Associate Director - 3PL Operations Strategy at Eli Lilly and Company

At Lilly, we unite caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world. We are a global healthcare leader headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Our employees around the world work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to our communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. We give our best effort to our work, and we put people first. We’re looking for people who are determined to make life better for people around the world.

The North American Logistics Operations (NALO) organization is based out of Plainfield, IN and is responsible for providing oversight and direction for all warehouse activities at the Plainfield (IN), Fresno (CA), and Enfield (CT) Distribution Centers as well a growing third party logistics warehouse network (3PLs) while serving a diverse customer base, including US wholesalers, US sales representatives, LillyCares recipients, government and Alliance customers, and Eli Lilly Export.  NALO is also responsible for serving as the Center of Excellence (COE) for the United States and global logistics network.

This role supports the needs of the North American Logistics Organization and its third party partners.  The successful candidate will be able to understand warehouse and manufacturing operations in the pharma/cold chain space, assess gaps and implement processes, programs, and productivity improvements.  This role is an informal leader to ensure 3PL needs are understood and their performance is met based on identified needs from Lilly, our customers, and our patients.  The individual will design and provide business critical information/processes related to finished goods customer service and inventory management to Wholesalers, Global Supply Chain, Manufacturing, and Affiliate management.  Additional responsibilities include third party logistics distribution centers management, supporting new product launches, metrics reporting, and inventory management as well as operational escalations. In addition, this role provides extended business and systems knowledge for all order processing and execution of shipments.  This will include a customer base (both internal and external) of US wholesalers and direct retail accounts, government customers, Alliance customers, and other third parties. To meet these customer requirements, this position requires an understanding of the pharmaceutical industry, distribution, manufacturing and sales practices as well as logistics/traffic, warehousing, regulatory compliance (including PDMA, cGMP, Sarbanes-Oxley and Special Security Substance administration) finance, manufacturing, quality assurance and all associated systems.

Key Objectives/Deliverables

Safety/HSE

• Performs tasks in a safe manner – follow all ergonomic guidelines including early reporting of injuries.
• Contributes to advancing safety in NALO.

3rd Party Logistics Coordination

• Influences outcomes with senior leadership in manufacturing and quality to better align Mfg/Distribution/Affiliate on supply, inventory, and product transition issues.
• Works closely with Lilly’s third party logistics partners for inbound and outbound transportation and inventory management
• Facilitates any building facility management needs
• Key contact with Lilly Distribution QA to ensure processes are followed and issue resolution are adhered to
• Becomes a key point of contact for Lilly Global Supply Chain and both domestic and international manufacturing and distribution facilities
• Supports the procurement process with onboarding third party logistics companies and integrations within our organization
• Develops tactical project improvements with current third party logistics companies
• Ensures working relationships are maintained with thorough and regular communications and meetings
• Certifies controls and documentation for changes and updates are synchronized across all departments in NALO (Quality/Safety/Engineering etc) relating to third party logistics.
• Collaborates with other NALO supply chain managers on inventory duties for domestic fulfillment as needed ensuring the highest possible OTIF to our customers
• Coordinates with 3PL site and organization leadership on a daily basis for daily executional needs and escalations
• Partners with NALO transportation for coordinating of shipments for inbounds of manufacturing sites and outbounds to customers and patients
• Able to work through challenges on system interface issues due to serialization, EDI etc.
• Assist in internal and external audits for various agencies and functions

Process Ownership/Continuous Improvement

• Leads and participates in projects to improve productivity of and NALO distribution operations (including designing new processes around inventory management, simplification of existing business processes, streamlining, etc.).
• Designs new processes when needed by the business.
• Serves as a process owner for key inventory related processes involving 3PLs

Metrics/Communication

• Actively supports requests from Affiliate and Supply Chain/Mfg for daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly and ad-hoc customer shipment and inventory reports and other metrics related information as well as metrics management for quarterly business reviews with the 3PL

• Ensure all processes are documented and KPIs clearly defined.
• Comply with all Special Security Substance, Sarbanes-Oxley, cGMP regulations, PDMA, and other regulatory requirements. This includes RedBook.

Inventory Management/Supply Chain

• Thorough understanding of inventory management and supply chain functions and capable to represent the team to global supply chain groups, local mfg plants, to perform local supply chain and inventory management functions.

Responsible for ensuring data integrity and good documentation practices while performing job tasks.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree
• 5 Years Experience in Distribution, Supply Chain, Procurement, or similar
• Demonstrated ability to work cross-functionally
• 2+ years experience in SAP and/or WMS systems

Additional Skills/ Preferences

• Manufacturing/Distribution experience in a pharmaceutical environment preferred
• APICS CPIM certification
• Experience with serialization in pharmaceuticals
• Experience with digitization implementation
• Demonstrated learning agility, excellent communication skills and ability to influence
• Strong Excel, PowerPoint, PowerBI background; able to turn data into information at multiple levels and across functions

Additional Information

Role will split time between 3PL locations (Indianapolis area) and Plainfield, IN distribution site.  Up to 10% additional travel may be required.

Eli Lilly and Company, Lilly USA, LLC and our wholly owned subsidiaries (collectively “Lilly”) are committed to help individuals with disabilities to participate in the workforce and ensure equal opportunity to compete for jobs. If you require an accommodation to submit a resume for positions at Lilly, please email Lilly Human Resources ( Lilly_Recruiting_Compliance@lists.lilly.com ) for further assistance. Please note This email address is intended for use only to request an accommodation as part of the application process. Any other correspondence will not receive a response.

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