Materials Manager

Commercial Vehicle Group • Michigan City, MI

5d • Onsite

About The Position

The Materials Manager leads the Michigan City plant’s materials function, including planning, scheduling, inventory control, customer support, and material flow. This role ensures materials are available on time, in the right quantity, and at the best total cost to support customer delivery and plant goals.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Business, Operations, Logistics, Engineering, or related field.
• 5+ years of progressive materials, supply chain, planning, logistics, or operations leadership experience in manufacturing.
• Inventory control, planning, scheduling, warehouse operations, shipping, receiving, and delivery performance experience.
• Strong ERP/MRP experience and ability to use data to manage performance and solve problems.
• 3+ Years proven team leadership and measurable KPI and operational improvement results.

Nice To Haves

• APICS/ASCM certification, such as CPIM or CSCP, or equivalent.
• Automotive, commercial vehicle, heavy vehicle, industrial, metals, or Tier 1 manufacturing experience.
• Lean manufacturing, operational excellence, and continuous improvement experience.
• Experience with warehouse optimization, material flow redesign, inventory reduction, or ERP/MRP improvements.
• Multi-site manufacturing or high-mix production environment experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead materials planning, scheduling, and production support to meet customer and plant requirements.
• Manage planners, schedulers, and related materials team members to maintain production flow.
• Review forecasts, EDI, demand changes, and schedules to identify risks and recovery actions.
• Coordinate material readiness for launches, engineering changes, line moves, and production changes.
• Set replenishment strategies that balance availability, inventory, space, and delivery needs.
• Improve inventory accuracy through audits, transaction discipline, root cause analysis, and follow-up.
• Improve turns, reduce excess and obsolete inventory, and support working capital goals.
• Use Kanban, pull systems, min/max levels, supermarkets, and visual controls where appropriate.
• Analyze slow, obsolete, excess, and high-risk inventory and lead reduction actions.
• Collaborate with the Shipping and Receiving Manger to partner on inventory levels and turns.
• Partner with Sourcing, Purchasing, Supplier Quality, and Supply Chain to resolve supplier issues.
• Monitor supplier delivery and lead escalation, recovery plans, and corrective actions.
• Ensure vendor releases, schedules, and purchase orders support production and delivery needs.
• Develop contingency plans for high-risk suppliers, constrained materials, and supply interruptions.
• Support supplier development focused on delivery, responsiveness, quality, and cost-effective supply.
• Champion Operational Excellence, lean practices, standard work, and daily management.
• Lead improvement projects in inventory, flow, productivity, and delivery.
• Use root cause analysis, PDCA, A3, Kaizen, 5S, value stream mapping, and visual management.
• Eliminate waste in planning, picking, staging, and reporting.
• Partner with Operations and Engineering to improve line-side presentation, flow, replenishment, and handling productivity.
• Own materials KPIs, including inventory accuracy, turns, supplier and customer delivery, schedule adherence, premium freight, shortages, productivity, obsolete inventory, and variances.
• Set KPI targets and lead daily, weekly, and monthly performance reviews.
• Create KPI action plans with owners, due dates, and verified corrective actions.
• Use dashboards, accountability meetings, and visual management to drive focus.
• Convert KPI trends into actions that improve plant financial and operational performance.
• Ensure effective ERP/MRP use for planning, inventory, procurement, receiving, shipping, and reporting.
• Drive transaction accuracy and master data discipline.
• Partner with IT, Finance, Operations, Shipping and Receiving, and Supply Chain to improve systems, reporting, and controls.
• Use data to support decisions, prioritize actions, and identify recurring issues.
• Develop standard work and training for consistent ERP/MRP execution.
• Lead and develop the materials team with focus on accountability, collaboration, service, and continuous improvement.
• Set expectations, provide feedback, and support performance and development discussions.
• Build team capability in planning, inventory control, supplier follow-up, problem solving, ERP discipline, and KPI management.
• Promote a safe, respectful, inclusive, results-oriented culture aligned with CVG values.
• Collaborate with plant leadership and functional partners to meet customer, operational, financial, and people goals.

Benefits

• Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc (CVG) is an equal employment opportunity employer such that all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.
• At this time, we are not providing sponsorship for this role. Applicants must be authorized to work in the country of the job posting location on a full-time basis.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior