The Inventory Lead role at M-KOPA Solar is critical for maintaining high stock accuracy and ensuring the smooth flow of thousands of smartphones and solar products from receipt to customer deployment across assigned locations. This leadership position oversees all material movement and resupply operations, driving efficiency and implementing continuous improvements within the warehouse and inventory management function.
Impact and Responsibilities
As the Inventory Lead, your primary duties will include:
- Operational Oversight: Overseeing material movement, stock accuracy, and resupply operations across assigned locations, coordinating effectively between material rooms and work areas.
- Team Leadership: Leading and coordinating a team of inventory associates and officers, including task allocation, ensuring deadlines are consistently met, especially during peak periods.
- Cross-Location Coordination: Coordinating cross-location inventory activities to ensure solar products and smartphones move smoothly from the initial receipt stage through to customer deployment.
- Reporting & Visibility: Developing comprehensive reporting frameworks that provide management with real-time visibility into inventory accuracy and overall warehouse performance—data that directly informs scaling decisions.
- Strategic Planning: Planning effective stock movement strategies designed to anticipate and respond to demand spikes associated with new product introductions or launches in new territories.
- Stock Reconciliation: Leading complex processes such as cycle counts and monthly stock takes, which involve coordinating multiple team members, validating complex reconciliations, and ensuring every single discrepancy is thoroughly investigated and resolved.
- Continuous Improvement: Championing and implementing continuous improvement initiatives, including the use of 6S methodologies, recommending warehouse layout optimizations, and driving process enhancements to boost efficiency as the company scales.
- Quality Control: When a pattern in returns or defective items is spotted, validating the issue, escalating to relevant stakeholders, and recommending crucial process improvements to prevent future occurrences.
- Management Insight: Providing management with detailed insights and strategic recommendations regarding warehouse performance, potential risks, and optimization opportunities.
Qualifications and Requirements
Education:
- BA/BSc/HND qualification.
Experience & Skills:
- Demonstrable progressive experience in inventory and material handling operations.
- Proven success in a supervisory or team lead capacity, including coordinating multiple personnel and achieving measurable improvements in operational outcomes.
- Established expertise in utilizing ERP systems.
- Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel, coupled with the ability to leverage this skill to build robust reporting frameworks, analyze complex stock data, and translate inventory metrics into actionable business insights.
- A strong track record in leading operational improvement initiatives.
- Specific experience championing process optimization, implementing quality standards (such as 6S), and driving measurable improvements in accuracy and overall efficiency.
