What are the responsibilities and job description for the PURCHASING MANAGER - FABRICATION & MANUFACTURING position at American Fence Company?
American Fence Company is seeking an experienced Purchasing Manager to oversee purchasing activities supporting our fabrication and manufacturing operations. This position is responsible for ensuring the right materials are available at the right time and cost while developing strong supplier relationships, controlling inventory investment, and identifying opportunities to reduce material and freight costs.
We are looking for someone who understands that purchasing in a fabrication environment goes well beyond issuing purchase orders. The successful candidate will be analytical, highly organized, comfortable negotiating with vendors, and able to balance pricing, lead times, quality, inventory levels, and production demands.
What You'll Do
The Purchasing Manager will be responsible for:
- Managing the purchasing of raw materials, components, supplies, and other products required for fabrication and manufacturing operations.
- Developing and maintaining strong relationships with suppliers and manufacturers.
- Negotiating pricing, freight, payment terms, lead times, minimum order quantities, and other purchasing terms.
- Continually evaluating vendors and sourcing alternatives to improve pricing, quality, availability, and service.
- Monitoring material costs and identifying opportunities for measurable cost savings.
- Working closely with fabrication, operations, inventory, and finance teams to forecast material requirements.
- Ensuring critical materials are available to support production schedules while avoiding unnecessary excess inventory.
- Monitoring supplier performance, delivery timelines, backorders, shortages, and quality concerns.
- Developing purchasing strategies for high-volume and high-dollar materials.
- Reviewing historical usage, purchasing trends, inventory levels, and anticipated demand to make informed purchasing decisions.
- Identifying opportunities for volume purchasing, consolidated orders, standardized materials, and improved freight efficiencies.
- Managing purchase orders and ensuring pricing and terms are accurate.
- Resolving vendor discrepancies, shortages, damaged materials, and invoicing issues.
- Establishing and maintaining purchasing procedures, controls, and approval processes.
- Tracking and reporting purchasing KPIs, including cost savings, supplier performance, lead times, purchase price variance, and inventory-related metrics.
- Partnering with leadership to develop annual purchasing strategies and cost-reduction initiatives.
- Staying informed of commodity pricing, supply-chain conditions, and other market factors that may impact material costs or availability.