The posting
Material Planner
Overall Purpose of the Role:
To ensure that the supply of materials meet the production schedule and minimum stock levels to ensure operational and production continuity.
- As frequent as daily monitoring of key materials to support work orders
- Work closely with Store/Buyers/Production/CS to plan purchase and delivery on time
- Able to deliver efficient, effective and flexible solutions to meet production requirements
- JIT and working with vendors who are willing to extend “safety/buffer” stocks solutions especially key materials
- Minimize inventory holding cost and minimize obsolescence to ensure business is left with minimum liability
- Maintains strong relationships both internally and externally to ensure supply of materials meets requirements
- Close working with Sales/CS to obtain material forecast for an effective material planning strategy
- Sturdy usage pattern and discuss with Buyers/Sales/Store/Vendors to plan material especially customers who do not provide forecast.
Key Responsibilities:
- Actively contribute to the development and support of material planning processes. Benchmark against best practice and review ways to make continuous improvements
- Schedule and control the supply of materials/components to meet production requirements and minimum stock levels
- Implement all processes to agreed standards (ISO, AVL, RBA) and targets (Purchasing KPIs, Inventory Turns, identifying areas of improvement)
- Plan, develop, implement and evaluate processes for material delivery from supplier
- Day-to-day order management and management of deliveries
- Devise Daily, Weekly or Monthly shipping plans
- Monitor and control inventory levels against agreed target levels
- Assess volume requirements against planning assumptions
- Efficient in reviewing inventory plans to meet real consumption pattern
- Understand and manage risks to minimize impact on production schedule
- Take follow up actions in relation to material shortages that affect production
- Ensure Material Requirements Planning (MRP) or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is accurate and up to date and resolve any issues as required
- Proficient with current inventory and purchasing modules. Hands-on use & Crossed trained
- Support stock take to validate inventory accuracy
- Create regular statistical reports e.g., Material expenditures, Vendors ranking. Analyze and present data to internal and management teams (Usage and Inventory Transaction Reports)
- Maintain and upkeep material related documents to ensure documents validity. Documents include Technical Data Sheet, Safety Data Sheet, compliance reports (including but not limited to RoHS, REACH, Halogen-free), External Laboratory reports etc.
People Management
- Lead and develop other staff in the purchasing function if required
Relationship Management
- Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to forecast, plan and facilitate on-time materials to the production line as and when required, avoiding disruption to production
- Work with cross functional teams to deliver effective solutions
- Create and issue forecasts to suppliers
- Generate and communicate supplier material delivery schedules to ensure they reflect requirements and meet demands. Support PO issuing and work closely with buyers
- Develop and maintain good relationships with suppliers and ensure demand for materials is met and deliveries made on time
- Design, develop and implement processes and work with suppliers on continuous improvement initiatives
- Support assessment and sourcing of suppliers in conjunction with members of the purchasing team (Supplier Audit, Annual Vendor Performance Evaluation)
- Support supplier & customer meetings and negotiations to ensure demand for materials is met
Skills and Attributes:
- Good communicator with the ability to form and maintain good relationships internally and externally
- Strong interpersonal, negotiation and influencing skills
- Commercial and financial awareness, with a full understanding of the impact of failure with regards to business costs, production targets and fulfilment of customer orders
- Results orientated and organized with the ability to plan and deliver against deadlines
- Strong analytical, planning and problem-solving skills
- Project management skills
- Excellent attention to detail skills
- Assertive and self-motivated and able to work under pressure
Qualifications and Experience Levels:
- Diploma/Degree in business, logistics, inventory management, or a related field preferred
- Previous experience in material planning, inventory management, purchasing, or a related position
- Knowledge of manufacturing processes and supply chain/logistic management
- Understanding of supplier relationships and experience of working with suppliers
- Ideally within label printing or manufacturing environment
- Good understanding of a variety of manufacturing processes and components
- Strong IT systems knowledge and skills including MS Excel skills
- Knowledge and experience of using MRP (Material Requirements Planning) systems
- Knowledge of lean techniques may be advantageous
- Good Excel skills
- Fresh graduate or with at least 5 years’ experience in a similar position
