Manager, Materials Excellence

Graco manufactures and markets premium equipment to move, measure, control, dispense and spray a wide variety of fluid and powder materials. What does that mean? Well, we pump peanut butter into your jar, and the oil in your car. We glue the soles of your shoes, the glass in your windows and the screen on your phone. We spray the finish on your vehicle, coatings on your pills, the paint on your house and texture on your walls. Graco is part of your daily life.

The Manager, Materials Excellence is responsible for developing, deploying, and improving scalable standard materials management processes incorporating industry best practices and technologies across Graco.  These processes are foundational to our performance in delivery to promise, availability, lead-time, turns, and cost to service.  The individual in the position will oversee process ownership for all manufacturing related aspects of materials management.  Additionally, the position will oversee manufacturing planners’ initial and ongoing training and professional development to ensure Graco efficiently utilizes working capital while ensuring leading product availability. He/she will partner closely with manufacturing leadership to identify, assess, and address process and performance across Graco’s manufacturing network.

What You Will Do at Graco:

Global Materials Process Ownership

• Develop and continuously improve standard best practices, procedures, tools and technologies for materials management processes such as master scheduling, capacity planning, material requirements planning, production planning, exception management, and material flows
• Establish materials roles & responsibilities including levels and minimum qualification requirements
• Provide project management for enterprise-level materials projects
• Represent global materials on cross-functional enterprise improvement projects
• Collaborates with IT to identify and improve appropriate technologies to improve process performance
• Document procedures, process maps, and SIPOCs for the materials function
• Identify and maintain key leading and lagging metrics for materials management

Training & Professional Development

• Create and deliver training to new members of the materials organization providing instruction in Graco's tools, processes, procedures, and expectations to accelerate the learning curve
• Identify appropriate professional development opportunities for materials professionals to improve performance, meet the Graco's evolving needs, and supporting individuals' growth
• Create and deliver timely ongoing training to support the materials organization's growth, evolution, and to address observed issues and opportunities

Performance Assessment & Improvement

• Partner with Manufacturing leadership to assess individual site materials performance
• Monitor system utilization and process fidelity to ensure consistency and performance and identify opportunities to address
• Co-create development plans to improve the performance of individuals as needed to build needed capabilities

Team Leadership & Financial Management

• Lead, mentor, manage and hire a Materials Functional Excellence team, ensuring alignment with organizational goals and promoting a culture of excellence.
• Provide leadership to the dotted-line extended materials team across all sites
• Drive team performance by setting clear goals, providing ongoing feedback, and facilitating professional growth opportunities.
• Establish, manage, and be accountable for the annual Materials Functional Excellence budget, ensuring effective allocation of resources and alignment with organizational strategic objectives

What You Will Bring to Graco:

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Finance, Supply Chain Management, Operations, Data Science, Mathematics, or Statistics
• 7+ years of experience working in the manufacturing industry with at least 5 years in manufacturing materials management
• Excellent leadership skills; 4+ years of team leadership experience preferred. 
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent negotiation and collaboration skills
• Strong analytical skills
• Proficiency in Oracle ERP
• Ability to work effectively in a global, cross-functional team environment.
• Proven track record of driving process improvements and achieving results
• Knowledge of industry best practices and emerging trends in materials management
• APICS certification

Accelerators:

• MBA or Master's degree preferred
• GAINS proficiency preferred
• Global manufacturing leadership
• Operations leadership

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