Material Distribution Lead (Direct Hire/Perm)

Summary:  This position has the primary responsibility for ensuring delivery of kitted, kanban, and point of use materials to manufacturing technicians in the right quantity, the right quality, the right place, and at the right time.

This role coordinates the work of 1–4 Material Handlers as needed.

Responsibilities and Deliverables:

Production Floor Material Readiness

• • Ensure all work orders/kits/stations are fully staged prior to start
  • Shortage & Escalation Management
  • • Identify and verify part shortages 24–72 hours before line impact
    • Escalate issues early with communicated recovery plans
    • Own the shortage board / missing material tracker

Internal Logistics & Material Movement

• • Control replenishment from warehouse to line-side
  • Own kanban, supermarkets, point-of-use stocking strategy
  • Optimize travel paths and material presentation to operators
  • Kitting & Work Order Support
  • Prioritize kits based on build plan
  • Prevent partial kits from hitting the floor
  • Ensure kits are complete and delivered on time
• Inventory Accuracy on the Floor
• Cycle count line-side and WIP locations
• Reconcile system vs physical discrepancies
• Prevent “ghost shortages” caused by bad transactions
• POC for Fastenal vending and RFID programs, ensuring we have what we need when we need it

Visual Management & Communication

• Maintain a visual board for:
• • • Shortages
• Priority builds
• • • Past due kits
    • Attend daily production meetings with status updates

Process Improvement (Lean Focus)

• Reduce material touches
• Improve point-of-use storage
• Implement kanban or two-bin where applicable
• Drive 6S in material areas
• Production floor material readiness
• Driving requirements for what material is needed back to warehouse to kit/deliver/MRB
• Work with Manufacturing Engineering to define the value stream map for material distribution within the production cells, supermarket racking, bin sizes and locations on benches, etc

Skills Required:

• Highest level of integrity - Accountable and Dependable
• Strong Work Ethic - Ability to work effectively independently with little direction and in a team environment
• Strong interpersonal skills, including effective written and oral communication abilities
• Flexibility to work overtime as required - Availability to work Saturdays with the needs of the business
• Physical Requirements: ability to lift packages or materials up to 50lbs and move products using MHE
• Proficient in MS Office Suite of Products, Outlook, PowerPoint, Word, and Excel, or willingness to learn
• Ability to work while standing (approximately 70 % of the time) and sitting
• Sets up Production kits, verify part numbers, and quantities to BOM, subs, equipment & fixtures as required
• Participates in physical inventories (required)
• Troubleshoots, diagnoses, and corrects issues in the production floor warehouse locations

Experience Required:

• Experience using ERP Systems; preferably Epicor
• Experience physically and electronically handling inventory
• Ability to work in a fast-paced work environment with the ability to change priorities in a timely fashion
• Advanced understanding of inventory: counting, auditing, cycle-counting, kitting, work orders, material flow, etc.
• Experience with cycle time, takt time, lean and 6S principles or willingness to learn