Purchasing Manager

Wolverhampton, England, United Kingdom

Fortress as a company:

Fortress is a purpose driven organisation. “Saving lives by providing the best safety solutions” is at the heart of decision making and the strategic direction of the organisation. With offices and manufacturing around the world, Fortress is a truly global organisation that has a proven track record of growth …. with ambitions to accelerate that growth even further!

Fortress Safety design and manufacture interlocks and access control systems, which protect employees working in environments containing hazards. We are a life safety company and what we do truly makes a difference to people returning home safely. Fortress are passionate about safety and have a team of approachable experts who support our customers in navigating the complexity of the regulatory landscape and ensuring the safety of people in the workplace. We consider ourselves to be agile and highly innovative. We are also working hard to continue to drive cultural change and alignment to provide a positive working environment where employees feel valued, trusted, and have the opportunity for personal growth. Fortress are a part of Halma plc (www.halma.com), where autonomy and the entrepreneurial spirit are key factors to the continued success of the group.

This important role within the Supply Chain Team requires a committed and customer focused individual with a supplier centric approach to global multi-site manufacturing. There will be opportunity to gain a thorough understanding Fortress products and the Fortress Supply Chain. This will involve gaining knowledge of Suppliers, Products, and Global Operational activity. You will be proactive and driven to support our business units to generate growth through your pragmatic and imaginative approach to our Procurement and Supply Chain activity.

You will have responsibility for a small team, parts availability and inventory planning whilst also coordinating process improvements and cost reduction activities.

Key Responsibilities:

Manage spend on materials across multiple manufacturing sites taking a sustainable supplier centric approach.

Negotiate stock holding agreements or other methods to enable smooth materials flow.

Ownership of the supply base across UK, Europe, Asia, US and other viable locations which may be identified through a strategic sourcing approach.

Careful planning to minimise Fortress inventory whilst ensuring that sales order OTIF can operate at minimum 98% i.e.

Ownership of stock availability to enable effective management of stock levels to ensure optimization of ‘right parts, right place, right quantity, right time.

Identify and mitigate risks in the supply chain to maximise customer order delivery success.

Effective communication of any parts availability risk ensuring that all options to resolve any availability concern is fully explored and appropriate action taken.

Ensuring that expedite and deferral requirements are carried out effectively across the team.

Ensuring timely Purchase Order placement for both system driven manufacturing materials and requisitioned partsand implement process improvements in conjunction with cross-functional project teams.

Supplier development to support achievement of KPIs.

Manage vendor performance including involvement with supplier audits.

Identify potential new suppliers and negotiate best terms from all suppliers.

Interaction with stakeholders at all levels both internally and externally.

Involvement with NPD, NPI and engineering change activity and effective co-ordination of suppliers and stock requirements

Work effectively to support strategic customers

Provide support for general procurement, supply chain and operational requirements.

Key Qualifications and Experience Required:

MCIPS or working towards preferred

Business or Manufacturing related degree preferred

Ability to work strategically, tactically and operationally.

Previous experience of managing a small team in a manufacturing procurement or supply chain role.

Proven negotiation skills, contract management and the ability to forge relationships across all levels of the business

Commercial and financial acumen, with sound analytical skills and attention to detail.

Demonstrated “global mindset” with the ability to think across disciplines, industries, cultures and scenarios.

High work ethic with strong focus on excellent customer service.

Good presentation and communication skills.

Able to interpret technical / safety regulatory information.

Committed to working harmoniously with shared leadership and in cross-functional teams.

A willingness to travel and work in a global team of professionals.

Clean UK driving licence required

A strong culture fit – with a bias for action, accountability and teamwork.

Unphased by ambiguity.

Location:

The main UK office is in Wolverhampton.

Benefits:

Annual Bonus

Contributory Pension scheme

Enhanced Parental Leave scheme

Free EV charging on site

Company Socials

YuLife Wellbeing App

Paycare - Healthcare Cash Plan

Equal Opportunities:

At Fortress we don’t just accept difference, we celebrate and genuinely value it for the benefit it brings to our culture, our employees, our products, and the local communities where we are based. Fortress are proud to be an equal opportunities workplace, if you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.