Buyer- Heavy Equipment Manufacturing

Buyer- Heavy Equipment Manufacturing

Job Category: Administrative Support

Location: Hazel Crest, IL 60429, USA

Position Overview: The Buyer manages the procurement of materials, equipment, and services to support Mi-Jack Products, Inc. manufacturing and Global Support operations. This role focuses on securing the right materials at the best total cost, building strong supplier relationships, negotiating terms, and ensuring timely delivery. The Buyer also drives supplier performance, supports engineering and operations teams, and identifies opportunities for cost savings and process improvement.

Essential Functions:

• Optimize material flow and delivery using MRP, internal planning, and forecasting tools.
• Effectively build strong supply chain and vendor relationships.
• Professionally negotiate price, manage quality, and ensure on-time delivery
• Evaluate vendor quotes and services to determine the most valuable suppliers.
• Proactive response to engineering changes to minimize obsolescence and shortages.
• Coordinate and resolve issues regarding existing and new products. Interact with operations, engineering, and sales to ensure all requirements are being met.
• Escalate item availability issues to leadership and engineering, proactively providing substitute recommendations, either by leveraging the vendor or by personal technical experience, for engineering approval.
• Ensure vendor pricing and lead times are confirmed and updated on regular cadence.
• Identify opportunities to improve tactical and cumbersome departmental processes in an effort to create more time for strategic initiatives and supplier development.
• Expedite urgent supplied parts as necessary and communicate timelines and issues to leadership when necessary.

Additional Responsibilities:

• Remain abreast of supplier offerings, strengths and weaknesses, competitors, evolving opportunities, and communicate potential changes or improvements to management that increase company profitability and value.
• Rely on extensive experience and judgment to plan and accomplish goals. A wide degree of creativity and latitude is required.
• Conduct training with less experienced staff.
• Comply with Quality Management System requirements in accordance with ISO9001.
• Ensure compliance in all safety, health, and environmental regulations, policies and procedures for a goal of zero incidents and injuries; Assist in delivering required training to ensure that all coworkers have the necessary skills to perform their jobs properly and safely.
• Communicate consistently on all activities to appropriate individuals (internal & external).
• Maintain ongoing communication and adhere to all Companywide policies to eliminate and/or reduce exposure to liability.
• Special projects or work as assigned.

Qualifications Guidelines:

Experience/Training/Education:

Required: 1-3 years MRP purchasing experience or equal amount of experience within a technical or engineering role.

Desired: 3 or more years MRP purchasing experience; Bachelor's Degree in Supply Chain.

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities:

Position requires knowledge and understanding of purchasing and supply chain execution, preferably in heavy equipment manufacturing. Ability to collect, analyze, and draw conclusions from company data while maintaining confidentiality.

Commodity and mechanical knowledge in steel fabrication, electrical and hardware. Hydraulic and steel background is also beneficial.

Professional interaction with vendors and service providers while performing supplier reviews, price negotiations, and expedites.

Must be proficient in Microsoft Office applications (Outlook, Excel), experience with one or more ERP systems (ideally Epicor E9-E10) and ability to quickly learn new systems.

Physical and Environmental Elements: This is primarily an office classification with low/moderate noise levels and controlled temperature conditions. Occasional short durations of time may be spent in shop floor environment, offsite in various environments, and some travel may be required (less than 15%).

Special Requirements/Certification: APICS certification encouraged but not required.

Compensation/Benefits: The base pay range for this role is $50,000 to $70,000. The final compensation offer may vary based on factors such as experience, education, skills, and location. We offer competitive pay, paid time off, and comprehensive benefits, including medical, dental, vision, life insurance, and a 401(k) plan.

Lanco is an equal opportunity employer. All employment-related decisions are made without discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender-related identity, pregnancy, national origin, ancestry, religion, age, military status, protected disability, citizenship, genetic information or any other category protected by applicable law.