Mia Baroni interviews Vaughn Ragoonanan, Director of Supply Chain and Procurement at Finlays Americas
Thanks for joining us, Vaughn. Tell us about your role.
I work for a great Coffee and Tea company! I am the Director of Supply Chain and Procurement and I work with and manage an awesome team of Supply Chain, Customer Operations, and Procurement professionals. I lead Supply Chain end-to-end and “source-make-move” to ensure OTIF delivery to customers. One of the main functions of my role is to drive continuous improvement on forecast accuracy with Sales and Operations planning. I create and lead strategies and policies in Supply Chain Management, including Demand and Supply Planning, Procurement, Inventory Management, and Logistics and Operations.
What does a typical day look like for you?
A typical day in the supply chain world is like putting a puzzle together, and all the end pieces are missing. Supply chain is a very fast pace and high-stress job, at times I feel like an adrenaline junky rapidly moving through so many tasks. That said, I love being in Supply Chain Operations! I start my day off by checking in with all the Supply Chain departments on all open tasks that were reviewed in our weekly Monday morning Supply Chain Management huddle.
How have the supply chain issues from the pandemic impacted your work?
The pandemic impacted all avenues of supply chain by delaying inbound raw materials, massive labor shortages globally at Coffee and Tea Farms, Ocean Ports labor and container constraints, and increased cost across the board for all materials and logistics and transportation. Due to all these problems, the Procurement team had to continuously track materials and work with Finlays internal manufacturing sites on optimizing production schedules.
What inspires you?
Evolving in life, making a difference day to day with my family, friends, and peers, and adding value to everything I accomplish.
What achievement are you most proud of?
My greatest life achievements: The family I have created with my wife and my career successes thus far.
Tea or coffee (and how do you take it)?
Two 16oz cups of black coffee in the morning makes my working day “okay”! I even put coffee in my protein drinks 😉
What do you get up to in your spare time?
My spare time is dedicated to my family, spending time with my amazing wife and taking my kids to their activities, and overall being involved. Recently, I have been spending a lot of time visiting colleges with my 17-year-old daughter and it was amazing quality time I will always cherish. I do carve out time for fitness and my hobby “anything fast on wheels”. I love going to car shows.
Tell us a surprising fact about you
I love to box and do yoga!
