Buyer Planner

As a Buyer Planner at Newell Brands, your main responsibilities include initiating and updating production schedules, coordinating with operations and suppliers, managing resin buying, and ensuring compliance with customer service needs. You will also be evaluating both short and long-term production capacity and entering job work orders into our MRP system.

To qualify for the Buyer Planner role at Newell Brands, candidates should possess a Bachelor’s Degree along with 1 to 3 years of planning, scheduling, or production experience. Strong analytical skills, a good grasp of MRP, and proficiency in MS Office applications are essential.

In the Buyer Planner role at Newell Brands, you will monitor inventory levels to maintain appropriate dollars and turn rates and coordinate reorders to meet production plans. Your ability to communicate closely with various departments ensures efficient inventory transfers and minimizes shortages, thus optimizing the supply chain process.

At Newell Brands, a Buyer Planner can expect a collaborative team environment. You will work closely with operations, sales, marketing, and customer service teams to ensure schedule adherence and customer satisfaction, fostering a culture of teamwork and inclusive communication.

While experience with SAP is not a strict requirement for the Buyer Planner position at Newell Brands, it is considered a plus. Familiarity with MRP systems and strong analytical skills are more essential for success in this role.

When answering this question, provide specific examples of your previous roles involving production planning, detailing the systems you used, challenges you faced, and how you managed scheduling efficiencies. Highlight learning outcomes that helped shape your approach to production.

In your response, emphasize the importance of clear, proactive communication with all departments involved in production. Discuss strategies you have implemented, such as regular meetings or using shared software tools, to ensure everyone is on the same page.

You could explain your method of assessing urgency based on customer needs and production timelines. Discuss tools or frameworks, like priority matrices, that you use to keep track of tasks while ensuring alignment with broader business objectives.

Share an example of a past experience where you encountered inventory shortages and how you addressed it. Discuss actions like collaborating with suppliers for quick solutions, adjusting production schedules, and implementing contingency plans.

Talk about how you utilize data analysis to inform production decisions. Provide examples of how analyzing inventory data or sales forecasts has led to better production efficiency and contributed to cost management.

Reflect on a specific change you've implemented that improved efficiency, such as streamlining processes or introducing new technologies. Talk about the positive results and how they benefited the overall production workflow.

Detail your familiarity with MRP systems, including the specific software you've used. Describe how you've leveraged MRP to optimize production schedules and inventory management effectively.

Discuss your techniques for monitoring schedules closely, communicating regularly with team members, and employing reliable reporting methods to catch any potential delays early. Highlight any successful initiatives you enacted to improve schedule adherence.

Explain the criteria you use to prioritize tasks, such as order deadlines and production capacity, and how you negotiate between departments to find mutually beneficial solutions that maintain production schedules.

Share insights gained from past experiences that relate directly to the role at Newell Brands, such as understanding customer needs better, improving supplier relationships, or mastering efficient production planning techniques.