As a member of the Materials team, the Materials Manager will be responsible for management activities for the materials department in a lean, just in time environment for an operation building automotive seating systems. Incumbents in this classification provide oversight for pre-production material control, material scheduling and release, bill of materials coordination, and transportation logistics.

The Role:

Your work will include, but not be limited to:

• Oversees and monitors shipment plans from suppliers to ensure sufficient inventory of products to satisfy customer’s needs.
• Analyzes inventory levels, accuracy and assists in resolving inventory discrepancies.
• Establishes and maintains communications to satisfy the needs of the plants while facilitating a consistent and coordinated interface with suppliers on quality, delivery, and other performance objectives.
• Meets optimum inventory performance objectives as defined by Materials management.
• Works closely with other departments.
• Gathers data for analysis regarding usage, quality, price, and manufacturing capability.
• Disseminates supplier performance data to plant.
• Develops and maintains on-going ethical supplier relationships that foster a desire to furnish innovative ideas and promote cooperation with Lear on an on-going basis.
• Participates in inter-departmental teams working towards continuous process improvement, elimination of waste and simultaneous engineering.
• Works on projects to improve quality, cycle time, process variation and efficiency.
• Verifies perpetual inventory against physical count of stock and adjusts errors in computation or count and investigates and reports reasons for discrepancies and variances in perpetual.
• Controls Material department budgets.
• Interviews and hires staff and oversee staff training.
• Enforces safety rules and regulations.
• Plans work assignments and equipment allocations to meet material, operations, or production goals.
• Confers with customers, supervisors, contractors, and other personnel to exchange information and to resolve problems.
• Resolves worker problems or collaborate with employees to assist in problem resolution.
• Interprets transportation and tariff regulations, shipping orders, safety regulations, and company policies and procedures for workers.
• Coordinates physical inventory audits with accounting.
• Maintains and develops good relationships with suppliers and source/obtain best prices for material purchases.
• Recommends and assists in the implementation of unit goals and objectives; establishes schedules and methods for assigned parts operations; and implements policies and procedures.
• Participates in budget preparation and administration; prepares cost estimates for budget recommendations and monitors and controls expenditures.
• Maintain and implement departmental procedures to ensure compliance with TS16949 standards

Your Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field and five years’ experience in logistics and materials planning.
• Knowledge of any manufacturing process and its logics.
• Knowledge of principles and practices of inventory control.
• Knowledge of warehousing operations.
• Knowledge of pertinent local, state, and federal laws, ordinances, and rules.
• Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, and the coordination of people and resources.
• Knowledge of the interaction of various functions of an automotive plant such as maintenance, quality, production control, safety, quality, operations, and materials as needed to determine how these areas are interrelated.
• Knowledge of computerized inventory control and associated data bases with particular emphasis on optimum storage space utilization.
• Ability to plan for forthcoming projects as well ensure smooth running of current/concurrent projects.
• Ability to communicate clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing, train and evaluate assigned staff.

Bonus If You Have:

• Master’s degree in a related field
• Previous experience working in a JIT plant
• SAP experience preferred