Purchasing Specialist (Metallic) (San Pedro Tlaquepaque)

Position: Purchasing Specialist (Metallic)

Location: Tlaquepaque, Jalisco.

FORVIA HELLA is a listed international automotive supplier. As a company of the FORVIA Group, FORVIA HELLA stands for high-performance lighting technology and vehicle electronics and, with the Lifecycle Solutions Business Group, also covers a broad service and product portfolio for the spare parts and workshop business as well as for manufacturers of special vehicles. With currently around 36,500 employees at over 125 locations, the Company is active worldwide and generated adjusted sales of €8.1 billion in fiscal year 2024.

Job Objectives

• Implement material group strategy for a defined material group on a global level, observing the market situation and considering the needs of the relevant Product Centers and Hella Companies (MGS).
• Negotiation and conclusion of supplier frame contracts within the material group (MGS). Preparation and coordination of sourcing activities (Project Manager Purchasing) and negotiation and conclusion of sourcing activities (MGS).
• Involvement in the annual material cost planning process for the material group (MGS).
• Definition and implementation of technical and commercial saving measures to reduce material costs, in order to be able to purchase materials with high complexity and purchasing volumes, which meet or overachieve purchasing targets in the dimensions of “Cost”, “Time” and “Quality”.
• Steering and managing any kind of project specific purchasing activities for defined projects incl. projects with multiple development and/or production locations (Project Manager Purchasing).
• Executing supplier and material related tasks during series production and until end of delivery obligation representing the first point of contact and escalation level for the Hella companies (Operative Purchaser).

Duties and Responsibilities

A Purchasing Tasks

• Analyze the purchasing market taking into account the needs and requirements of the relevant Product Centers and Hella Companies. Prepare and update supplier matrix, prepare qualified supplier evaluations and support buildup of alternative suppliers to meet or overachieve purchasing targets in the dimensions of “Cost”, “Time” and “Quality” in alignment with the responsible party from Product Centers and Business Division.
• Prepare and implement a purchasing strategy for complex material groups with defined strategy teams. Establish a standard and optimized supplier basis worldwide to realize synergies by bundling purchasing volume, concentrating on efficient suppliers and optimizing the global process chain.
• Negotiate supplier frame contracts, define sourcing concept and realize sourcing activities incl. but not limited to sending RfQs, negotiating and nominating suppliers for tools and components within the material group (new projects, lifetime extensions, change management, etc.
• Support definition of material cost changes (budgeting) in agreement with the Hella Companies and superior in order to create an aligned planning basis and to achieve business division objectives.
• Generate measures for commercial and technical optimization of components or purchase volume to reduce costs and improve quality and security of supply.
• Analyse suppliers in cooperation with the suppliers, identify opportunities for improvement and derive corresponding qualification measures, involving internal organizational units, to optimize the process chain between the supplier and Hella.
• Ensure global transparency and consolidation of supplier and material data to guarantee a standardized data basis available to everyone.
• Consolidate the annual material requirements within a material group and prepare and carry out central negotiations with suppliers to achieve optimum purchasing prices through bundling.
• Support initiation of talks, carry out negotiations and prepare contracts to reduce costs, as well as to optimize procedures between supplier and Hella and to enforce Hella interests considering schedules, quality, quantity and delivery conditions.
• Create standardized international purchasing processes, methods and tools within the global network and strengthen purchasing power towards suppliers world-wide.
• Align tasks and decisions with Material Group Manager and supervisor if necessary.

B Operative Purchaser

• Ensure that the Purchasing Targets for defined Hella Company in the dimensions of “Cost”, “Time” and “Quality” are being achieved or overachieved by minimizing the total costs (Total Cost of Ownership) during series phase.
• Know the Hella-values as well as purchasing standards, processes and tools required to ensure a stable and target oriented production during series phase
• Execute series purchasing processes for material group specific materials, including but not limited to material cost planning, supplier assessment, supplier capacity monitoring, engineering change management, support for critical parts management, series material ordering outside ERP-runs and transfer responsibility during product relocations.
• Ensure sufficient production capacity for series business at supplier, managing stock increases, packaging and logistics related topics in case of bottlenecks or insolvencies.
• Challenge the technical solutions for purchased parts in terms of cost efficiency and challenge the plant team in order to ensure and overachieve targeted costs. Supporting the identification and achievement of cost potentials resulting from Re-Design-to-Cost (ReDtC). For that, an understanding of the product engineering process and the material manufacturing process is needed.
• Participate in the transfer of responsibility from Strategic Purchasing to Operative Purchasing.
• Implement purchasing and material group strategies.

C Project Manager

• Ensure that the Purchasing Targets for defined technically complex and international projects in the dimensions of “Cost”, “Time” and “Quality” are being achieved or overachieved by steering and managing any kind of project specific purchasing activities for defined projects incl. projects with multiple development and/or production locations and incl. project related SQA activities.
• Know and apply the Hella-values as well as purchasing standards, processes, and tools along the product engineering process.
• Minimizing the total costs (Total Cost of Ownership) by an early integration of the Project Manager in the product engineering process (PEP). Optimizing development timeline by an early integration of approved suppliers in the simultaneous engineering process.
• Challenging the technical solutions for purchased parts in terms of cost efficiency and challenge the project team to ensure and overachieve targeted costs. Supporting the identification and achievement of cost potentials resulting from Design-to-Cost (DtC). For that, an understanding of the product engineering process and the material manufacturing process is needed.
• Driving pre-series purchasing processes for specific Hella products, challenging the project team to keep project milestone important for the execution of purchasing tasks on-time, e.g. Concept/System Release and preparation of RfQ documents. Procuring prototypes if necessary and ensuring pre-series material procurement (C-Sample process).
• Transfer of responsibly for material procurement to the logistics department of the Hella production plant after released Production Part Approval Process (PPAP),
• Create standardized international purchasing processes, methods and tools within the integral network and strengthen purchasing power towards suppliers world-wide.
• Align tasks and decisions with Business Partner and/or supervisor if necessary

D Communication/Stakeholder Management

• Manage intercultural and trustful relationships by creating and adding value from international project team setups through utilizing the cultural diversity in the project.
• Ensure and coordinate adequate information flow between project team and MGS colleagues responsible for the project specific sourcing activities.
• Act as first contact window and escalation level for suppliers within series production and for product centre overarching issues. Providing relevant information to Material Group Management and Project Management Business Partners in order to derive appropriate actions.
• Escalation to Material Group Managers as well as Business Partner according to valid escalation concepts. Align tasks and decisions with superiors if necessary.

Your Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in similar roles.
• English language advanced.
• ERP experience and knowledge.

FORVIA HELLA stands for the variety of all employees. Inclusion and diversity are firmly anchored in our company culture.

We are continuously looking for new team players and welcome applications from all interested parties, regardless of their ethical and social background, age, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation or identity.