Maintenance Purchasing Specialist

Job Description

Job Description

Position Summary:

Associates in the Maintenance Purchasing & Facility Specialist position are primarily responsible for supporting the Maintenance Department through timely purchasing, inventory control, vendor coordination, and accurate CMMS/Limble data. This position ensures maintenance parts, consumables, critical repair materials, and facility support items are available to support planned work, emergency repairs, production uptime, and overall facility reliability. In addition to purchasing responsibilities, this role supports facility-related maintenance coordination by obtaining quotes, following up with vendors and contractors, assisting with planned repair preparation, and helping ensure parts, materials, and outside resources are aligned before work is scheduled. This position works closely with the Senior Maintenance & Reliability Manager, work planning personnel, maintenance technicians, scheduling, production leadership, vendors, and contractors to reduce downtime, improve repair readiness, and support reliable plant operations. In the event of absence, these job responsibilities will be covered by employees in the Senior Maintenance & Reliability Manager, CMMS Administrator, Maintenance Leader, or other assigned Maintenance support positions.

Responsibilities and Duties:

This job description and performance standard document has been prepared as a guide to ensure better communication and understanding. All responsibilities, however, have not been included, nor could they be. Your Supervisor/Manager may from time to time ask you to perform other related duties not specifically included in this description. Likewise, this description will be revised when required to meet current business needs.

• The primary goal of this position is to support Maintenance at the Kansas City Facility with the timely delivery of all materials, parts, repair items, consumables, and facility-support resources to avoid and/or minimize machine downtime.
• Works closely with the Senior Maintenance & Reliability Manager, CMMS/Work Planning Technician, maintenance technicians, scheduling, production leadership, and vendors to coordinate part availability, repair readiness, and planned work support.
• Maintains spare parts inventory by using CMMS/Limble tools, including accurate quantities, locations, purchase activity, and inventory records.
• Understands and help plan required inventory levels based on part availability, lead time, asset criticality, usage history, and production risk.
• Manages and creates purchase orders using the purchase requisition system, CMMS/Limble, and ERP software for replacement parts, spare parts, maintenance consumables, production support items, and approved facility-related repair needs.
• Manages physical inventory of maintenance spare parts, facility support materials, hardware, lubricants, and operating supplies assigned to the Maintenance Department.
• Maintains the maintenance parts cage in proper alignment by ensuring parts, shelving, labels, locations, inventory records, and housekeeping are organized, accurate, and audit-ready for Plant Manager review, Senior Maintenance & Reliability Manager review, and customer inspection/audit expectations.
• Coordinates quotes and vendor communication for maintenance parts, facility repairs, contractor work, consumables, and support services.
• Follows up on supplier promises, quote status, shipment dates, delivery delays, and vendor commitments to ensure materials arrive on time to support scheduled work.
• Intervenes immediately with the Senior Maintenance & Reliability Manager and work planning personnel when part or vendor delays may affect production uptime, scheduled downtime, or planned maintenance activities.
• Assists the Senior Maintenance & Reliability Manager with planning facility-related repairs by confirming material availability, lead times, contractor scheduling, purchase order status, and required support resources.
• Supports planned maintenance work by ensuring required parts, consumables, outside services, and contractor resources are identified and available before work begins.
• Works proactively with the Senior Maintenance & Reliability Manager and scheduling to help align asset downtime, facility repairs, and planned maintenance work with part availability and contractor readiness.
• Works with the Senior Maintenance & Reliability Manager to establish proper spare parts, critical parts, and inventory levels.
• Works with outside contractors and vendors to manage maintenance consumables such as nuts, bolts, air fittings, shop supplies, repair materials, and other facility support items.
• Supports facility improvement projects by gathering pricing, tracking order status, documenting vendor communication, and helping coordinate contractor access or scheduling needs.
• Notifies the Senior Maintenance & Reliability Manager when materials and parts are consumed in repairs for replenishment purposes, especially when utilizing critical, long lead time, or high-cost parts for major machines.
• Documents materials used during repairs to support replenishment, cost tracking, downtime review, and future planning.
• Utilizes analysis tools available through CMMS/Limble, Excel, and ERP systems to reduce inventory cost where applicable while maintaining proper support for critical assets.
• Participates in inventory cycle counts and reports shortages, obsolete parts, incorrect quantities, location issues, and critical stock concerns.
• Supports continuous improvement initiatives related to maintenance purchasing, inventory accuracy, planned work readiness, vendor performance, facility reliability, and downtime reduction.
• Maintains an open line of communication with maintenance team members, production leadership, scheduling, vendors, contractors, and PPC associates to coordinate issues that need to be passed from shift to shift or escalated for action.
• Ensures all responsibilities and functions performed are in accordance with company and quality procedures as set forth in the Personnel Handbook and the Quality Manual. Participates in quality and food safety programs and stays updated on changes to both.
• Supports the company emphasis on teamwork and cooperation to achieve goals by performing other duties as assigned, including working with other departments from time to time and helping with periodic food safety cleanup issues.
• Generates improvement ideas and embraces improvement projects to better the business.
• Possesses strong organization skills and produces accurate paperwork, purchase documentation, inventory records, and vendor follow-up notes.
• Resolves invoicing discrepancies with suppliers and accounting.
• Conducts work in a professional manner while supporting company core values, safety expectations, GMP, SQF, ISO, housekeeping, and continuous improvement standards.

• Skills and Qualifications :
• Detail-orientation required for completing required paperwork, purchase documentation, inventory records, and information system inputs with a high degree of accuracy.
• Mechanical aptitude required to identify components, materials, repair resources, and appropriate purchasing or vendor-support requirements for work.
• Able to use Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, to import/export, organize, and analyze information from CMMS/Limble, ERP, and vendor systems.
• Prior CMMS/Limble experience desired; ability to learn and maintain accurate part records, locations, purchase history, and inventory data is required.
• Capable of performing mathematical calculations and properly using tape measures and micrometers when identifying or verifying parts and materials.
• Able to read and understand written instructions, quotes, purchase requirements, vendor information, and basic maintenance documentation.
• Flexibility in work assignments and priorities is required to address the dynamic needs of internal customers, production schedules, asset downtime, and facility repair requirements.
• Good verbal and written communication skills required; proven experience with effective teams, vendor follow-up, and continuous improvement methods strongly preferred.
• Ability to coordinate multiple priorities, including emergency parts needs, planned work support, facility repair follow-up, invoice discrepancies, and inventory accuracy.
• Customer-service mindset required when supporting maintenance technicians, production leadership, vendors, contractors, accounting, and scheduling.