Materials Manager

Position Summary

The Materials Manager leads the Michigan City plant’s materials function, including planning, scheduling, inventory control, customer support, and material flow. This role ensures materials are available on time, in the right quantity, and at the best total cost to support customer delivery and plant goals.

Key Responsibilities

Materials Planning & Production Support

• Lead materials planning, scheduling, and production support to meet customer and plant requirements.
• Manage planners, schedulers, and related materials team members to maintain production flow.
• Review forecasts, EDI, demand changes, and schedules to identify risks and recovery actions.
• Coordinate material readiness for launches, engineering changes, line moves, and production changes.
• Set replenishment strategies that balance availability, inventory, space, and delivery needs.

Inventory Management & Control

• Improve inventory accuracy through audits, transaction discipline, root cause analysis, and follow-up.
• Improve turns, reduce excess and obsolete inventory, and support working capital goals.
• Use Kanban, pull systems, min/max levels, supermarkets, and visual controls where appropriate.
• Analyze slow, obsolete, excess, and high-risk inventory and lead reduction actions.
• Collaborate with the Shipping and Receiving Manger to

Supplier & Procurement Coordination

• Partner with Sourcing, Purchasing, Supplier Quality, and Supply Chain to resolve supplier issues.
• Monitor supplier delivery and lead escalation, recovery plans, and corrective actions.
• Ensure vendor releases, schedules, and purchase orders support production and delivery needs.
• Develop contingency plans for high-risk suppliers, constrained materials, and supply interruptions.
• Support supplier development focused on delivery, responsiveness, quality, and cost-effective supply.
• Collaborate with the Shipping and Receiving Manger to partner on inventory levels and turns.

Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement

• Champion Operational Excellence, lean practices, standard work, and daily management.
• Lead improvement projects in inventory, flow, productivity, and delivery.
• Use root cause analysis, PDCA, A3, Kaizen, 5S, value stream mapping, and visual management.
• Eliminate waste in planning, picking, staging, and reporting.
• Partner with Operations and Engineering to improve line-side presentation, flow, replenishment, and handling productivity.

KPI Management & Performance Improvement

• Own materials KPIs, including inventory accuracy, turns, supplier and customer delivery, schedule adherence, premium freight, shortages, productivity, obsolete inventory, and variances.
• Set KPI targets and lead daily, weekly, and monthly performance reviews.
• Create KPI action plans with owners, due dates, and verified corrective actions.
• Use dashboards, accountability meetings, and visual management to drive focus.
• Convert KPI trends into actions that improve plant financial and operational performance.

ERP Systems, Data Integrity & Materials Discipline

• Ensure effective ERP/MRP use for planning, inventory, procurement, receiving, shipping, and reporting.
• Drive transaction accuracy and master data discipline.
• Partner with IT, Finance, Operations, Shipping and Receiving, and Supply Chain to improve systems, reporting, and controls.
• Use data to support decisions, prioritize actions, and identify recurring issues.
• Develop standard work and training for consistent ERP/MRP execution.

Leadership, Culture & Talent Development

• Lead and develop the materials team with focus on accountability, collaboration, service, and continuous improvement.
• Set expectations, provide feedback, and support performance and development discussions.
• Build team capability in planning, inventory control, supplier follow-up, problem solving, ERP discipline, and KPI management.
• Promote a safe, respectful, inclusive, results-oriented culture aligned with CVG values.
• Collaborate with plant leadership and functional partners to meet customer, operational, financial, and people goals.

Education & Experience

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Business, Operations, Logistics, Engineering, or related field.
• 5+ years of progressive materials, supply chain, planning, logistics, or operations leadership experience in manufacturing.
• Inventory control, planning, scheduling, warehouse operations, shipping, receiving, and delivery performance experience.
• Strong ERP/MRP experience and ability to use data to manage performance and solve problems.
• 3+ Years proven team leadership and measurable KPI and operational improvement results.

Preferred

• APICS/ASCM certification, such as CPIM or CSCP, or equivalent.
• Automotive, commercial vehicle, heavy vehicle, industrial, metals, or Tier 1 manufacturing experience.
• Lean manufacturing, operational excellence, and continuous improvement experience.
• Experience with warehouse optimization, material flow redesign, inventory reduction, or ERP/MRP improvements.
• Multi-site manufacturing or high-mix production environment experience.

Success Measures

• Improved inventory accuracy and cycle count performance.
• Increased inventory turns and improved working capital performance.
• Reduced premium freight, material shortages, inventory variances, and obsolete inventory exposure.
• Improved customer on-time delivery, supplier delivery performance, and schedule adherence.
• Improved warehouse productivity, dock-to-stock performance, shipping accuracy, and material flow efficiency.
• Operational Excellence projects delivering measurable cost, quality, delivery, and productivity gains.
• Stronger team capability, accountability, engagement, and cross-functional partnership.

Physical & Work Environment Requirements

• Ability to work in both office and manufacturing plant environments.
• Ability to spend time on the production floor, in warehouse areas, and at shipping and receiving docks as needed.
• Must follow all site safety requirements, PPE expectations, and company policies.