Materials Planner

Position Summary:

The Indirect Material Planner is an active team member in planning and scheduling the delivery of material from suppliers. This position is responsible to monitor the flows of buy items, guarantee availability of components in order to avoid material shortages and production downtime, as well as to manage inventory levels to meet our customer service and inventory targets.

Position Responsibilities:

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following.Other duties may be assigned.

• Perform timely, cost-conscious procurement of indirect/MRO items.
• Receive and analyze requisitions to determine quantity, specifications and delivery requirements.
• From approved supplier list, select suppliers to fulfill scheduled plant deliveries.
• Entering data for the on-boarding of new selected suppliers relative to material planning.
• Ensure optimal inventory levels and safety stock are maintained for their parts
• Work with Quality Assurance to resolve quality issues with suppliers.
• Maintain proactive shortage identification and management - help flag root causes & corrective actions.
• Identify total cost and cash flow opportunities with suppliers.
• Analyze parts for KanBan and Supplier replenishment.
• Coordinate with production planners for solutions when parts cannot be delivered as promised.
• Resolve invoicing discrepancies with suppliers and accounting.
• Analyze material and capacity availability to provide customer promise dates.
• Maintains item master lead time information based upon process improvements, current constraints, total current demand by product family, and priority information.
• Interface with required functional groups to resolve challenging delivery requirements.
• Communicate forecasts and replenishment plans to supplier.
• Review open requirements, monitoring vendor performance and expediting where necessary. Ensure that problems relating to delivery, quality or pricing are promptly conveyed to the supplier and resolved in a timely manner.
• Productivity: identify and implement cost reduction/productivity projects to meet the corporate initiatives/goals. Maintain pipeline and financial records for reporting and tracking productivity.
• Expedite deliveries to meet and exceed scheduled critical requirements.

Key Competencies and Success Factors:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required.

• Maintain product knowledge in terms of options, substitutions, critical functions/components, etc.
• Understand material specifications in terms of substitutions, quality, engineering requirements, etc.
• Maintain basic knowledge of supplier processes and capabilities.
• Understanding of Kanban and JIT systems.
• Able to rely on experience and judgment to plan and accomplish goals.
• Must possess a strong customer service orientation and must provide dedicated support of internal and external customer requirements.
• Must be a strong written and verbal communicator, able to communicate to various audiences effectively
• Team oriented, must have the ability to work cohesively with others.
• Must be able to work well with external suppliers.
• Must possess ability to work well in a manufacturing environment.
• Must be detail-oriented and self-motivated, able to work with minimal supervision.
• Must be able to work in a fast-paced, multi-tasked environment.

EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE

• Associate degree or 2+ years minimum planner/buyer or related manufacturing experience.
• Ability to become proficient at production and supplier scheduling.
• Computer proficient Microsoft Office applications and ERP preferred.
• Basic mathematical skills
• Experience with job shop manufacturing environments and processes.
• Experience in operations, inventory management, MRP or lean manufacturing processes.
• Experience with visual management systems.