QU02 - Customer Liaison

Challenge Manufacturing; Spartanburg (SC); On-site; USD 60,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

ESOP program

Job summary

Challenge Manufacturing in Spartanburg, SC is seeking a Customer Liaison to develop and manage strong relationships with our automotive customers. The role focuses on understanding how Challenge parts impact vehicle assemblies, communicating build criteria, and promoting teamwork between the customer and our plant teams.

The position requires visiting customer sites, maintaining open communication on build issues, and driving timely countermeasures.

Qualifications

• Associate or bachelor’s degree required.
• 5+ years in related experience.
• Equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Willingness to visit customer plants frequently.
• Strong communication and relationship-building skills.
• Ability to manage multiple customer priorities.

Responsibilities

• Understand how Challenge products impact customer vehicles and build metrics.
• Know where, in the assembly plant, our parts are introduced into the vehicle.
• Know how our parts interface with others in the vehicle to understand important build criteria.
• Interact with customer personnel.
• Visit customer plants frequently to demonstrate customer care and promote teamwork and cooperation for the common good.
• Determine the key customer personnel involved with Challenge parts and understand their roles.

Skills

Customer liaison

Relationship building

Communication

Travel to customer plants

Education

Associate degree

Bachelor's degree

Job description

Who We Are:

Challenge Manufacturing's mission is to manufacture with operational excellence by empowering our employee-owners. As a leading tier 1 supplier of complex metal assemblies for the global automotive industry, we drive innovative solutions for future mobility. We believe the best ideas come from individual unique perspectives. These ideas combined with the teamwork of industry leaders allow us to accomplish any challenge. Our team members take pride in the work we do and embody our core values of safety, ownership, and teamwork every day; they are the true driving force in our operations.

Challenge is proud to be one of the largest employee-owned automotive companies in North America. One of the many benefits of joining the Challenge team is the ESOP program. This program allows Challenge to give shares of the Company to all employee-owners annually. These shares are an additional retirement benefit that will continue to grow during your time at Challenge. Being part of an ESOP means our employee-owners share in Challenge's success!

Challenge is #QualityDriven and #PeoplePowered!

Who We Want:

The Customer Liaison is responsible for developing a relationship with the customer communicating all customer needs and concerns to the perspective Challenge Manufacturing plant.

What You’ll Do:

• Understand how Challenge products impact customer vehicles and build metrics
• Know where, in the assembly plant, our parts are introduced into the vehicle
• Know how our parts interface with others in the vehicle to understand important build criteria
• Interact with customer personnel
• Visit customer plants frequently to demonstrate customer care/interest and to promote teamwork and cooperation for the common good
• Determine the key customer personnel that are involved with the utilization of Challenge parts, and understand their individual roles with respect to our performance
• Maintain strong communication flows that facilitate awareness of build issues as they arise
• Introduce key customer personnel to Challenge Quality Managers and Engineers, and enhance their relationships
• Visualize the condition first-hand to ensure obtaining appropriate problem definition
• Demonstrate a sense of urgency for addressing customer concerns
• Earn customer's trust by providing fast response and committing to timely countermeasure feedback
• Communicate customer build issues to both Corporate and Operations personnel
• Make sure that Quality, Engineering, and Management personnel are made aware of the customer concern and expectations, and provide an understanding of how the issue is impacting them
• Distribute Customer Contact Report on a weekly basis
• Provide a more detailed understanding of the problem with those Challenge persons assigned to address the issue
• Support problem resolution efforts
• Follow up to verify that the issue is placed on the Fast Response Board to ensure it doesn't fall through the cracks
• Follow up to obtain resolution status information for customer feedback
• Collect and help analyze quality data, as required
• Review the manufacturing process, checking, error-proofing initiatives driven by the issue to help confirm that they are both thorough and effective
• On-site Support requirements
• Follow up with Customer plant personnel on open issues
• Maintain a good working relationship while a guest in the customers facility
• Perform any line side sorting as necessary to keep the customer running.
• Provide daily detailed communication back to CMC Corporate and Plant management teams.
• Assist the customer in any root cause analysis and corrective action as it relates to CMC product

When and Where:

This will be a 1st Shift / 7:00AM-4:00PM M-F position located at our Plant in Spartanburg, SC.

Occasionally, this may require you to arrive early, stay late, or work on weekends, outside of our regular hours, to ensure we successfully meet customer needs, deadlines, or urgent requests.

What You Need to Have:

• Associate degree from a 2- or 4-year college
• 5 Years in related experience and/or training
• Equivalent combination of education and experience
• Bachelor's Degree from a 4-year college or university
• 10 to 15 years related experience and/or training
• Equivalent combination of education and experience
• Has high standards of performance for self.
• Takes responsibility for actions, results, and mistakes.
• Is thorough, accurate, and reliable when performing and completing job tasks; demonstrates honesty and integrity in all aspects of work.
• Takes positive action to objectively resolve conflict by listening, staying focused on issue to find resolution, and monitoring progress.
• Maintains positive relationships by constructively resolving conflicts.
• Uses feedback from others to continuously improve performance and work relationships.
• Moves within own and/or other work areas (flexes) to support plant flow.
• Works with sense of urgency to meet needs of customers.
• Has necessary experience, skills, and knowledge to perform all aspects of job; rotates through all job responsibilities.
• Maintains knowledge and skills to perform job effectively.
• Has ability to focus on benefits of change and see it as positive; approaches change or newness in constructive/objective manner; views change as learning opportunity.
• Looks for good in others; works collaboratively with others; shares information and knowledge.
• Is at work when scheduled and ensures coverage when absent; takes timely breaks/lunches; uses time wisely.