Buyer

Role Summary/Purpose:

The Buyer demonstrates leadership in communicating business goals/programs/processes for Materials across all levels of the organization. This role has the ability to effect short-term and some long-term business goals. The Buyer is responsible for managing all purchased materials to support optimal stocking levels and customer requirements in direct partnership with area planners, schedulers, sourcing, and suppliers. A key component of this role is to facilitate receipt of needed purchased materials to support delivery dates, meet customer requirements, and maintain appropriate inventory levels.

Essential Responsibilities:

• Manage purchased materials & liaise with suppliers to maintain optimal inventory 
• Prepare, update, and monitor purchase orders
• Purchasing for outside processing requirements – parts required to be sent out for additional applications
• Ensure operational alignment with production plan and KPIs
• Optimize inventory and identify/drive process improvements
• Execute under routine analysis using vested methods and technologies and/or contributes to technical developments in the team under supervision
• Support long-term planning of production requirements by analyzing the customer requirements to determine proper execution, maximizing capacity and resources
• Support the Sales and planning functions and work cross-functionally to determine the critical path, available capacity, and lead times for orders and quotes
• Interface with Sales and Manufacturing cells to track production progress as needed
• Gather production and inventory metrics and periodically report these metrics to the Materials Manager
• Report on and monitor purchasing plans 
• Make use of business forecast with easy to access and transparent data and translate into forecast information for sourcing and manufacturing medium/long-term planning
• Support scheduling discussions
• Identify supplier constraints/bottlenecks and coordinate with Sourcing and Materials Manager to develop fulfillment plan
• Effectively use and share materials management and lean manufacturing best practices to facilitate acceleration of improvement actions

• Develops and maintains relationships with wholesalers and suppliers capable of providing quality, delivery, cost, lead times, minimal inventory levels and continuity of supply. 
• Assures that suppliers have the capacity to meet current and future needs as well as ongoing upside capacity to satisfy unplanned demands.
• Assesses financial risks of purchases through cost analysis and maintenance of records.
• Expedite purchase order with suppliers to ensure that material arrives in a timely manner that allows production to 
• Minimizes excess and obsolete materials.
• Performs other related duties as assigned. 

Desired Characteristics:

• Creative thinker, able to think outside the box
• Must have great communication skills
• Understanding business requests as related to gathering data and supplying meaningful reports
• Ability to develop effective working relationships with customers, co-workers, and administration
• Time Management – manages time effectively and ability to multi-task
• Attention to detail – demonstrates concern for thoroughness and accuracy
• Product knowledge – has a solid understanding of products and services provided
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail

Qualifications:

• Associates degree in a technical or business field or equivalent experience
• Minimum of four to five years in a Manufacturing environment preferred
• Ability to sit at desk 80% of workday
• Abilit to use computer 80% of workday
• Microsoft Office products: 2-4 years
• SQL query: 2 years
• Thorough knowledge of purchasing procedures and internal controls. 
• Prior experience with ERP/MRP systems a plus
• Utilize the latest Office 365 Suite of applications to simplify processes and share information
• SQL Server Mgmt Studio with ability to write SQL queries a plus
• Understanding data analysis and evaluation of IT systems and their specifications
• IBM iOS or Info LX basic knowledge is a plus
• Understanding Network Printing a plus