Director of Materials
Position Objective: Responsible for the overall leadership/management, direction and coordination of materials planning, procurement and scheduling. Ensures that material flows into the factory and/or the product distribution warehouse as required to support customer order schedules, while also minimizing inventory investment in dollars and space. Drive to reduce cost of purchased direct materials. Assure that product cost is accurately calculated.
Relationship To Others: Direct management of materials planning and procurement personnel, including master schedulers, planner/buyers and procurement specialists. Responsible for standard costs and capital expenditure program. In-depth communication with various levels of all other Operations’ functions, as well as with personnel in Order Entry, Sales & Marketing, Engineering and Executive Management., and personnel in other Divisions at multiple locations. Regular communication with material and service suppliers.
Dimensions of Position:
- Directly supervises the activities of a department of approximately ten exempt and non-exempt employees.
- Annual operating budget of expense cost centers approximates $2 million.
- The Minneapolis Materials group supports Home and Professional products for the Consumer Products Division, with gross annual sales revenue of approximately $150 million.
- The Minneapolis Materials group manages the annual purchase of $80 million of direct material from global sources totaling over three hundred suppliers.
- The Minneapolis Material group is responsible for managing the flow of direct materials to minimize an inventory investment approximating $25 million.
- Proper management of the function is essential to maintain customer on-time shipping expectations and minimize risk of fines and loss of business.
- Works with confidential information including company financials, salary data, and company strategic plans.
Priority Order
- Assure that policies, plans, programs and an organization structure are in place to meet the materials planning and procurement needs of the company. Revise as needed to adapt to the changing business objectives and conditions.
- Provide leadership and management support to direct reports.
- Recruit and train as required. Assign individual goals and objectives that support company objectives.
- Plan for and provide resources required to support the Materials function.
- Gather data from all available sources, including forecasting analysts, sales, marketing, and sales history records, as input for planning process.
- Assure that direct materials are available to support shipping all customer orders on time, and meeting all new product development schedules.
- Direct the flow of materials into the factory and/or the product distribution warehouse such that inventory investment is minimized and meets company objectives.
- Assures that a production plan has been developed that considers the constraints of the production line capacities and manpower limitations.
- Responds appropriately to unusual demand fluctuations to maximize meeting customer order requirements.
- Drive efforts to minimize the total procurement cost of direct materials, through clear communication of expectations to suppliers, supplier selection, measurement, and management of the supply chain.
- Major contributor to cost reduction efforts to meet company objectives.
- Assure that realistic cost center budgets are prepared for development of the annual budget. Assure that cost centers stay within budgeted expense levels.
- Assures that standard costs are properly established and maintained to accurately reflect product cost. Assures that capital budget is developed and managed throughout the year.
- Coordinate Direct Shipment programs with key customers.
- Ensure compliance with customers’ social/environmental policies and manage customers’ third-party factory audits.
- Develop and maintain our social/environmental compliance policy.
- Performs other duties and assumes accountabilities as apparent or as delegated, including mutually agreed objectives.
Career Track
- This is an outstanding and highly visible leadership opportunity with potential progression to Global responsibility.
Experience
- Ten years’ experience in a manufacturing environment. High-volume and low-volume production.
- International sourcing experience.
- Experience managing professional employees.
- Supplier management over a broad range of commodities.
- Understanding of finance for non-financial managers, with particular understanding of standard cost components and variance analysis.
- Ability to communicate clearly and effectively with a full range of functions within the organization (at multiple locations) and with suppliers.
- Ability to prioritize the use of resources to maximize impact to the organization.
Education
- College degree.
- APICS and/or NAPM certification a strong plus.
- Maintains an awareness of ongoing technological development and trends in the industry that may be applicable to the organization.
Contact Marni Sampair for more information:
651-342-1620
www.theconstantsearch.com
