Supply & Logistics Excellence Trainee Program(SET)

“Every day at Budweiser is brand new for various challenges I need to face. The emphasis Budweiser has put on SET makes me feel motivated and hopeful about the future.”

After graduating from the University of Leeds with major in Food Nutrition, I joined Budweiser in 2018. From Foshan to Wuhan, from QA to brewing and logistics, from the front line to management positions and headquarter functions. In the platform with infinite possibilities, the way of working and business mode may have been changing frequently, only opportunity, challenge, and my constant passion have remained.

In 2021, I joined the logistics team of the headquarters to take charge of production planning of a world-class brewery instead of a middle one. Different from focusing on the implementation of the headquarter strategy in a single brewery, now I need to change my perspective and coordinate the overall production from a higher position.

In the special environment of the pandemic, facing unpredictable demand fluctuations and the strategic adjustment of competitors, a white war is happening. It is a huge challenge to me, but with the help of the Tech-Log and Tech-supply resources, the Silos, the Control Tower, and the E2E system, we were able to open up the visibility and analyze from a more detailed dimension. By holding a high sensitivity to changes in the demand side and data calculation, we successfully finished products and helped sales occupy the market. We sought the optimal solution in the infinite changes, and finally reached a virtuous circle of balance between supply and demand.

Budweiser is the Whampoa Military Academy of supply chain and logistics. People in Budweiser are efficient and never satisfied. Excellent people create new ideas together and win games together. Here, you will never be alone in your journey to meet challenges, every idea will be respected, and every seed will be free to grow. All we need to do is Challenge Accepted and grow quickly and get a full sense of achievement from it.

As 2015 SET, from a trainee to a Function Director now, I have worked for Budweiser APAC as TS process engineer, Zone Water Manager, Utility KPI/Cost Manager, Utility Sustainability Associate Director, TS manager of Wuhan Brewery, Ginsber Brewery Manager, and current position – ZBS Tech Supply Director. Lots of challenges are along the way, however, I also gained a full sense of achievement and boundless confidence.

A job full of challenges can always keep the desire to fight. Dream Big and Never Satisfied are the culture I most identify with in ABI, no matter I worked for HQ function or Local Brewery.

As zone function, we need to face 40 different breweries with different production backgrounds, and also face the challenges from other zones. “Be The Best” is in our DNA. We reviewed detailed processes, communicated cross functions, and developed benchmarking for all breweries to improve.

As Brewery Management team, we should strive for excellent performance and motivate your team to fight for a future with more cheers. 100% mindset drives me to make the best for everything in a brewery - Safety, Quality, Efficiency, Cost, and People. When worked for Wuhan Brewery, I realized the dream of “the first Carbon Neutral and Digital Brewery”, and in Ginsber Brewery, World Class level was achieved in 2021, the first time in Ginsber’s History.

With the growth with team together, I gained lots as well in last 8 years, excellent functional manager, APAC Owner, Global Technical Manager, internal trainer, Green Belt program, at the same time, met great mentors, friendship and colleagues.

Budweiser has been sparing no effort to fulfill the love of beer and the beer culture. “Passion for Beer” bring us together, “Challenge Accepted” drives us forward, and “To a future with more cheers” makes me proud of my work and career.

We are in the heart of the beer industry created by entrepreneurs and raised to be world-class and eminent leaders in the beer business. This confers a great advantage for those who want to join us. This program is designed to give real-world experience, a deep understanding, and cultural sensitivities to building your career to become a professional leader and area expert.

You are never working alone, this program has great alumni engagement, and it is an integral part of building an alumni community and providing a platform for you and alumni to exchange knowledge and friendships. Their rich experience helps not only extend professional networks but also create opportunities to help pre-organize your career path ahead.

When I first joined the company, I was based in Foshan, a small city near the riverbank. I am interested in all the functions, and their job is fascinating and can always fulfill value. Our people partner goes through our problems and confusion, and they provided us with a month of one-on-one communication to help us make a clear career path and know what we really want.

After my first year's training, I chose Brewing as the starting point of my career choice. I am enjoying chemistry and biology tangly to make beauty liquid, and I have relocated to Wuhan, our first brewery in China, and also our liquid development center which has the most complex production line and product. The challenge goes without saying, however, it gave me the chance to see all the different beer production processes. I am very appraised to join in Hoegaarden localized project from Belgium to the APAC zone including China, Vietnam, and India, which is the one of most cross-brewing projects at that time. The marketing is used for easy drinking light lager beer, and wheat as the latest coming style needs to build marketing trending. Letting the customer know wheat beer aroma, flavor, and taste is the first step, and letting the customer love our beer is the goal. Hoegaarden is a very successful wheat style worldwide, and its character easily tackles the marketing and successful launch in the APAC marketing. The success of this project gave me the confidence and cleared my goal to go through the innovation pathway in this phase of my career.

Our company also opened craft breweries as a new strategy for marketing and opened the first craft brewery in Wuhan. I had the opportunity to become the first batch to join this team and become an innovation manager. I have seen the charm of the various hops and malt to make various styles of beer. Those couple of years also gave me the chance to join the Global Brewmaster program and win the Global Brewmaster No.1 in APAC. Now I am the plant manager of Wuhan Craft Brewery, and in the future, I will also create more value with bigger dreams.

“Challenge accepted mentality” is embedded in everyone's DNA of the Supply Chain and Logistics function. It reminds me to always step out of my comfort zone and hence grow faster.

In 2009, as the first generation of SET, I was fortunate to join Budweiser APAC. In these 14 years, I went through one year of training, one year as Shift Leader, two years as Process Engineer, two years as Manager in the Technical Services department, one year as Full Support to one of our Indian breweries, one year as Baoding Brewery Plant Manager, three years as Tangshan Brewery Manager and two years of EHS Director. I am also currently a Partner in the company. Every position has been full of challenges and each role presents a broad range of opportunities for young people with a head full of dreams and who are willing to fight for it.

When I look back at my contribution on the SET project, I am particularly proud of my support contributions to the Indian brewery in 2016. I along with a support team went from China to India, worked at the shop floor together with the local colleagues, used VPO tools, opened the gap in the production process, found opportunities & the root cause of the problems, and formulated actions to solve the problem. Post which, new standards were set to ensure the stability of subsequent productions and stable cycle of SDCA. We overcame cultural & environmental differences and achieved the goals supported by our business unit in India. All KPIs of safety, quality and efficiency improved drastically that year and finally the Indian brewery got VPO (excellence program) certification by the end of the year.

At Budweiser APAC, the spirit of ownership drives us to work hard and achieve results. Stepping out of our comfort zones, working hard in the spirit of ownership, focusing on execution, continuing to challenge, finding best benchmarks, opening gaps, and finally surpassing the best benchmarks to form a new one motivates Supply Chain and Logistics function to take every challenge bravely as it comes and achieve the goal of "Challenge accepted" each time.