Laban Ngatia

Established IT and Business Operations professional with 15+ years’ experience in tailoring solutions to complex global challenges within Supply Chain and Logistics industry.

Attentive and dynamic leader adept in leading & driving Global FMCG projects, collaborating with stakeholders and assuring service excellence. Influential communicator with ability to enhance customer experience, negotiating significant contracts with vendors, and liaise with various departments to drive continuous improvements. Leverage expertise in ERP

Implementations (SAP and Oracle), Business Separations, change management, digital transformation to accelerate profitability and business growth.

Consultant – Lipton Teas & Infusions July 2023 - Present

Post go live Transition & Stabilisation (Logistics)

3B EUR Global business Separated from Unilever now in Stabilisation Phase. Working within the Lipton Europe Logistics team which consists of 9 country locations, where all 3PLs are integrated with Lipton S4 HANA system each having at least

10 interfaces. Core objective of my role is to lead the Stabilisation of IDOC management, drive post go live system changes

(S4, 3PL and Integration partner) as well as continuous improvement.

• Loss tree analysis documentation for critical IDOC failures, Root causes and Solutions. Key document as input for handover of IDOC management to 3rd party resources.
• Drive Post go live system integration changes which has allowed onboarding of a key customer account in the

Netherlands (one of top 5 largest Europe customers for Lipton).

• Drive Stabilisation governance structure and Daily stock reporting analysis for Europe Logistics. Through daily rigour with Logistics leads, stock variances with 3PLs have reduced from an average of 5% to < 1.5% in 2 months.

Consultant - Elida Beauty at Unilever.

Global Supply Chain R&D Transformation Lead 2022– Mar 2023

Programme leadership for the Supply Chain at Elida Beauty (1b EUR business with 400 employees) which is in process of separating as an independent business entity from Unilever (savings of EUR 40m). Leading the Supply Chain workstreams

(Planning, Procurement, Transport and Warehousing through the Programme milestones from concept to design closure.

Developing the Target Operating Model, collaborating with partners in IT to design and deliver the Integrations required for

3rd parties.

Driving

Programme governance for the Supply Chain as a core member of the Programme governance forums.

• Led the Delivery of the Target Operating Model (TOM) for the Supply Chain – notable key end to end processes for

Supply Chain being Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) and Repacking.

• Collaborating with IT on design and delivery of Supply Chain design changes as well as external system integrations critical for running an integrated Supply Chain organisation (Oracle Warehouse management, Oracle Transport

Management among others)

• Leading Programme governance for the Supply Chain team resulting in 100% design changes signed off in readiness for go live.

h American Tobacco, Southampton 2009 – 2021

Business Analysis Manager of Global Supply Chain, 2018 - 2021

Contributed to three-year strategic digital roadmap, led digital transformation projects within Logistics department, and oversaw entire project process (Proof of Concept, design, User Acceptance Testing & Hypercare). Integrated API within visibility platform for marine, drove continuous improvements within supply chain for Sea Freight, and delivered all shipments project scope within tight deadline and budget. Contributed to Clear Metal Solution (Predictive Analytics),

sourced new logistics provider and provided IT leadership on two large warehouses migrations across Czech and

Netherlands.

• Efficiently led IT delivery for predictive visibility Platform for Marine with API integration resulting in improvement for

Supply Chain visibility of Sea Freight and shipment delivery milestones.

• Contributed to onboarding Clear Metal solution (Commercials and project delivery) and as a result boosted Gartner ranking for BAT into Top 25 of Best Global Supply Chain in 2020.
• Accomplished savings of over £1M with successful project management of a European warehouse consolidation bringing together several country specifics requirements (Netherlands, Czech, Germany and France) & various technologies and capabilities; from SAP EDI integrations and Ecommerce (fulfilment)
• Effectively Led Proof of Concept (POC) together with Procurement to setup an International Trade Control tower.

When fully deployed, the expected savings of this project is expected to be £65m.

Business Systems Expert (BSE), 2016 – 2018

Directed change management, partnered with external contractors, led IT delivery for Supply Planning hub, and gathered requirements for projects. Collected user feedback, generated annual savings, monitored budgets for all projects, and provided data for IT Financial cycles. Oversaw factory shutdowns. Managed team of five Senior Analysts providing IT services to 500 indirect employees.

• Successfully saved £300K on annual basis by leading an initiative to transfer and embed skills to the right resources post deployment of new TOM and SAP programme.
• Managed budget with value £3M with relevant inputs for IT Financial Cycles.
• As the Supply Chain IT Lead, I received award in 2017 for my contribution towards the Bayreuth factory closure (one of BAT’s largest factories at the time) through delivering required system changes within the supply chain.

Operations IT Project Lead for Europe, Africa, & Middle East, Nairobi, KE, 2015 – 2016

Implemented SAP ERP system across 180 countries.

Deployed Global Target Operating

Model through consolidation of eight SAP instances into one ERP, tracked project objectives, facilitated training with relevant training materials,

communicated with clients and exceeded customer expectation. Tailored solutions to complex problems whilst superintending team of six Business Analysts within Operations IT.

• Spearheaded deployment of SAP Warehouse Management and Factory Systems across East, West and Southern

Africa with Operations IT team of six Business Analysts.

• Received positive feedback whilst managing Senior Stakeholders from factory operation directors in West and South

Africa.

Regional Project Analyst for Europe, Africa, & Middle East, Nairobi, KE, 2013 – 2015

Collected all IT requirements for SAP Warehouse Management. Outlined logistics interfaces for South Africa and Turkey,

conducted feasibility analysis for projects, developed project scopes, compiled, and monitored budget, and set KPI’s.

Prepared progress reports for Senior Management, resolved complex issues, collaborated with stakeholders in maintaining operational support, and finalised project within given timeline and budget. Supervised project personnel.

• Designed logistics interface with Trade Marketing Systems and SAP for trade marketing operations in Turkey and

South Africa – with direct to retail distribution model.

• Collaborated with Global Project teams in facilitating workshops with user testing, deployment, and gap analysis.
• Implemented new ERP system across all markets – with travel to Russia to assist team in adopting new system.

Diploma in Business IT

Strathmore University, KE

Bachelor of Arts, (Hons) in Economics

University of Nairobi, KE

Certifications

PRINCE2 Project Management Certificate, APMG International, 2009

Leading SAFe, Scaled Agile Framework 2019

Agile Certified Practitioner, Project Management Institute (PMI) 2023

CISA Certification, ISACA, 2008

Certified Public Accountant, 2001