as a team leader, running a line of people with responsibilities which will include production plan delivery, line changes, as well as people management and development

Procurement
This placement will allow the graduate to understand purchasing arrangements and develop their knowledge of contracts.  This might be buying finished goods, raw ingredients or packaging.

Factory Scheduling
This is the team who complete the short term planning, designating which production line items should be produced on, what labour, ingredients and packaging are required, etc  An example of a situation in this role would be if an order was placed for 100 cans of Beanz, how do Heinz physically do it – ingredients required, staff, packaging, etc.

Customer Service/Product Supply (Kitt Green)
This placement will be based in the National Distribution Centre (NDC) and the graduate will work with either the Inbound or the Outbound Logistics team.  The Planners in Inbound Logistics are responsible for the movement of the finished product from the factories to the NDC.  The Outbound Logistics team are responsible for taking the customer orders and the movement of products from the NDC to the customer.

Demand Planning (Hayes Park)
During this placement the graduate will work very closely with the Sales team and the National Account Manager’s (NAM’s) for a particular category to help write their promotional demand forecasts for each product, as well as focussing on statistical development of base forecast.  This will involve the management of data as well as developing their communication and relationship building skills.

New Activities Team
The New Activities team are a project management team that manage all the new product launches and the category portfolios.  The graduate might manage the launch process for a new product and this will include everything from factory trials, getting sign off from the business, etc. Another example of a project might be analysing all the stock-keeping units (SKU’s) they have in a product portfolio and making recommendations for range developments / discontinuations etc.  Essential here is an eye for detail, data accuracy and excellent project management skills.

Rotations could last from between 3 months to 9 months depending on the team.  The graduate will spend 9 months to a year in Hayes Park and the remainder of the 2 years at other sites in the UK&I and the Supply Chain hub in Zeist.

Training & Support

On joining Heinz, the Supply Chain graduate together with graduates from across other functions will come together in a one week induction programme that includes factory site visits and presentations from senior Managers in the business. This will allow the individual to gain an understanding into the Organisation as well as each of the functions and how they fit into the operation. Following the initial training week, the graduate will start their role within the Supply chain function.

The graduate will be in a ‘real job’ and be given a large amount of responsibility. It will be up to the individual to shine and make use of all of the opportunities provided as the approach will not be to ‘spoon-feed’ information. A mentor will be appointed for additional support.

The individual will also get a considerable amount of exposure to Dave Woodward and Senior Management who will take an active role in identifying potential leadership

Throughout the scheme, the Supply Chain graduate will join graduates from other functions in group workshops to further the development of core interpersonal skills and support the business-specific technical skills gained.

Progression within the function depends entirely on the individual. High-fliers are usually earmarked by the company and graduates will be expected to be on that list. At the end of the 2 year programme, individuals will be placed in roles that take into account their performance and achievement throughout the scheme together with personal interests as well as the business needs.

As the supply chain function is moving more and more towards a European and worldwide business approach, the opportunities for exporting talent into Europe and globally have increased therefore the ideal candidate will be open and flexible to embrace such opportunities.

Requirements


• Degree: Minimum 2:1 and the preferred disciplines will be manufacturing engineering, industrial engineering, engineering and production and operations management
• A-Levels: 300 UCAS points minimum
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills
• Analytical
• Attention to detail
• Good project management skills
• Technical background
• Ability to challenge when necessary
• Good extra-curricular involvement at University
• Work experience or internships (supply chain experience is not essential)

 

This vacancy has now expired, and is not accepting any new applications.

Supply Chain Graduate