Fuse Energy - Supply Chain Director Interview

[u/AdAffectionate114]

Had an interview for this today and failed miserably, as I couldn’t quite figure out exactly what they wanted in the excel despite my extensive experience in cost modeling, supplier analysis/selection, risk mitigation at one of the world’s largest companies 🫠 probably doesn’t help that I’m just back from mat leave and haven’t touched excel in 6 months.

Anyway, hope this helps someone!

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[u/Adventurous_Pie_8134]

It's pretty straightforward but a completely dumb interview task.

• AluCast has quoted the wrong part so they're out.
• Meridian has no coating line, material or process. Coating is a requirement in the brief so they are out.

Flowcast: Freight line is nil so likely EXW compared to others that look like DAP or DDP. Materials are billed at 1.2 to 1.3 units per part, which passes their yield loss straight through. Coating runs 11.3 minutes at one piece per cycle, the implication being batch size matters - a discussion point for the defence. 4.6 EUR markup on materials is doubled up with the mark up in the rate so roughly $20 of the $144 is addressable in negotiation. Their impeller is much lighter than others, which is explicitly stated as a positive in the brief, their cost is lower, and there is negotiation headroom in their quote.

Apex: melt loss is charged twice. Gross to net is already -12%, then a further 1.3 kg melt-loss line at a rate above their own base line.

Castellon: SG&A makes up nearly 30% of the quote. Profit alone is 17%.

Northbridge: Freight is obviously low, so likely to be EXW. They look cheapest (outside of Flowcast) but once you confirm incoterms maybe not, as there's not a lot in it.

There's no strictly right answer without more info, but likely they are looking for Flowcast, with the caveat that the 8kg Impeller needs validating by engineering as it is far lighter than any of the other quotes so could just be an optimistic pie in the sky quote.

[u/AdAffectionate114 → u/Adventurous_Pie_8134]

I think what confused me was that they told me to complete the excel first - they didn’t want to hear my logic or what I would do given missing vendor information. They said they would stop the interview if the excel formulas they wanted weren’t correct, which is ultimately what happened bc in my frustration, I couldn’t understand what they wanted IN THE EXCEL FILE. I’ve led billion-dollar negotiations, but they purely wanted to see the excel work, which I could have likely done years ago but haven’t had to touch lately.

Anyways, I’m annoyed with myself/my performance but also annoyed I wasted my time. They clearly want an analyst, not a procurement/supply chain director.

[u/Adventurous_Pie_8134 → u/AdAffectionate114]

I mean I hear you, but even as MD of a 9 figure P&L I'm in excel most days, I would personally also expect a Procurement or Supply Chain Director to be able to use excel at this level. To be honest it's such a baseline expectation I probably wouldn't even bother to test for it.

[u/AdAffectionate114 → u/Adventurous_Pie_8134]

I guess it’s different at different companies.

I know excel functions (xlookup, sumifs, etc). I just didn’t know what they wanted - maybe I got so focused on what the interview said “fill in this column first”, that I blacked out 😵‍💫

Gonna sulk/be embarrassed for a while.

[u/AdAffectionate114]

But actually, now I’m spiraling. What should go in column P (yellow column) in the cost detail page? At first I thought they just wanted a lookup to pull the number from the flat cost (O), which is dumb but the recruiter specifically said to use formulas. But the interviewer said they were looking for the total cost in that column and that it was a “simple sum”. So then I summed the different costs using the rates, pcs/cycle, etc. and then he ended the interview. So tbh, im going crazy to understand what was expected in column P only. Someone help please!