Purchasing & Planning Specialist

Are you a planning and purchasing professional who enjoys balancing data, supplier relationships, inventory, and production demands? Do you have experience with MRP, SAP, purchasing, material planning, and inventory optimization?

We are seeking a Planning & Purchasing Specialist to play a critical role in ensuring the right materials are available at the right time, in the right quantities, and at the right cost. This position offers the opportunity to work across planning, procurement, manufacturing, suppliers, engineering, and other factory functions while directly impacting production continuity, inventory performance, cost control, and new product launches.

This is an ideal opportunity for someone who wants more than a transactional purchasing role and is looking to build a broader career in supply chain, materials planning, and manufacturing operations.

As the Planning & Purchasing Specialist, you will coordinate and execute short-, mid-, and long-term material requirements planning while continuously identifying opportunities to improve inventory, supplier performance, purchasing processes, and overall supply chain efficiency.

• Execute material requirements planning for materials/components based on market requirements, product specifications, new product development plans, inventory targets, sourcing strategies, and supplier lead times.
• Manage and continuously optimize short-, mid-, and long-term MRP processes.
• Evaluate optimum lot sizes, transportation unit loads, shelf life, lead times, and inventory requirements.
• Monitor material availability and inventory levels to ensure uninterrupted production.
• Analyze inventory turnover and identify opportunities to reduce excess inventory, material obsolescence, and write-offs.
• Support factory teams in achieving inventory targets and improving overall working capital performance.
• Create and manage purchase orders based on material requirements and production needs.
• Monitor supplier order confirmations and proactively expedite purchase orders and deliveries when necessary.
• Partner with suppliers to resolve delivery issues, material defects, invoice discrepancies, and goods-receipt issues.
• Maintain accurate purchasing and material information within SAP.
• Work closely with suppliers and internal teams to maintain uninterrupted procurement and payment processes.
• Monitor transportation requirements and identify opportunities to control freight and logistics costs.
• Ensure shipping documentation meets applicable customs and compliance requirements.
• Build productive supplier relationships and collaborate with vendors to improve service, quality, inventory, and delivery performance.

• Support new product launches, machinery run-ability, and material readiness activities.
• Process PLM-related activities and coordinate materials required for new launches and factory trials.
• Analyze material specifications and identify opportunities for cost optimization and process improvement.
• Support global and local material projects, tests, and implementations within the factory.
• Work cross-functionally with engineering, manufacturing, quality, sourcing, and other factory teams to ensure materials are available and production requirements are met.
• Identify opportunities to reduce inventory while maintaining production reliability and service levels.
• Work with suppliers to evaluate innovative inventory-management approaches, including Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI), Kanban, and other replenishment strategies.
• Continuously evaluate planning and purchasing processes to improve efficiency, accuracy, cost, and material availability.
• Maintain accurate SAP material master data and ensure planning information…