Employees
Making a big difference in logistics - Supply Chain Management
Yaojun Yao is Supply Chain Manager at Eppendorf in China. Responsible for logistics and planning processes in mainland China, she ensures that products and spare parts arrive where they are needed.
Yaojun, your function is called Supply Chain Manager – what exactly do you do in your job? What does a normal day look like for you?
My team and I are responsible for the following areas: supply chain planning, inventory management, import, export, and domestic transportation.
We are in constant exchange with Hamburg and Enfield, USA, as we import our products to China from there. The exchange with the sales, marketing, and warehouse teams here in China is also very important. After all, they give us crucial information so we can plan the logistics on when we need which products, and their amounts.
Then I dive into the world of data. I always have to keep an eye on how the Chinese market and demand are developing. After analyzing all the resources my team develops a plan on how the products and logistic services will satisfy the demands and necessities of our customers for the coming period.
Besides, part of me also focuses on continuous process optimization and improvement. To minimize cost, waste and time in the supply chain cycle.
The entire team (left to right) Jusy Zhou (Supply Chain Specialist), Yaojun Yao (Supply Chain Manager), Joann Zhou (Senior Planning Specialist) and Leon He (Import & Export Specialist) in Shanghai.
What was you motivation to start a career in logistics?
To be honest, I didn't think too much about the choice of my degree program. Logistics management simply appealed to me because it sounded interesting. The decision was exactly the right one for me. The closer I am to the supply chain, the happier I am. That's why it's great to support supply chain management for Eppendorf.
What qualities should a person who wants to work in supply chain management have?
From my point of view, in addition to some of the basics such as being detail-oriented, data-driven, logical and forward-thinking, the most important quality is business sense. At its core, this is a strategy role, and we are the networker for the business because we have the entire supply chain in mind. Understanding the company with its market and customer environment is essential so that we can prioritize and make decisions in the interest of the company.