Procurement Manager: Elekta Manor Royal Business District Crawley, UK Procurement | Supply Chain

Elekta Groups' direct procurement function operates across four main sites situated in the UK, Netherlands, Sweden and China. The Procurement function is structured as a matrix organisation with centralised leadership for Direct Purchasing, Indirect Purchasing, Supplier Development & Quality, Process & Systems and the Local Management in each of the regions for direct and indirect material. The purpose of this role is to manage direct material spend across a number of subcategories.

The PM’s typical focus is to provide Procurement best practice techniques from early on in the product development lifecycle, to ensure that Elekta’s supply chain of the future utilises the best supplier partners available and the capabilities that they can offer to obtain optimal total cost of ownership for Elekta and our customers. The PM works closely with local key business stakeholders to prioritise securing supply, quality & cost in production materials and development projects/programs.

Elekta Linac Solutions direct material suppliers are categorised into two groups where the Procurement Manager (PM) has the following responsibilities per group:

• Strategic suppliers: Supplier contract execution and supply performance, Supplier overall performance and relationship owner, New product, transfer project and localisation, Price negotiation and Engineering Change Orders, Supplier/category (domain) strategies, Point of escalation for critical shortages, supply risk management (key materials, tier-2, capacity, stock), supplier resilience.

Note that Elekta has a separate team responsible for materials planning and purchasing, so the planning and raising of purchase orders is not a significant part of this role, though may be required occasionally.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the development of global sourcing strategies for allocated categories (domains) taking due account of stakeholder mapping, spend analysis, technical requirements, understanding of current and future demands, supplier improvement and cost reduction opportunities.
• Manage and negotiate price variations and supply risk mitigation with suppliers.
• Identify supply chain risks and develop mitigation plans in order to secure business continuity.
• Ensure robust supply agreements are in place with key suppliers and negotiate best practice terms with suppliers.
• Encourage open book costing and competitive tendering.
• Manage the supplier interface during the industrialisation of new product and/or maintenance to ensure early supplier involvement and to meet Elekta targets.
• Take initiative on achieving the lowest total cost of ownership through negotiation, value engineering, low cost country sourcing and supplier consolidation.
• Maintain system parameters and data integrity for procurement systems.
• Identify opportunities to reduce and consolidate the approved supplier list, if required.
• Develop & maintain a thorough understanding of relevant global supplier market(s).
• Continuously develop and maintain supplier relationship management strategies including a governance structure and use of regular business reviews ensuring an inclusive approach to supplier management.
• Work closely with the key stakeholders to develop effective cost reduction, efficiency and supplier quality improvement strategies and implement these.
• Ensure appropriate know-how of global supplier markets within applicable markets, categories etc.
• Contribute to developing and implementing procurement best practices.
• Act as representative of procurement in product core teams (product maintenance).

Authorities:

• Make sourcing strategy proposals to Global Sourcing Board for approval.
• Take decisions for Direct Purchasing in accordance to the business directives and strategy.
• Take commercial, technical and quality decisions for creating Supplier Agreements.
• Negotiation of supplier agreements.
• Approve routines/documents for Purchasing in accordance with the Quality Systems.
• Decision maker in cross functional supplier relationship management teams.

Relevant Knowledge, skills and competencies:

• BA/BSc required with MBA preferred, other graduate degree potentially acceptable, or equivalent work experience.
• Previous buying or category management experience, ideally for direct materials and within a regulated technical manufacturing/engineering environment e.g. medical, aerospace, automotive.
• Excellent negotiation and supplier management skills.
• Experience with contract management and awareness and understanding of contract law.
• Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) certification desirable.
• Experience having managed a complex global supply base is desirable.
• Previous experience of working with purchasing systems, and well-developed IT skills.
• Ability to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of sourcing strategy deployment, financial concepts and the ability to create business cases.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to liaise with personnel, suppliers and key stakeholders at all levels.
• Fluent in language applicable to site location and English. Other languages advantageous.
• Passion for reducing costs – exhibits high energy and the enthusiasm to establish new approaches to sourcing.
• Able to work in a dual reporting matrix environment and work independently.
• Demonstrable record of delivering stretching targets and successfully managing concurrent tasks.
• Promote a dynamic, empowered and open work environment, integrating the Elekta Values throughout the function.

Additional local information:

• Role location: Crawley.
• Must be able to travel up to 20% of the time.