Rosista Spatsova

Digital Brochure taken from The Purchaser Issue 17

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CHANGE AT ITS CORE

TESY’S ROSITSA SPASOVA, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF SUPPLY CHAIN, DISCUSSES WHAT IS CRUCIAL FOR ANY ORGANISATION TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE IN THE EVER-CHANGING WORLD. SUPPORTED BY:

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Almost my entire career has been at TESY, which produces hot water and heating solutions – that’s more than 16 years filled with dynamics, different experiences, diverse knowledge, and possibilities to observe and learn from many good examples in different fields.

I have been involved in many roles within the organisation. In the very beginning, I started as a direct materials procurement specialist, then joined the commercial team and was responsible for sales in European countries.

After several years in sales, I returned to procurement as a team leader.

Three years ago, a project was initiated at company level. It involved external consulting partners and participants from different functions within TESY. The project was called

SPRINT and aimed to centralise and optimise all supply chain-related processes and move from a functional to a process-oriented organisation. The result was the creation of a supply chain department in TESY.

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Q: Can you tell us about your current work and your previous experiences in leadership across your career?

During the project, I was still in my role as Head of Procurement, but also used my sales experience and had the opportunity to understand and be involved in defining new processes and functions within the supply chain that were needed to support it as a new department.

Q: How has the supply chain and its role in the organisation evolved over that time, and what do you think have been the key drivers or trends behind this evolution?

The supply chain organisation in TESY is still young. We started with small steps focusing on downstream supply chain first – from forecasting, demand, and inventory planning, through to customer service and logistics.

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Over the past two years we have implemented a new forecasting tool where our sales plans are managed together with the entire sales team. We have created new processes and functions to support forecasting activity and to better manage inventory and product management.

We have started to better track and measure some important KPIs like service level, forecast accuracy, and others related to production and delivery such as OTIF, inventory turn etcetera.

However, this cannot be achieved in one department alone, and naturally all processes and initiatives are interconnected and involve many other stakeholders within the company.

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in manufacturing efficiency projects, product management and so forth.

The main drivers of all these changes and improvements have been and continue to be better visibility, efficient processes with clear roles and responsibilities, measurable KPIs, and systems that make our daily work easier. The goal is better service level, customer satisfaction, and improved operational efficiency.

Q: Why is supply chain transformation necessary?

The transformation in TESY was huge, not only because of the introduction of the supply chain itself – it was accompanied with

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another major restructuring in the company.

And on top of all that, we implemented new software. You can imagine the stress and adaptation everyone was going through.

We can also add the extraordinary dynamics in political and economic aspects in recent years. For us, the transformation has been significant and when an organisation goes through such major events, many change agents are needed.

Fortunately, TESY has always been a dynamic company that embraces change in all aspects, and this has constantly been encouraged and supported by top management.

Based on my humble experience so far, the supply chain is change at its core.

Beyond organisation, processes, and clearly defined roles, it is defined by dynamics of the markets and business we operate in.

What we need to do is align, adapt, and promote all necessary steps to meet the needs of our customers (internal and external).

We do this by reevaluating our processes and decisions, and look for better ways to achieve our goals. Then, we try to assess and analyse the impact and resources needed to achieve the end goal. Important steps in this never-ending improvement process are initiative, communication, training, explanation, and support.

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is one of the biggest challenges, especially when the organisation is large, and many people are involved. Sometimes it is difficult, but so far, efforts are rewarded and show good progress. This gives the company the agility and resilience that are crucial for an organisation to thrive.

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Q: Why does the industry appeal to you as a professional?

Given that almost my entire career has been in TESY, the supply chain felt like a natural progression of my professional experience and development. The industry is very dynamic and progressive in terms of technological advancements, yet it caters for basic human needs. Using everything I’ve learned so far has given me a broader perspective needed for a supply chain professional nowadays.

This gives a better understanding of the business environment from beginning to end of the supply chain – from supplier to customer.

Also, having a better understanding of products and processes within the company, and the evolution it has gone through, helped me a lot.

The main challenges nowadays are the same in all industries and are driven from major political and economic factors. The world is much smaller now, and we all share similar stories.

Q: Can you give me an example of a change programme you’ve worked on?

At the very beginning of our project, we discussed the need for direct involvement of sales in the forecasting process. Before we implemented the new forecasting tool we currently use, we were using sales data, but the process was happening in another, much simpler tool and was not done directly by the sales team.

In our new setup, we are involving each salesperson in entering their customers’ forecasts for all the SKUs they sell.

It may be hard to imagine, but these are hundreds of thousands of combinations (customer – SKU level).

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Should this be an example of best practice?

I don’t know. What I can say is what my observations are during this change.

The process is not easy. It is time consuming and cumbersome for salespeople. Even right now, the supply chain is working to make this process simpler, but still provide the necessary information for the entire organisation to work with.

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“The supply chain organisation in TESY is still young. We started with small steps focusing on downstream supply chain first – from forecasting, demand, and inventory planning, through to customer service and logistics.”

However, it has given us a lot more involvement, accountability, and commitment to forecasting within the sales team. What we give is what we get, and it is the most critical information that triggers all other budgeting, procurement, and production processes.

This also allows us to analyse and improve our forecasting process. As it is on the lowest possible level, it helps us to be precise with our conclusions, and identify weak points or distinguish champions.

From here on, we can also discuss whether we can optimise, or whether working on a higher level will also do the job, or if we can rely on statistics for some cases.

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One of the lessons learned is that ownership and accountability for a process, or a task, is critical to achieve the best results possible.

Once you determine those basics, you can move on to thinking about optimisation.

Q: How has the uncertainty and financial challenges the industry has faced impacted the role and work of the supply chain?

The last few years have been more than challenging in all areas of business.

On the one hand, you have COVID-19.

But for our company, the pandemic saw significant growth in sales.

Despite the need to organise people in production in a safe environment, and the serious disruptions in supply chains – delivery delays and raw material shortages – we managed these quite well with our partners.

We caught that wave and made the most of it.

Things were not quite the same when the war in Ukraine started. In that case, we lost sales because of affected markets on which we had well-developed business, and because of the serious disruptions of transport routes.

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“TESY has always been a dynamic company that embraces change in all aspects, and this has constantly been encouraged and supported by top management.”

Now, we are facing new challenges of a different source and nature. What we can say is that the current business environment is much more dynamic than ever before. In our industry, politics also reflects product trends and consumer habits. For example, the heat pump business is dependent on government programs and subsidies. In general, products evolve and change, following new directives and requirements.

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In TESY’s supply chain, we work closely with our sales and marketing teams, keep updated with the latest developments, come up with better solutions, define new delivery routes, shorten the lead times, and better manage costs.

We are continuously assessing possible risks and trying to avoid them. We are also in the process of determining the best processes and procedures to act in risk situations, such as identifying alternative transportation routes, balancing inventory levels, and optimising the product portfolio or improving internal operational processes.

Q: And what about the role of effective governance?

When you want to implement and introduce something new, it is all about effective governance. At TESY, and within the project, we have seen this through clearly defined roles, ownership, and standardisation. We have spent a lot of time defining these basics along with all processes and relationships between different roles. At some point, we even decided to delay

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the go-live date just to ensure they were clear across the function and well-presented to the organisation. We realised the need to work as one well-balanced mechanism, and that this was necessary to start building trust in others.

Q: What do you think makes an effective, modern supply chain leader?

I am an open and straightforward person.

Honesty and respect for the other has always been part of my approach – I still believe it is one of the best ways to create a committed and motivated team. Leadership by example is not a cliché, and respecting opinions is what pushes people to be open, share ideas, and be creative. Working with excellent professionals in their field is one of the best things a leader can have, and I am happy to say we have many of those within the supply chain team, as well as in the whole company.

For a team to be strong, it needs to be independent in day-to-day work and receive support when needed. Culture is something a little different and it comes from the top.

It’s the mindset of leadership and the

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The modern supply chain leader must be flexible, listen carefully, and act decisively.

When someone looks at things from a single perspective, judgement can be wrong.

When trying to cover all possible perspectives and scenarios, things can become a bit overwhelming. This is where the ability to segment and prioritise comes – to act, not be afraid to make mistakes, and have people to count on.

Q: As a woman in leadership, what advice would you give to girls and women who wish to pursue the career you have?

“The supply chain is change at its core.

Beyond organisation, processes, and clearly defined roles, it is defined by dynamics of the markets and business we operate in. ”

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approach taken to managing people and processes and setting the company’s path.

TESY started as a small family company but has grown into one of the European leaders in its field. Growth comes with structure, processes, and clear direction, but the close family atmosphere is something that keeps us together. The best evidence of this is that this year, we are celebrating TESY’s 30th birthday and we still have many people who have been with the company from the beginning.

In general, I don’t think women in leadership is anything strange or unknown nowadays, and I also don’t think being a leader is predetermined by your gender. It’s about seizing all opportunities, about your mindset, your abilities, and your motivation. You can become whatever you want to if you really want it and work hard to achieve it.

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There is a common perception that women are more emotional, and indeed this may be true, but if one manages to harness these emotions, it can only enhance performance.

As for supply chain in particular, my preliminary opinion was that it is more of a man’s world than anything else. I cannot say this is the way TESY looks at it and me being the one promoted for this position somehow proves this.

For all women aspiring for this career, I can only say that if you are a dynamic multitasker and have a broader perspective of the business you are in, then this is the right place for you. You must be willing to be a change agent, sometimes even a rule enforcer, and that is not an easy task. If you are up for a challenge, then the supply chain is one of the right places to try.

Q: What are the key initiatives or works you carried out at the organisation and how did they help evolve the function?

Despite the continuous development of supply chain structure, we are already

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taking responsibility for many important processes like forecast analyses and optimisations, production execution and prioritisation follow up, inventory management, planning policies management, and many others.

We are continuing with system setup and introducing new processes throughout the structure. Some are the new order confirmation process, linked to the pre-check of production capacity and component availability, as well as the introduction of additional checkpoints and dates to track production performance, thus achieving a better service level for our customers.

We streamlined customer service processes and provided additional visibility to the sales team regarding order fulfilment.

This is done using dynamic reports and visibility dashboards connected directly to the company’s core ERP system.

We automated and streamlined logistics processes by implementing additional functionalities into the ERP system.

On the other hand, we are supporting sales

“An empowered team excels in the supply chain”

in their new customer classification which is the backbone of every successful intends to facilitate each sales manager to business. This will change and become better plan their work with each customer more critical over time. and help the supply chain and production structures when reorganisation in production Cross-functionality within the company is is necessary. Being something like an the next critical thing. In a complex world, orchestrator in-between sales and production, you should not begroups, a sole player, but a good Empowered teams are self-sufficient we are processing a lot of information, and Processes are so interconnected and working together to excelpartner. in your supply chain. our colleagues start to look at us as the dependent on every single step, so it is critical They getofthe corporate authority, experience, consolidator, and main source information to have a united position and the same level of responsibility and skills to make better and support in many situations. understanding everywhere in the organisation.

decisions for your organization.

Q: Looking ahead, how do you think supply chain in the manufacturing sector will evolve over the coming years and why?

Sustainable partnerships will remain and gain more importance for the future as much as it has been in the past. I believe this is especially valid for manufacturing companies like ours and in today’s reality. Developing and maintaining strong relations with your partners from each side of the business (logistic providers, suppliers, customers)

Apart from these factors, I believe technology is the other important pillar. How we manage with digitalisation, how we integrate AI, and all latest developments which surround us and are still to come. Really soon, these will become an integral part of our lives.

WWW.TESY.COM

“An empowered team excels in“Anthe supply chain” empowered team excels in the supply chain” Empowered teams are self-sufficient groups, Empowered teams are self-sufficient groups, working together to excel in your supply chain. working together tocorporate excel in experience, your supply chain.

They get the authority, responsibility and skills to make better decisions for your authority, organization.

They get the corporate experience, responsibility and skills to make better decisions for your organization.

Gunter Fonteyne Senior SCM Consultant | Program & Project Management

gunter.fonteyne@logichain.net T +32 476913099