Supply Chain and Inventory Specialist I/II

The Supply Chain & Inventory Specialist is part of the Planning department and responsible for building and maintaining the production schedules, interfacing between the planning department and other teams, loading project demand into ERP systems to enable accurate material need projections, and for providing and maintain sufficient inventory to support area of responsibility. This will be accomplished by building strong relationships with project team members, Operations, Project Management, Logistics, Quality Assurance, Finance and Purchasing. Act as a process owner for some of the key processes for the function.

Responsibilities Include:

• Daily contact with production teams to coordinate manufacturing schedules
• Daily contact with project teams to communicate key material decision time points, deliveries, and events
• Reviews manufacturing documents for accuracy; communicates changes to appropriate groups in timely manner
• Maintain department key performance indicators
• Ensure ERP systems (such as SAP and JDA as applicable) are kept up to date with the latest info and customers are informed timely
• Participate in plant meetings to review and improve performance
• Manage stakeholder relationships and expectations
• Drive continuous improvements and participate in continuous improvement initiatives led by colleagues
• Offering innovative ideas and solutions to maximize business opportunities to address challenges in the supply chain specialist function
• Creates impact with ideas for the larger organization and anticipates and responds to changes
• Influences others and is viewed as a credible and respected resource among peers for onboarding/training new employees
• Act as planning project lead for project teams
• Provide material financial forecasting to Purchasing and Finance as necessary
• Provide plant utilization forecasting to management as necessary
• Manage Material Requirements Plan (MRP) inventory forecasts to support Master Production Schedule (MPS)
• Determine raw material or commodity/code needs and proper inventory levels. Create system requisitions and monitor delivery of materials while communicating priorities to appropriate groups. Communicate significant changes in forecast volumes that may require changes in purchasing strategy
• Communicate with test labs and quality assurance, as applicable, to establish and tack delivery dates for raw material or manufactured products on test.
• Establish performance reports to monitor, measure and address control, where necessary, of supplier performance to assure timely quality performance of supplier
• Prepare monthly inventory reports to summarize current rejected, obsolete and surplus commodities, DOH, working inventory and total inventory.
• Support yearly material standards setting process with Purchasing and Finance
• Provide material forecasting for Purchasing and Finance, as necessary
• Identify rejected, surplus and obsolete items. Where possible, initiate action plans to utilize/dispose of these items by transferring them to other division/plants, returning non-conforming material to the vendor, or determining other solutions to utilize or sell material before disposal. Manage timely disposition of obsolete and rejected material within financial guidelines.
• Become proficient with the use of planning systems such as SAP and tools like Excel. Take leadership role in the implementation of new systems and planning new projects.

Position will be hired based on level of experience.

• Bachelor or Master level preferable in Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain or Business Management or equivalent experience; APICS or other certifications a plus
• 3 years' work experience in similar environment is preferred
• Must be experienced with ERP systems, preferably SAP
• Excellent written and oral communication skills are required
• Excellent organizational skills are required
• Demonstrated software skills that may include COGNOS, SAP, Infor, Microsoft Office and/or other systems
• Proven strong problem solving, negotiation and conflict resolution skills
• Must possess good analytical skills
• Be a team player with focus on improvement and strong drive for results
• Ability to step up and take leadership to own challenges
• Persistent and resilient when confronted with obstacles, and resolves issues in a timely manner

Accountability/Scope:

The Supply Chain and Inventory Specialist II is expected to maintain service levels by supporting plant operations throughput while minimizing inventory investments. The Supply Chain Specialist II will make decisions regarding scheduling, ERP demand loading, cost saving programs (where applicable) with minimal supervision from management. Failure to meet service level expectations may result in equipment shutdown and lost production.