Manager of Strategic Sourcing Engineering - Edmund Optics

Responsible for the make (in EO factories) vs. buy (at 3^rd party suppliers) decisions for finished goods procurement. Manages the engineering and technical side of strategic sourcing, including supplier capabilities and strategic sourcing engineers. Act as a point of contact for the sales departments and the business lines for the selection of the correct factory and/or 3^rd party supplier, considering Edmund Optics’ goals for quality, delivery, and gross margins as well as the technical capabilities of the various suppliers. Manage and coordinate our global quotation efforts, to provide fast and accurate costing to our sales, manufacturing and product teams. Balance capacity across all of Edmund Optics’ global facilities and 3^rd party suppliers, ensuring they can succeed in terms of both service and cost performance expectations.   

Strategic Sourcing

• Ensure the final decisions of make vs. buy, for both custom and standard finished and semi-finished goods, taking into account:
  • The vision and the direction of the company and its desires to move from an international company to a global company
  • The capability, skills, and capacity of global suppliers
  • The capability, skills, and capacity of Edmund Optics’ factories
  • The financial cost analysis of different scenarios, including gross margin and breakeven implications
  • The possible optimization of the logistics of our supply chain
  • Our service goals to our customers
• Understand the detailed technical capabilities or our suppliers and factories to aid in the decisions making process.
  • This includes manufacturing capabilities as well as metrology capabilities
  • Ability to review technical prints to quickly make the best sourcing decisions
  • Continually keep up to date on this information
• Work with the supplier development team to:
  • Ensure a robust process for the global solutions engineers to ensure the correct supplier or factory for custom product
  • Ensure a robust process for the global product line managers/engineers to ensure the correct supplier or factory for standard product
  • Ensure there are easy to use guidelines for supplier selection in major product areas
  • Ensure that all major products and product areas have at least two potential sources
  • Continually understand supplier capabilities and metrics, which includes:
    • Lead-times
    • On-time-delivery
    • Quality
  • Significant involvement in the request for quotation (RFQ) and new product introduction (NPI) processes:
    • Reviewing and/or selecting suppliers for quotations flowing through our RFQ Tool
    • Continually looking to streamline the RFQ process as a whole
    • Ensuring and reporting on timely responses from both supply chain and factory representatives associated with the process
    • Liaising with the global sales teams on compromises to requested needs
    • Upfront involvement with business lines and R&D when developing new products
  • Review large requests that will be submitted through the Executive Quote Team (EQT), ensuring a strategic fulfillment of those key requests
  • Work with Engineering Management to review and identify engineering projects that require Strategic Sourcing assistance
    • Determine if the Strategic Sourcing Engineering Manager is required or assign to the appropriate Strategic Sourcing Engineer
  • Understand product costing, using that as a major factor for insource/outsource decisions
  • Own the aggregation and structuring of supplier capabilities
    • Endeavour to find ways of incorporating this information into the RFQ process to make preferred supplier selection automatic or straight-forward with an easy review process
  • Proactively review parts for potential resourcing based on cost, capacity, supplier performance, etc…
  • Understand the competitive optics environment in order to make the best strategic sourcing decision and to ensure Edmund Optics is not funding future competition. This should come from deep collaboration with sales and the business lines.
  • Contribute to the development and execution of Edmund Optics’ global sourcing strategy in conjunction with the business lines, the manufacturing leadership, and the supplier development team. This includes:
    • Championing the needs of a stable supply chain
    • Ensuring an uninterrupted supply chain for critical products, which may include dual sourcing, redundant processes and functions, and other risk management plans

Global Quotation Group

• Manage all aspects of the global quotation group, with the goal of minimizing our overall Time To Quote, including:
  • Facilitating the disposition of inbound quotations to ensure timely turn-around
  • Manage the continuous improvement efforts on our quotation process and our internal Quotation Tool
  • Work with our factories and 3^rd party suppliers to develop better tools for costing estimation
  • Track and report on KPIs related to the process and the Time to Quote metric, both to show progress and to identify new areas for improvement
• Work with the head of strategic sourcing to develop and roll out a costing estimation process to facilitate expedient quoting and reduce unneeded quotation exercises
  • Review and if vetted utilize software to aid in this effort for a data-oriented methodology
  • Ensure estimation are closely monitored and have regular reviews on accuracy and impact

Global Operations Planning

• Work with the global sales departments and the VP of Supply Chain on special customer inventory needs, which may include:
  • Safety stock and/or safety time
  • Consignment inventory
• Work with sales and critical stakeholders for any customer requirements surrounding the change control of product
• Execute the pre-purchase process when the sales department wants to purchase inventory (finished goods, semi-finished goods, raw materials, and any ancillary components, such as tooling) before the receipt of a customer purchase order
• Act as the primary contact for sales in the case of urgent and important escalation issues related to supplier selection and raw materials sourcing
  • Understanding when to delegate or escalate as necessary to ensure maximum customer service balanced with costs
• Act as a contact for sales in the case of urgent and important escalation issues with regards to factory lead-times and delivery, alongside strategic sourcing analysts and the head of Global Operations Planning

Other Functions

• Manage direct reports, including appraisals and career development
• Work with the IS department on the continual streamlining of functional needs for efficiency gains
• Comply with federal, state, regional, and company policies, procedures, and regulations
• Perform other duties as assigned by management

To perform this position successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential function satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required. Reasonable Accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Required Skills & Abilities:

• Strong customer focus
• Excellent phone, email and interpersonal skills
• Strong communications skills
• In-depth analytics knowledge
• Strong organizational skills
• Ability to make and justify decisions
• Comfortable in a multi-cultural/global environment
• Comfortable in a matrix-managed organization
• Experience and sensitivity to foreign cultures
• Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office, Excel
• Computer skills; PC literacy in Excel and Word
• Optics and optical industry knowledge a plus
• Optical manufacturing knowledge a plus
• Knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics a plus
• Knowledge of SAP 6.0 ECC and APO software a plus
• EO product knowledge and awareness a plus
• Other requirements as deemed necessary by management
• U.S. Citizenship or permanent residence required

Education/Experience:

• Minimum of a Bachelor Degree in technical area
• 5-10 years of experience in Engineering or Sourcing roles

PhysicalRequirements:

Ability to operate office equipment such as a copier; ability to sit or stand for long periods of time; work in office setting. Ability to travel up to 10%.