Aarti Industries - Manager/Finance Business Partner

Job Description :

Job title : Finance Business Partner - Manufacturing and People Span

Function : Finance

Reporting to (position) : Finance Controller

Direct Reportees : Zonal Business Partners (Managers), Budgeting & Forecasting and Performance Management Manager, Costing Manager

Purpose Statement :

- Responsible for driving innovation and insights (financial and non financial) for the pillar growth within the organisation.

- The business partner will act as a value adder and a collaborator between the pillar and other cross functional teams to gather and analyse data.

- He/she will be responsible for assisting the pillar head in developing strategy and setting targets to grow the pillar. It is the business partner's role to surpass providing services and move into an outcomes-driven field.

Key Role & Responsibilities :

General Overview :

- Combine knowledge of the commercial environment with financial analysis to drive performance through better decision making.

- The BP role is both a commercial and financial role. They have specific business, product, market and/or customer knowledge, in addition to technical financial know how

- The BP acts as a conduit to other Finance functions, drawing in specialism where needed.

1) Business Scenario Planning

Scenario Planning :

- Proactive stakeholder management internal to manufacturing pillar and external stakeholders. This would involve collaborating with different teams for information. It could range from coordinating with the process vertical to understand the environmental impact of manufacturing various products or with the safety vertical to ensure compliance with all safety related regulations

- Challenging the team robustly but in a way that builds relationships i.e., act as a challenger for every strategical step that the teams take in order to cover all feasible scenarios in their analysis

- Making judgements on risk appetite jointly with Function Heads w.r.t plant evaluation , products being manufactured

- Proactive stakeholder management management internal to people pillar and external stakeholders. This would involve collaborating with different teams for information. It could range from coordinating with the verticals from different pillars for resource planning considering the market conditions and natural calamities

- Making judgements on risk appetite jointly with Pillar Heads w.r.t hiring from outside market vs filling up the positions considering the internal talent pool

Business Case Development :

- Perform cost benefit analysis and assist in developing business cases of the Process Initiatives (PII and PIC) to be undertaken during the year to give the manufacturing team a view of which initiatives would be vital to undertake from a financial lens

- Perform cost benefit analysis and assist in developing business cases of the Hiring Initiatives to be undertaken during the year to give the HR team a view of which initiatives would be vital to undertake from a financial lens

2) Financial Insights and Decision Support

Insight Generation (From the reports provided by Analytics COE) :

- Drawing financial insights from the reports shared by the Analytics COE team. These insights could be related to production cost , financial parameters like Manufacturing Cycle Efficiency , Inventory Turnover , Revenue per employee etc. , process block performance for the Zonal and Plant heads to help them manage their operations in an efficient manner

- Analyze dashboards and reports to provide insights on the plant performance in terms of the efficiency in manufacturing process and the costs incurred at various stages

- Obtain cash flow forecasts and funding estimates from the treasury team for the new products that will be manufactured to deliberate with the Zonal Heads and Plant Heads on the financial viability of making the products

- Enabling data driven decision support by analyzing the historical trend of efficiencies achieved through manufacturing , any opportunities missed during manufacturing etc. This historical trend analysis would help the Zonal operations verticals in making informed manufacturing related decisions.

- Obtain the sales report from the business team to identify the customer preferences in terms of the final product they are procuring and in what quantities

- Obtain the product cost related reports to analyze the cost components that go into making the product , thereby identifying cost improvement opportunities along with the manufacturing excellence team

- Assist in analyzing the efficiency of the equipment being used , activities being consumed , material being used to manufacture products at various plants

- Drawing financial insights from the reports shared by the Analytics COE team. These insights could be related to FTE efforts of resources at different grades , financial parameters like Recruitment cost , retention costs , work efficiency ratios etc. for the HR vertical heads to help them manage their resource planning in an efficient manner

Business Support and Collaboration :

- Assist the manufacturing excellence team in getting the data for product costing from the finance team

- Collaborate with the operational excellence team and plant heads to identify opportunities and areas where manufacturing process can be enhanced to improve productivity

- Coordinate with the business team on the RM / PM related requirements of the plants for FG manufacturing based on the BOM finalized

- Collaborate with the business team to identify the vendors from whom the RM / PM needs to be procured

- Assist in analyzing the efficiency of the resource staff on a periodic basis which would eventually help in the year end performance reviews

- Assist the HR vertical in carrying out a fitment analysis to ensure the resources with the right skills are matched to the right roles in the organization

- Assist the HR vertical in getting the data for the costs associated with hiring and recruitment costs for different recruitment agencies to do a cost comparative and plan HR related costs

- Collaborate with other vertical heads to assist them in the FTE analysis for manpower planning in their respective teams

- Assist the safety vertical in ensuring compliance to the safety regulations

- Assist the quality vertical in adhering to the product quality standards set by the organization

Defining the levels and dimensions for report creation :

- Define the levels and dimensions of the Ad-Hoc reports and dashboards to be created by the Analytics COE team to depict the plant performances in terms of production and costs incurred etc.

- Define the levels and dimensions of the Ad-Hoc reports and dashboards to be created by the Analytics COE team to perform cost time analysis of the new and existing resources and other ad hoc analysis like budgeted vs actual hiring and recruitment costs

- Provide the Analytics COE with the necessary assistance in building the report wireframes and help them identify sources from where the data can be pulled to prepare the Ad Hoc reports

3) Performance Management

Budgeting and Forecasting Inputs :

- Review the zonal budgeting and forecasting related inputs received by the budgeting and forecasting team from all stakeholders

- Ensure adherence to the budget calendar when submitting the plans , budgets and forecasts by different Business Partners

- Review assumptions used for preparation of budgets, forecasts and provide updates to budget templates if any

- Discuss the revised cost projections and assumptions considered at the time of monthly performance review and forecasting

- Assisting the zonal business partners in resolving any concerns related to the data integrity of the budgeting and forecasting inputs

- Review the strategic planning inputs received from the corporate planning team and annual budget inputs received from other business partners

Monitoring Performance :

- Draft / update performance management elements and KPIs for the pillar

- Closely track and monitor operational performance including revenues, expenses and overheads of the plants and compare them with the budgeted figures

- Report cost and production deviation with anomalies to the concerned stakeholders for their review

- Track the manufacturing cost overruns , safety issues and quality mismatches and align with key stakeholders for the explanation

- Stay aware of the external and internal financial factors that might affect manufacturing performance. These factors could range from a RM price increasing in the market due to shortage in supply to a chemical leakage at any of the plants. Such factors would eventually adversely affect the manufacturing efficiency

- Monitor the inventory levels and provide insights w.r.t re-order levels , optimal inventory for the next production cycle , fast moving and slow moving inventory to plan the manufacturing cycle for different products

- Closely track and monitor operational performance including recruitment costs , retention costs , training and development costs etc. and compare them with the budgeted figures

- Stay updated on the external and internal financial factors that might affect hiring of new recruits at different grades. These factors could range from a natural calamity like covid to a worker's strike at any of the plants. Such factors would eventually adversely affect the hiring process

- Review the insights generated by the zonal business partners in collaboration with the performance management team

4) Business Change Leadership

Continuous Improvement and Change Management :

- Drive Change Initiatives and Continuous Improvement (CI) Initiatives across the pillar

- Encourage and promote a culture of creativity, discipline and people connect

- Foster and champion, a management culture where decision-making is grounded in analytics

- Hold collaboration forums with zonal business partners and their teams to discuss plant operational issues , safety issues , quality control issues from financial lens and assist them in resolving the same

- Hold collaboration forums with the Budgeting and Forecasting team to validate any macro level changes in the levels and dimensions of planning and budgeting or forecasting related assumptions

- Hold collaboration forums with the costing team to validate the ESG and Carbon accounting related data to be provided to the general accounting team

Internal & External Relationship :

Function / Agency Purpose of Interaction Frequency :

- Business / Commercial Business Partner Coordinate with the business team on the RM / PM related requirements of the plants for FG manufacturing

- Collaborate with the business team to identify the vendors from whom the RM / PM needs to be procured

- Obtain the sales report from the business team to identify the customer preferences in terms of the final product they are procuring As per defined cadence & Ad hoc requirements

- Analytics COE Define and discuss the levels and dimensions of the Ad-Hoc reports and dashboards to be created by the Analytics COE team to depict the plant performances in terms of production and costs incurred etc.

- Provide the Analytics COE with the necessary assistance in building the report wireframes and help them identify sources from where the data can be pulled to prepare the Ad Hoc reports As per defined cadence & Ad hoc requirements

- Finance (Treasury) Obtain cash flow forecasts and funding estimates for the new products that will be manufactured to deliberate with the Zonal Heads and Plant Heads on the financial viability of making the products As per defined cadence & Ad hoc requirements

- Procurement & Engineering Coordinate with the Procurement and Engineering verticals for material and engineering related requirements to keep the plants running As per defined cadence & Ad hoc requirements

- Business Development / R&D Coordinate with the R&D team to get the initial data on the chemical composition of the upcoming products As per defined cadence & Ad hoc requirements

- Costing Hold collaboration forums with the costing team to validate the ESG and Carbon accounting related data to be provided to the general accounting team As per defined cadence & Ad hoc requirements

- Budgeting and Forecasting Review the strategic planning inputs received from the corporate planning team and annual budget inputs received from other business partners As per defined cadence & Ad hoc requirements

- Performance Management Review the insights generated by the zonal business partners in collaboration with the performance management team As per defined cadence & Ad hoc requirements

Job specification :

Experience : 14-16 years of experience in leading cross-functional business partnering role, preferably in the manufacturing / chemical industry

Qualification : Qualified Accountant (CA) / Master's degree in Finance, Accounting or a related field

Competencies Behavioural :

- Navigation and Connectivity : Proven relationship management and leadership skills

- Excellent communication skills : Written and verbal

- Resilience : Comfortable working in a high-pressure environment and managing competing deadlines

- Mediation : Proactive, assertive, challenging and able to act decisively

- Objectivity : Have an independent mind and objectivity while driving decisions

- Demonstrate Aarti Values : Care, Integrity & Excellence

- Digital Literacy : Well versed with the technology trends developing in the market

- Big Picture and Critical thinking : Able to see the complete picture of any transformational activity undertaken in the pillar

Functional - In depth and practical knowledge of providing cost analysis, cost control , planning and budgeting , formulating financial assumptions , ESG reporting and Carbon accounting

- Expert knowledge of SAP / ERP tools , Expert knowledge of Analytical tools / BI Visualization tools , Strong analytical and problem-solving skills

- Clear understanding of the manufacturing business and it's value drivers. Familiar with the concepts of OEE , manufacturing excellence , HR policies and ways of working etc