Purchasing Coordinator in Toluca, Illinois at Ajinomoto Foods North America, Inc.

The Purchasing Coordinator is responsible for entering purchase orders for all raw materials, packaging, and non-stock items for the facility. This includes responsibility for inventory control of all production packaging for the Toluca Plant. Essential functions include Materials Requirements Planning (MRP) for all packaging, purchasing packaging according to Ajinomoto guidelines, and providing all required packaging to Production. Strong collaboration with Operations, the Production Scheduler, and the Raw Materials Buyer will be critical to meeting business goals.

• Manage procurement of labels, film, packaging, and shipping materials to meet company production and distribution needs.
• Collaborate with the Production Scheduler and Raw Materials Buyer to align the purchasing of required packaging with the production schedule and availability of raw materials.
• Collaborate with the Raw Materials Buyer to enter needed raw material purchase orders and follow up when necessary.

• Review the Materials Requirement Plan (MRP) versus current inventories and submit purchase orders and releases.
• Release all packaging pre-stage labels and distribute packing reports to meet production demands.
• Create and provide monthly inventories of aged or slow moving material to the Materials Manager.
• Review all packaging items on discontinued finished goods items and notify affected departments.
• Manage label inventory moves to and from PRD daily.
• Review inventory locations daily and ensure proper rotation of materials.
• Use JDE to enter and maintain purchase orders to ensure items, amounts and delivery dates are accurate.
• Collaborate with Product Introduction Manager, Materials Manager, and Shift Managers to communicate and ensure accurate packaging use for new product launches and packaging updates.

• Monitor and make suggestions to improve packaging vendor performance.
• Confirm price, quantity and schedule delivery date with vendor, warehouse and carriers for every order.
• Confirm orders with vendors and update purchase orders as needed so information can flow appropriately to Finance and Warehouse departments for receiving, accounts payable, and to facilitate improved planning.
• Analyze upcoming orders to minimize freight costs by consolidating orders and maximizing order cycles.
• Follow-up and confirm daily and long lead delivery schedules with vendor/suppliers and carriers to ensure that deliveries occur to meet production schedules.
• Reconcile invoicing errors and provide back-up documentation for inventory movement to accounts payable within invoice terms and for month-end closing.
• Drive and support Continuous Improvement focus by helping identify and eliminating waste, making packaging pricing recommendations, and solving packaging issues.

• Perform other duties as assigned.

• High school diploma and 3-5 years in production or purchasing experience in a USDA food manufacturing facility preferred. Bachelor’s degree in relevant field of study strongly preferred.

• Excellent written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate in a clear and concise manner.
• Exceptional organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple tasks and activities with a high attention to detail.

• High level of integrity and dependability with a strong sense of urgency and results-orientation

• Ability to apply common sense understanding to problems involving several variables in standardized and unstandardized situations
• Strong computer skills including JDE, Microsoft Outlook and Office, specifically Microsoft Excel