Description
Manage a team of planners to support a Sales, Inventory, and Operations Planning (SIOP) process to ensure alignment between sales needs and product availability including a monthly executive team report for final decision-making and alignment.
Requirements
Responsible for managing a broad, highly mixed, and technical category of parts, materials, and supplies while maintaining inventory at an appropriate level to achieve both on-time service and inventory targets.
- Maintain accurate inventory levels for all assigned parts and categories while driving towards optimal levels to meet the needs of the business.
- Create forward-looking purchase and inventory projections to support cash flow forecasts and working capital requirements.
- Communicate issues with material availability to the Sales, Customer Service, and Marketing teams along with issues achieving customer requested ship dates.
- Ensure efficient planning of new product promotions, new product introductions, and product discontinuations.
- Develop and maintains required planning, purchasing records, and performance reports including Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) and progress.
- Maintain current, accurate, open-order status of all purchases to ensure continuity of supply and communicates any supply problems which may pose a risk or impact on business operations.
- Monitor the health of inventory levels including creating forward looking visibility to potential material shortages to communicate proactively to Sales and Customer Service.
- Direct purchase order creation on a timely and economical basis with the best combination of price, quality, and delivery.
- Monitor status of open purchase orders to ensure on-time delivery of all materials, including timely resolution, communication, and mitigation of future potential issues.
Knowledge/Skills/Abilities:
- Prior people management experience including priority setting, decisiveness, performance reviews, coaching, and development.
- Ability to “Think like the customer and deliver” is required.
- Develop collaborative relationships with Sales, Customer Service, Product Management, Marketing, & Warehouse Management to improve service levels while lowering days-on-hand and meeting customer satisfaction. Being a great Team player is a must have.
- Ability to delve into ERP system functionality, test solutions in Sandbox, read support documentation to fully grasp the most optimal way to fine-tune the system to work for us in the most effective and efficient way possible.
- Ability to independently troubleshoot issues/concerns, generate solutions and recommend a course of action that solves the underlying issue/concern.
- Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists.
- Ability to effectively and efficiently communicate and present to senior management through reports and presentations, simple and clear verbal, and written communication.
- Wholesale Distribution, Manufacturing and/or Commercial Products work experience highly preferred.
- Ability to multi-task and demonstrate a strong sense of urgency for critical items.
- Ability to plan effectively to meet required inventory targets.
- Ability to train others in the use of Inventory Optimization processes and tools.
- Ability to read, analyze and interpret documents such as general business periodicals, professional journals, technical procedures, or governmental regulations.
- Must be proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), especially Microsoft Excel.
- Must have a high level of independent judgment and analytical and leadership skills.
Education/Experience:
- Bachelor’s degree from four-year college or university required.
- A minimum of 5 years’ experience supply chain functions such as planning, scheduling, purchasing, demand planning, and data analysis.
- Experience with Oracle NetSuite is highly preferred.
- Must have demonstrated experience with MRP/ERP systems.
- Six Sigma or similar continuous improvement training highly preferred.
- APICS / ISM certification preferred (CPM, CPIM, CPP, CPSM).
Requirements
Functional Requirements:
- While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit; use hands to finger, handle or feel objects, tools or controls; reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear.
- The employee is occasionally required to stand, walk, stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl.
- Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision and color vision.
- The noise level in the work environment is usually quiet.