Principal
Owner of the group is a private equity (PE) party. The group consists of 3 divisions, ‘Transportation’, ‘Industrial’ and ‘Brake & Friction’, has a total of approximately 3,500 employees, branches in 29 countries and 21 production sites.
The European headquarters is located in omg. Hengelo. Important production sites are in NL, Turkey, France, India.
The company focuses on the production of components for the automotive sector as a tier 1 supplier. Examples include the development and production of hydraulic systems for tilting truck cabins, mechanical systems for securing truck cabins, electromechanical engine components and mechanics for manipulating convertible roofs. Customers of this division include Scania, Volvo, DAF. The engineering of the systems to be produced takes place based on customer requirements followed by “mass production.”
Function
Procurement is led by the CPO, who has been in office since October 2023. The CPO has been given a goal by the owner to focus on value creation (reduction of material costs and inventory levels). From customers, there is great pressure to reduce their purchase price.
Recently the procurement organization changed from BU oriented to region oriented. This has caused upheaval in the organization.
The director of sourcing leads a team of approximately 11 (senior) category and sourcing professionals in multiple countries in the EMEI (Europe, Middle East, India) region. These focus in category teams on the sourcing of Metals- Machined/Castings/Assembly, Metals – Raw/Fab/Wire/Subcon and Non Metal, Fasteners, Assemblies on behalf of the manufacturing sites in the region.
Operational purchasing is the responsibility of the Operations department. Oracle is used as the ERP system.
There are many challenges in the organization, driven on the one hand by the objectives of the private equity party, on the other by developments in the automotive sector and thirdly by “overdue maintenance” to the organization. Examples are:
- A global category management organization was recently set up, which will have the necessary impact on the job content of many employees. On the other hand, this approach is essential to be able to make a sufficiently strong fist towards suppliers.
- strengthen ties with sales and product line management, particularly in NPD projects
- Reduce costs, e.g. by putting more focus on manufacturability and cost engineering
- bring in more market knowledge
- working capital improvement (reducing inventories plus better payment terms).
International travel is to be expected in this position.
Your profile
- Extensive managerial experience within purchasing in a manufacturing environment, preferably automotive
- Experience with inyternational, direct procurement at the strategic level
- ‘Continuous improvement’ is part of your DNA
- Project management experience
- Strong communicator
- Good command of English (command of Dutch is a plus)
Offer
- Starts a.s.a.p.
- Deployment full-time, possibly 4 days/week is negotiable
- Hybrid work is not an option given the length of the assignment, you will need to get to know the organization (and v.v.)
- Contract term initially is 6 months, extension is optional
