A day with Jaroslav Mikliš
Many colleagues will have heard his name before. That’s hardly surprising, because Jaroslav Mikliš – now aged 65 – has been a key player in Vetropack's supply chain for almost 30 years, ever since he started out as Head of Purchasing at Vetropack Moravia Glass in 1995.
While others retire at this stage of their lives, Jaroslav Mikliš has embarked on yet another career change: at the beginning of this year, he took on the role of Group Supply Chain Projects and Transformation Manager. His new remit: to bring about change in our existing supply chain management processes. In other words, he is helping to transform the processes for planning, managing and optimising procurement, warehousing and transport – the same processes that he has helped to develop and establish for Vetropack since 1995.
“Our processes and planning were certainly somewhat simpler back then, because Vetropack didn’t consist of so many plants in those days,” Jaroslav Mikliš recalls. “Nevertheless, the processes and challenges are essentially the same, even though the company has continued to evolve.”
Everyone knows how difficult it is to change tried-and-tested processes that have been developed in-house. It’s a challenge that requires a high degree of agility, willingness to change, and openness to new ideas. Jaroslav Mikliš demonstrates all these qualities in his day-to-day work – all the more so now that his new role has taken him directly to a new country and a new plant.
Jaroslav’s previous role as Head of Supply Chain for Kyjov and Nemšová involved a varied range of responsibilities, as well as Group-wide planning– and the tasks he’s taking on in his new job are no less diverse.
«I’m drawing on my many years of experience to help establish standardised supply chain processes in Boffalora.»
First among them is support for supply chain transformation at Boffalora. Jaroslav sums up his current role in Italy: “I’m drawing on my many years of experience to help establish standardised supply chain processes in Boffalora.” He goes on to explain in more detail: “Our ultimate aim is to satisfy our internal and external customers. To achieve that, we’re introducing standardised purchasing processes and optimising our planning to guarantee steady supplies to our customers – and at the same time, we need to meet the plant’s own requirements. That also includes finding practical solutions for issues such as stabilising and improving storage, in terms of inventory quantities as well as quality.” After all, the move to the new plant in Boffalora is a major change for our colleagues on the ground. Thanks to the new warehouse, Vetropack Italia's entire inventory will be located on site for the first time, and the warehouse logistics will be fully automated. The warehouse and yard management processes – which are performed manually in Vetropack’s other plants – will therefore need to be adapted here.

Jaroslav Mikliš is quick to point out that new technology and buildings do not fundamentally change supply chain management. He emphasises the importance of establishing Vetropack's standard processes in the face of all these changes: this is also the way to ensure stability. With this in mind, he and his colleagues in Boffalora are working intensively on how best to plan raw material and finished goods inventories – a challenge that is increasingly urgent as markets become more volatile.
As well as continuing to work on Group-wide planning, Jaroslav is playing a major part in collaboration with external experts to develop new concepts for our supply chain management.
At the end of the day, in spite of all the changes, the goal of supply chain management remains the same: to organise the entire supply chain efficiently and effectively so we can deliver our glass packaging to our customers on time, in the expected quality, and at a reasonable price.
As Group Supply Chain Projects and Transformation Manager, Jaroslav Mikliš is just as passionate and committed to his work as he was in all his previous roles. His colleagues say that he finds a way to overcome every challenge he tackles. As a firm believer that there is always a solution, he declares: “I always focus on how we can do it – because we have to find the right way for everyone.”