The key challenges of the job are as follows

1. This role will primarily be responsible for planning, coordinating and optimizing export shipments with the objective of reducing unnecessary shipments and lowering the company's overall freight and logistics cost.
2. The candidate should understand that the objective is not simply to ship every requirement as soon as it becomes available, but to intelligently determine whether multiple requirements can be consolidated into a single shipment.
3. The person should proactively coordinate with Sales, Operations, Production, Stores, Finance, Quality, Management and other relevant stakeholders to understand their upcoming export requirements before a shipment is planned.
4. The candidate should establish a systematic process whereby the company knows what needs to be shipped, to which country/customer, by when, in what quantity and whether it can be clubbed with another shipment.
5. The person should actively look ahead rather than react to individual shipment requests.
6. The candidate should maintain a forward-looking monthly export shipment plan, preferably with visibility for at least the next 30–60 days.
7. Before booking a shipment, the candidate should check with relevant managers, department heads and key stakeholders whether they have additional requirements that can be included in the same shipment.
8. The person should be able to ask the right internal question:

"Are there any other products, samples, documents, materials or customer requirements that need to go to this country/region in the coming weeks that we can send together?"

1. The candidate should balance consolidation with urgency. The objective is not to delay an important shipment merely to save freight, but to determine whether consolidation is commercially and operationally sensible.
2. The candidate should evaluate each shipment based on:

- Freight cost
- Shipment frequency
- Weight/volume
- Destination
- Customer urgency
- Delivery commitment
- Product availability
- Payment status
- Shipping mode
- Transit time
- Customs considerations
- Cost of delaying shipment
- Cost of sending a separate shipment

1. The candidate should maintain an understanding of the company's historical shipment patterns and identify countries/customers where multiple small shipments are repeatedly being sent.
2. The person should identify opportunities to convert multiple small shipments into planned consolidated shipments wherever practical.
3. The candidate should develop and maintain a strong network of freight forwarders, courier companies, logistics providers, shipping agents and other relevant vendors so that freight quotations can be obtained quickly.
4. The person should not depend on one vendor for freight quotations. The candidate should have access to multiple vendors to benchmark:

- Air freight
- Courier
- Sea freight
- Road transport, where applicable
- Door-to-door shipments
- Customs-related charges
- Handling charges
- Other applicable logistics costs

1. The candidate should be capable of obtaining competitive freight quotations quickly when a shipment requirement arises.
2. The candidate should maintain a vendor database containing:

- Vendor name
- Contact person
- Service locations
- Modes supported
- Typical transit times
- Rate history
- Service quality
- Response time
- Commercial terms
- Key strengths/limitations

1. The person should negotiate with logistics vendors and continuously seek better freight rates without compromising service requirements.
2. The candidate should compare freight quotations on a total landed logistics cost basis, rather than selecting a vendor simply because its headline freight rate appears lower.
3. The person should identify hidden or additional charges such as:

- Fuel surcharge
- Handling
- Pickup charges
- Documentation charges
- Customs clearance
- Destination charges
- Remote-area charges
- Insurance
- Storage
- Other applicable surcharges

1. The candidate should establish a process for obtaining freight quotations quickly enough that shipment planning does not become a bottleneck for the Operations or Sales teams.
2. The role requires robust coordination with the Operations Manager – Exports. Operations may identify that an order is ready for dispatch; the Supply Chain Manager should determine how and when that order should be shipped most efficiently.
3. The person should coordinate with Sales before consolidating shipments to ensure that customer delivery commitments are not compromised.
4.



The candidate should be capable of challenging unnecessary shipment requests constructively by asking whether the requirement can be consolidated with an upcoming shipment.
5. The person should identify recurring emergency shipments and investigate why they are occurring.
6. The candidate should not merely reduce the number of shipments on paper. The objective is to achieve real cost reduction while maintaining customer service levels and operational reliability.

What the person will broadly own

1. Export Shipment Planning The candidate should establish a structured shipment planning process covering:

- Shipment destination
- Customer
- Products
- Quantity
- Weight
- Volume
- Ready date
- Required delivery date
- Shipping mode
- Estimated freight
- Consolidation opportunity
- Vendor
- Expected dispatch date
- Expected delivery date
- Payment status
- Documentation status

The objective is to create a forward-looking view of upcoming shipments rather than reacting to individual requests. 2. Internal Requirement Collection

Before finalizing a shipment, the candidate should check with relevant stakeholders for additional requirements.

This may include

- Export Sales
- Operations
- Production
- Quality
- Stores
- Purchase
- R&D;
- Management
- Marketing
- Other departments

The objective is to avoid a situation where: Shipment A goes today → another department asks to send something tomorrow → Shipment B is booked separately → additional freight is incurred.

Instead

Requirement collection → Consolidation → Freight comparison → Shipment planning → Dispatch

3. Shipment Consolidation The candidate should determine whether multiple requirements can be shipped together based on:

- Same country
- Same region
- Same customer
- Nearby customers
- Similar delivery timelines
- Compatible products
- Shipment size
- Shipping mode
- Customer urgency
- Customs requirements

The candidate should understand that consolidation may happen at different levels: Customer-level consolidation

Multiple requirements for the same customer.

Country-level consolidation

Multiple customers in the same country.

Regional consolidation

Multiple nearby destinations where commercially/logistically practical.

Department-level consolidation

Requirements generated by different internal departments.

4. Freight Vendor Network The candidate should establish a reliable network of logistics vendors.

The objective is

Requirement received → Vendor contacted → Quote received quickly → Quotes compared → Best practical option selected The person should ideally have existing relationships with:

- International freight forwarders
- Air freight providers
- Courier companies
- Shipping agents
- Customs brokers/CHAs
- Logistics companies
- Regional transporters
- Other relevant service providers

An existing vendor network will be a significant advantage because the candidate should not spend several weeks building basic logistics contacts after joining. 5. Freight Cost Optimization The candidate should continuously monitor:

- Freight rates
- Shipment frequency
- Average cost per shipment
- Cost per kg
- Cost per CBM where applicable
- Courier vs freight economics
- Air vs sea economics
- Consolidated vs individual shipment cost
- Vendor-wise rates
- Country-wise logistics cost

The candidate should identify opportunities for savings rather than simply process shipments at historical rates. 6. Vendor Management The candidate should maintain regular communication with logistics vendors and evaluate them on:

- Rate competitiveness
- Response time
- Transit time
- Shipment reliability
- Documentation accuracy
- Damage/loss record
- Customs support
- Customer service
- Issue resolution
- Billing accuracy

The candidate should maintain a preferred vendor pool but continue benchmarking the market. 7. Coordination with Operations The Supply Chain Manager should work closely with the Operations Manager – Exports.

Operations Manager owns:

"Is the order ready and has everything required for execution been completed?"

Supply Chain Manager owns:

"What is the most efficient way to move the shipment, when should we ship it and can we consolidate it with something else?"

The two roles should work together but should have clear accountability.

8.



Emergency Shipment Management The candidate should be capable of handling urgent shipment requirements without automatically accepting expensive emergency freight as the only solution.

When an urgent requirement arises, the candidate should evaluate:

- Can an existing shipment be modified?
- Can another shipment be clubbed?
- Can part of the requirement be shipped urgently?
- Can the remaining quantity go in the planned shipment?
- Is air freight actually necessary?
- Can a faster but economical courier option work?
- Is the delay caused by an internal planning issue that should be corrected?

The candidate should also maintain an Emergency Shipment Analysis to identify recurring causes. Why some previous Supply Chain Managers may fail in this role

1. They process shipments individually instead of planning them collectively.
2. They react to shipment requests instead of maintaining a forward-looking shipment plan.
3. They fail to check with other departments before dispatching a shipment.
4. They send a shipment today and discover another requirement tomorrow that could have been clubbed.
5. They focus only on obtaining a freight quote instead of optimizing the overall shipment strategy.
6. They depend on one freight vendor and therefore have limited negotiating power.
7. They accept vendor quotations without benchmarking.
8. They compare only base freight rates and ignore additional charges.
9. They prioritize speed for every shipment without evaluating whether the urgency is genuine.
10. They delay shipments excessively in the name of consolidation and negatively affect customer commitments.
11. They do not maintain historical freight data.
12. They cannot demonstrate actual savings generated through their interventions.
13. They lack relationships with reliable freight forwarders and logistics providers.
14. They do not proactively communicate upcoming shipment requirements to stakeholders.
15. They fail to identify recurring emergency shipments and their root causes.
16. They focus on shipment execution rather than supply-chain cost optimization.

Candidate Profile The ideal candidate should have experience in:

- Export logistics
- International freight coordination
- Supply chain coordination
- Shipment planning
- Freight procurement
- Freight negotiation
- Vendor management
- Shipment consolidation
- Export documentation
- Logistics cost optimization
- International courier/freight operations

Experience in manufacturing, chemicals, engineering products, industrial exports or B2B businesses would be advantageous.

Preferred Experience

Approximately 5–9 years of relevant experience for a Manager-level candidate.

The candidate should ideally have experience handling a significant number of international shipments and should understand the commercial and operational aspects of international freight.

Existing relationships with freight forwarders, courier companies and logistics providers would be a strong advantage.

Important Skills

Must Have

- Excellent coordination skills
- Exceptional follow-up
- Shipment planning
- Freight negotiation
- Vendor management
- Cost-conscious mindset
- Strong analytical ability
- Excellent Excel skills
- Ability to compare quotations
- International logistics knowledge
- Export documentation knowledge
- Ability to manage multiple shipments
- Strong communication
- Problem-solving ability
- Ability to work across departments

Strong Advantage

- Existing freight-forwarder network
- Air freight experience
- Sea freight experience
- Courier/logistics experience
- Export documentation experience
- Knowledge of Incoterms
- Experience in freight cost optimization
- Experience with shipment consolidation
- Experience with ERP/logistics systems
- Experience in chemical/industrial exports

Behavioural Characteristics The person should be:

- Highly proactive
- Cost-conscious
- Commercially aware
- Persistent
- Organized
- Analytical
- Strong at follow-up
- Negotiation-oriented
- Practical
- Fast in obtaining information and quotations
- Comfortable coordinating with senior stakeholders
- Comfortable challenging unnecessary shipments
- Comfortable negotiating with vendors
- Customer-service conscious
- Detail-oriented
- Able to balance cost, speed and service

Overall Hiring Question

"Can this person proactively plan and consolidate 3AK Chemie's export shipments, coordinate with all relevant departments to identify upcoming requirements, maintain a strong network of competitive logistics vendors, obtain and negotiate freight quotations quickly, reduce unnecessary shipment frequency and demonstrably lower the company's overall export logistics cost without compromising customer commitments?"

📌 Supply Chain Manager (Hyderabad)
🏢 3AK Chemie
📍 Hyderabad