Buyer

What you’ll do:

The Indirect Buyer position is responsible for coordinating the master schedule & initiating the timely release of purchase orders as well as negotiating contracts for production materials. The Buyer will be working with SAP to source a variety of complex materials and services in order to effectively support the production requirements for the plant; develop appropriate stocking strategies; work with corporate resources to identify product supply sources, and review and negotiate purchase price; work with supplier quality team to qualify vendors to ensure the overall conformance of materials purchased to manufacturing specifications; assist facility with new product development; and manage vendor relationships/quality/delivery/inventory levels in accordance with plant objectives. 

Essential Responsibilities:
•    Procurement – identifies qualified suppliers, issues RFQs, and evaluates supplier reliability; procures complex items (material, parts, supplies, and equipment) following established purchasing policies and procedures and optimizing price, delivery, and terms
•    Negotiation – negotiates price, terms, quality, delivery, and replenishment strategy, claims, etc., supporting required material flow and supplier performance and relationship development. Negotiates supplier delivery schedules and advanced replenishment methods.
•    Supplier Management – proactively monitors supplier performance (order placement, order changes, order performance, etc.); proactively identifies and executes solutions to ensure material flow to customer demand; manages issue resolution and recovery; develops/builds supplier relationships; effectively mitigates and escalates related risk to minimize impact to business/material flow and customer commitments.
•    Building Organizational Capability – provides tactical execution oversight and direction to ensure tactical execution; develops meaningful relationships with other Supply Chain and Functional Team Members across the site and business – Commodity Mgmt., Supplier Development, Plant Operations, Customer Service, Quality, Engineering, EH&S, etc. Develops tools for themselves and the team to drive efficiency improvements.
•    Continuous Improvement – works to drive continuous improvement in material quality and delivery; uses data to support decision making and related improvements; initiates and actively supports continuous improvement opportunities; participates in rapid improvement events. Looks for and develops solutions to issues with existing processes and procedures.

Additional Responsibilities:

•    Lead the buying processes by participating in identifying, communicating, and resolving supplier problems through the development and maintenance of ethical supplier relationships that foster a desire to furnish new ideas and promote cooperation with Eaton on an on-going basis.
•    Develop, support, and maintain adequate supply of assigned commodities and inventory needs.
•    Resolve problem situations related to selection of source, price, deliveries, specifications, quality and other terms with suppliers and various internal departments.
•    Maintain part parameters with MRP.
•    Determine adjustments to inventory as a result of scrap, damage, or loss of parts.
•    Support Value Stream Managers to improve deliveries when necessary.
•    Support weekly production meetings with accurate shortage information.
•    Create and maintain supplier schedules on a weekly basis to ensure accurate and on-time information flow to suppliers.
•    Develop and maintain purchase part strategy (PFEP)
•    Improve performance optimization by identifying, tracking, and reporting on KPIs critical to supply chain success, providing actionable insights for informed decision-making.
•    Analytics leadership in creating and managing complex models, dashboards, and tools by integrating internal and external data and business intelligence software to generate valuable insights.
•    Drive operational efficiency applying advanced data and system analysis techniques to enhance business processes.
•    Project Management: Work with various teams and senior leaders to coordinate and deliver analytics projects that support strategic decisions and continuous improvement events.
•    Reduce excess incoming inventory by continually reviewing action message reports. Maximize the value of each purchase consistent with the Company’s requirements and policies to achieve balance between function, productivity, quality, and other terms with suppliers and various internal departments.
•    Drive and implement safety policies and programs when applicable.

Qualifications:

Required Qualifications:
•    Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution.
•    Minimum three (3) years of experience in a manufacturing business with demonstrated success in leadership and achieved results.
•    Minimum 1 year of experience with an ERP system (SAP, Oracle, MFGPro, AS400, etc.) 
•    No relocation benefit is being offered for this position. Only candidates that currently reside within the immediate geographical area of 50 miles of Highland, IL will be considered. Active-Duty Military Service member candidates are exempt from the geographical area limitation

• Eaton will not consider applicants for employment immigration sponsorship or support for this position. This means that Eaton will not support any CPT, OPT, or STEM OPT plans, F-1, H-1B, H-1B cap registration, O-1, E-3, TN status, 1-485 job profitability, etc. 

Preferred Qualifications:
•    Bachelor’s degree in business administration, Engineering or Supply Chain Management.
•    Experience in a manufacturing environment.
•    Experience within Excel using V Lookups and Pivot Tables.
•    Experience with ERP System i.e. MFGPro, SAP, AS400, Oracle, etc.
•    APICS professional certification.
•    Experience in a Union environment.

Skills:

•    Demonstrated working knowledge of Lean Manufacturing
•    Demonstrated working knowledge of the MESH and zero incident safety culture and an awareness of all environmental aspects associated with or located in his/her respective areas
•    Demonstrated working knowledge of EQS, EBE, and EMS
•    Excellent communication skills – both oral and written as well as possessing skills in the art of persuasion
•    Demonstrated skills of technical analysis and evaluation 
•    Strong background in the developing, biding and negotiating contracts is highly desirable.
•    SAP experience