Essential Duties and Responsibilities
MRO Buying
• Source and purchase MRO items: spare parts, tooling, fasteners, bearings, filters, lubricants, PPE, janitorial and facility supplies, and contracted repair services.
• Process purchase requisitions from Maintenance and Production, confirming specifications, part numbers, quantities and need-by dates before ordering.
• Obtain quotes, compare pr
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ice, lead time and quality, and negotiate pricing, terms and freight with suppliers and distributors.
• Maintain approved-supplier relationships, including OEM, distributor and local vendors, and qualify alternates for critical spares.
• Work with Maintenance to set min/max levels, reorder points and critical-spares lists for the storeroom, and flag slow-moving or obsolete stock.
• Manage emergency and line-down buys, including after-hours coordination and expedited freight when needed.
• Pursue cost reduction through consolidation, blanket orders, vendor-managed inventory, vending programs and standardization of parts.
• Manage repair-and-return and warranty claims, and process supplier credits and returns.
Intercompany Purchasing and Expediting
• Place and maintain purchase orders and transfer orders with sister plants and other company business units for raw materials, components and finished goods.
• Track intercompany orders from release through shipment and receipt, and keep delivery dates current in the ERP system.
• Expedite late or at-risk intercompany shipments by contacting sister-plant planners, schedulers and logistics, and escalate shortages that threaten production.
• Confirm intercompany pricing, transfer-price agreements, units of measure and lead times, and resolve discrepancies with the sending plant and Finance.
• Coordinate carrier selection, freight scheduling and inbound transportation for intercompany loads, and consolidate shipments where it saves cost.
• Reconcile intercompany receipts and invoices with Receiving and Accounts Payable, and help close open items and variances at month end.
• Communicate order status, delays and recovery plans to Planning, Production and plant leadership.
• Review open-order and past-due reports daily and publish an intercompany expedite list.
General Buyer Responsibilities
• Maintain accurate item, supplier and pricing records in the ERP system.
• Resolve invoice, receiving and price variances (three-way match issues) with Accounts Payable and Receiving.
• Follow company purchasing policy, approval limits, safety, environmental and ethics requirements.
• Track and report purchasing KPIs such as on-time delivery, price variance, spend savings and past-due lines.
• Support continuous improvement projects, supplier scorecards and audits.
• Perform other duties as assigned.
Qualifications
• High school diploma or equivalent; associate or bachelor's degree in supply chain, business or a related field preferred.
• 2–4 years of purchasing, buying or expediting experience in a manufacturing environment.
• Working knowledge of MRO categories and maintenance terminology, or the ability to learn it quickly.
• Proficiency with an ERP/MRP system (purchase orders, requisitions, receiving, inventory) and Microsoft Excel.
• Strong negotiation, follow-up and problem-solving skills, with the ability to prioritize many open orders at once.
• Clear written and verbal communication with suppliers, plant staff and sister-plant teams.
Preferred
• Experience with intercompany or multi-plant transfers and transfer pricing.
• Experience with a storeroom, CMMS or vendor-managed inventory program.
• Familiarity with freight, Incoterms and basic customs or hazmat shipping requirements.
• APICS (CPIM) or ISM (CPSM) certification, or progress toward one.
• Experience in a chemical, coatings or process-manufacturing plant.
Performance Measures, Working Conditions and EEO
Performance measures
• On-time delivery of MRO and intercompany orders, and number of line-down events caused by a missing part.
• Purchase