Piston Automotive
• $88K — $105K *Qualifications
Responsibilities
Benefits
The Materials Manager directs and coordinates plant materials activities and the team members engaged in receiving, storage, movement, replenishment, inventory control, production support, finished-goods staging, and shipping handoff. Leads the development, implementation, validation, and sustained execution of plant-level material management processes, ERP/WMS controls, PFEP, warehouse operations, and visual performance systems. Serves as the primary plant interface for materials execution within a customer-managed supply chain model and ensures safe, accurate, and efficient material flow throughout manufacturing operations.
Responsibilities
People/Talent
o Complete performance evaluations, establish clearly defined goals, provide ongoing feedback, maintain annual skill matrices, and develop cross-training and succession plans.
o Provide coaching, mentoring, training, and performance direction to salaried and hourly materials teams across all shifts.
o Apply company policies and the applicable labor agreement consistently, including attendance, payroll approvals, coaching, and corrective action in partnership with Human Resources.
o Ensure team members review and acknowledge applicable procedures and work instructions on the required cadence.
Launch Deliverables
o Identify launch constraints and operational risks; establish corrective actions with clear ownership and timing; validate readiness through simulations, trial runs, production builds, and operational assessments.
o Lead plant-level implementation, configuration support, testing, validation, and operational readiness of Warehouse Management Systems (WMS).
o Develop and execute user acceptance testing, operator training, system work instructions, competency verification, and transaction-accountability routines.
o Establish and validate material master data, storage locations, inventory attributes, transaction rules, user access, system interfaces, and exception-management controls.
Inventory Management
o Serve as the primary plant-level materials interface with the customer’s supply chain, logistics, inventory-planning, supplier-management, and transportation organizations.
o Translate customer requirements into executable plant processes and maintain clear ownership and escalation paths for shortages, claims, delivery discrepancies, engineering changes, and shipping or receiving issues.
o Establish inventory practices that ensure accuracy, traceability, availability, and compliance with customer, quality-system, and internal-control requirements.
o Lead cycle-count programs, recount and adjustment controls, discrepancy investigations, annual or biannual physical inventories, and structured reconciliation processes.
o Validate receiving, put-away, transfer, replenishment, consumption, adjustment, finished-goods, shipping, and inventory-reconciliation transactions.
o Own and maintain the Plan for Every Part, including part attributes, storage strategy, point-of-use presentation, min/max quantities, safety stocks, packaging, and material-flow requirements.
o Manage materials execution for build-outs, model-year changes, engineering changes, product transitions, and production ramp-ups.
o Proactively identify shortages, flow constraints, delivery discrepancies, and inventory risks; coordinate resolution and escalation with the responsible customer or internal process owner.
o Lead month-end materials close activities, including inventory reconciliation, open receipts, adjustments, and related controls in coordination with Finance.
Process/Standardized Work Development
o Promote a safety-first culture through forklift training, standardized material-handling practices, hazard identification, workplace organization, and timely corrective action.
o Lead the design, documentation, implementation, validation, and sustainment of end-to-end materials processes from inbound receipt through storage, internal movement, production consumption, finished-goods staging, and outbound handoff.
o Develop and maintain process flows, standard operating procedures, work instructions, control plans, visual standards, and training materials.
Cross Functional Collaboration & Continuous Improvement
o Lead continuous improvement initiatives focused on inventory accuracy, productivity, space utilization, material flow, labor efficiency, and cost performance.
o Coordinate with Engineering to maintain plant layout, storage locations, lineside presentation, and material identification signage.
o Coordinate with Quality and the customer to control nonconforming, suspect, obsolete, restricted, and customer-claim inventory.
o Partner with Operations and Engineering to optimize warehouse layout, storage utilization, lineside presentation, material-handling routes, facility trailer utilization, and labor efficiency.
o Maintain safe, organized, audit-ready materials areas through standardized work, 5S, visual controls, and effective material-handling practices.
o Define, track, and improve plant and customer KPI performance; use structured problem solving to address abnormal conditions and recurring losses.
o Apply Lean manufacturing principles, including 5S, standardized work, visual management, waste elimination, root-cause analysis, and corrective action.
Supervisory Responsibilities:
Directly or indirectly leads the plant materials organization. Typical roles may include:
• Master Scheduler / Material Flow Coordinator
• Materials Technician / Planner
• Warehouse Supervisor
• Inventory Control personnel
• Material Handlers
Our team will look into this right away.
