Inventory Systems & Control Manager

POSITION TITLE: Inventory Systems & Control Manager REPORTS TO: President SUPERVISES: Inventory Control Staff OBJECTIVE: The Inventory Systems & Control Manager is responsible for data integrity, inventory processes, and product database management across Southwood’s Retail, Landscape, and Plant Production divisions. The position requires investigating and eliminating inventory discrepancies, building standard operating procedures (SOPs), tracking production yields, producing a weekly open-to-buy (OTB) report, assisting buyers with complex data imports via SQL and Excel, and utilizing AI to enhance the plant catalog and e-commerce presence. He/She will also actively participate in periodic hands-on physical counts and is responsible for the supervision and training of all inventory support staff. RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES: Data Architecture & Procurement Support Produces a weekly open-to-buy (OTB) report, analyzing current inventory levels, sales trends, and budgets to guide the purchasing team's spending decisions. Assists the buying team by receiving unformatted vendor confirmations and price sheets and transforming them into clean, standardized formats. Utilizes advanced Excel functions (Power Query, XLOOKUP/VLOOKUP, indexing, macros, pivot tables) to map external vendor data to internal SKU structures. Manages and executes the import/export of inventory data through the SQL interchange. Ensures seamless data flow between vendor spreadsheets, the database, and POS/e-commerce systems. Validates data prior to receipt, ensuring all POs, barcodes, costs, and retail prices are correctly structured in the system. Inventory Operations & Process Engineering Actively participates in hands-on physical inventory counts, working directly in the field alongside staff to count products and audit stock levels across the retail yard, greenhouses, and landscape holding areas. Runs daily and weekly negative stock reports, investigates root causes of physical count discrepancies, and implements corrections. Creates and enforces strict procedures for inventory movement, including landscape crew transfers and live goods shrinkage/write-offs. Executes a rolling cycle-count program optimized for Southwood's seasonal inventory and sales cycles. Production & Growing Inventory Systems Monitors inventory tracking for the plant production and greenhouse operations, including raw materials (soil, containers, plugs, liners, and seeds) and finished goods. Develops and enforces processes to track inventory and shrink rates. Coordinates with the Production Director and staff to ensure growing schedules and yield data are accurately entered into the inventory system. Manages the systemic transfer of finished, retail-ready plants from the growing operation into the retail and landscape inventory pools. Database Integrity & AI Enrichment Leverages generative AI tools to draft and standardize plant descriptions, care instructions, and SEO-friendly copy for the website. Employs AI tools to automate the extraction of key product details from vendor PDFs or unstructured data for bulk uploading. Audits product records routinely to ensure all critical fields are fully populated. Corrects inconsistent naming conventions across the database (e.g., standardizing botanical and common names). E-Commerce & Team Management Manages the connection between Point of Sale (POS) software and the website to ensure online inventory accurately reflects real-time physical stock. Directs the day-to-day tasks of inventory staff including cycle counts, tagging, and anomaly detection. Works directly with retail cashiers, landscape foremen, and growing staff to correct habits leading to inventory errors. Produces a periodic Inventory Health report for leadership. General Performs additional duties as assigned or needed. COMPETENCIES Analytical Problem Solving – Investigates records, sales history, and the physical yard to solve inventory discrepancies and identify root cau…

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