Buyer / Planner, Animal Health

**Buyer / Planner, Animal Health**
- Be part of **a Trusted Global Leader in Animal Health**
- ** Permanent Full-time** role with **attractive compensation & benefits**
- You will be based at our **manufacturing** site in **Bendigo**
- Opportunity to utilise your **purchase** and **planning skills** with strategy

Our Supply Chain team ensures inventory is consistently available to meet customer demand. We coordinate all aspects of supply through supply planning, sourcing, making, inventory management, packaging and delivery. We partner across the Marketing, Finance and Manufacturing organizations to build a robust demand and supply plan and ensure we get products to the right customer, at the place, at the right time.

**What You Will Do**

As Buyer/Planner, you will play a pivotal role in ensuring all direct materials are available for supporting and maintaining the site Manufacturing Schedules. You will do this by executing strong management of direct material purchase orders, inventory management, establishing strong relationships with vendors/internal stakeholders and play an active role within the Tier management system. The role also includes planning of work centre schedules and management of manufacturing process orders.

You will be key member of the Supply Chain Organisation, reporting to the Australian Supply Chain Manager.
- Responsibilities include, however not limited to:_

**Buyer/Planner**
- Place purchase orders with suppliers for the procurement of direct material as required by forecast and the manufacturing schedules.
- Obtain order confirmations and adjust purchase order information accordingly based on confirmation/feedback from vendors.
- Expedite or defer orders as required based on schedule/inventory changes.
- Monitor status of open purchase orders to ensure on-time delivery of all materials, including timely resolution, communication, and mitigation of future potential problems with vendors.
- Manage and resolve issues relating to purchase orders for invoice discrepancies, returns and quality problems with suppliers.
- The ability to problem solve and seek alternative options during the planning and evaluation process to reduce/minimise impact to the site manufacturing schedule.
- Accountable for the elements within the material Escalation Pathway when materials exceed committed dates by supplier in the event of material delays/supplier issues.
- Create and manage production plan and schedules.
- Distribute process orders as per production schedule.

**Inventory Management**
- Manage the end-to-end replenishment of direct material replenishment, minimising stock outs and ensure stock on hand for all direct materials to reduce the impact to manufacturing.
- Explore and identify alternate replenishment strategies/options as required in the event of a material shortage.
- Inventory that is at-risk of expiring prior to manufacturing requirement dates is managed or replenished in a timeframe that avoids a manufacturing interruption.
- Determine and establish optimal inventory levels based on forecast, demand variation, historical consumption, and material lead times. This can include review of safety stock levels, days of cover, min/max levels, etc. This requires consultation with key internal stakeholders to analyse and implement optimum inventory levels.
- Ensure the accuracy of SAP is maintained and updated regularly, this includes rectifying master data issues that arise.
- Performs monthly review and analysis of Inventory of Questionable Value (IQV) for direct materials.
- Disposal Workflow approval for direct materials for expired, damaged and/or phased out materials.

**Vendor /Stakeholder Relationships**
- Key stakeholders include external vendors and site departments, primarily Manufacturing, Planning, QC/R&D and Warehousing.
- Collaborate closely and develop solid relationships with all internal customers and provide a high level of customer service, including recommending solutions and alternative supply options.
- Will work closely with Planning, Production, Quality, Warehousing and Global Procurement.
- Work with Supply Planners to ensure that MRP is updated and accurate for all open orders and supplier schedules.
- Work with vendors and employees to ensure timely delivery of requisitioned items.
- Supporting regular team communication and providing continuous feedback.

**What You Must Have**
- Bachelor’s degree (desirable)
- APICS Supply Chain Procurement Certificate (preferred)
- Solid (2+ years) experience with Procurement and Planning
- Related experience in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing environment or related production industry experience (eg. FMCG)
- Strong comprehension of end-to-end supply chain processes (e.g., Inventory planning, warehouse management, logistics) able to analyse supply chain data and information to streamlines supply chain processes
- Proven knowledge and experience working with SAP & MS Excel (essential)
- Related experience in metric reporti