Buyer-Planner - Crane : Job Details

Position Summary:

Responsible for executing the supply chain strategy for assigned commodities and assuring the continuous supply of assigned components to support customer service goals, minimize the total landed cost of material, and optimize safety, quality, delivery, and cost metrics.

Principle Duties (includes, but is not limited to):

* Proactively procure and plan materials to ensure uninterrupted flow of product to customers as required. Lead the execution of supply chain strategy for assigned commodities. Support CRANE's objectives for material cost reduction, supplier quality improvement, supplier lead time reduction, improved reliability of supplier deliveries, and inventory reduction.

* Drive continuous improvement in the supply base. Work towards increased inventory turns, reduced cycle times, and improved Customer on-time delivery by managing pull-based material replenishment processes, including, but not limited to Kanban cards, vendor managed inventory and supplier consignments.

* Evaluate and act upon demand and inventory signals for assigned commodities. Generate and adjust purchase orders and/or shop work orders to support production schedules. Input, maintain, and adjust records or transactions to ensure system validity.

* Ensure quick resolution of shipping discrepancies, receiving errors, and invoice errors, and authorize inventory adjustments. Coordinate adjustments to ship dates or quantities on open purchase orders as necessary. Work to eliminate excess and obsolete parts, and to rationalize similar parts.

* Effectively communicate forecasted requirements to external suppliers. Objectively measure and communicate supplier performance to support supply chain continuous improvement efforts. Interface with Suppliers, Quality, Strategic Sourcing, and Engineering to quickly resolve quality, delivery or cost issues.

* Obtain competitive bids, analyse costs, and negotiate/award contracts to vendors based on total costs to the company commensurate with financial risks, quality standards, and delivery capabilities. Provide effective support for new product development, proposal development, and subcontracting opportunities.

* Work closely with the Value Stream, Commodity Management, Manufacturing, and Engineering teams to proactively identify, prioritize and complete resourcing and supplier development projects. Support actions to rationalize the supply base, to drive increased sourcing from low-cost sources, to leverage the material spend with other CRANE business units, and to negotiate and implement supplier Long-Term Agreements (LTAs).

* Participate in Continuous Improvement events to eliminate waste, create flow, and drive breakthrough results in metrics related to Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost, and Growth.

* Maintain awareness of world markets and emerging material-related issues in the industry and position the supply chain to flexibly respond accordingly.

* Leverage technology solutions to maximize effectiveness and efficiency.

* Effectively communicate areas of concern to appropriate departments, individuals and/or suppliers.

* Engender a spirit of cooperation throughout the supply chain to ensure responsiveness to the customer.

Essential Qualifications / Experience:

* Bachelor's Degree in Supply Chain or other business-related field.

* Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills. Ability to make timely, effective, fact-based decisions. This includes a strong working knowledge of MS Excel, data extraction and analysis, and MRP/ERP processes, including sales order-, purchase order-, and work order-management.

* Self-starter with exceptional verbal and written communication skills. Strong interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to perform and produce results in multifunctional teams in a dynamic work environment.

* Customer-oriented focus with a creative and winning attitude. Proven ability to develop collaborative relationships and influence up, down, and across organizational lines.

* Willingness to travel 5%

Preferred Qualifications/Experience

* Strong preference for analytical Bachelor's degree, e.g., Business Analytics, Supply Chain, or Information Systems.

* Minimum 2-3 years' experience in a Supply Chain-related role.

* Knowledge of supplier qualification processes and supplier performance metrics.

* Experience with global sourcing.

* Strong negotiation and contract management skills.

* Knowledge of lean continuous improvement methods, esp. Toyota-based systems.

* Knowledge of metals, metal-forming methods, and common quality defects.