While working for a utility contractor SME in Minnesota, I quickly found myself in the middle of handling almost all purchasing and inventory for a multi-million dollar division. An employee had taken a position with the #1 employer in the Rochester, MN area and was leaving the company within 1 month. I already had numerous other tasks including an ERP adoption project, project management software deployment project, and an extremely valuable OEM part replacement procurement project. The company approached me and asked me if I could pick up purchasing for the multi-million dollar division as a temporary replacement for the departing employee. I happily accepted the challenge as it gave me an even greater insight into the company’s needs and internal processes.
The purchasing position included sourcing and selecting vendors, obtaining RFQs and bids, establishing and maintaining quality thresholds, establishing payment terms, and negotiating contracts including quantity discounts and turnaround delivery times. I was also responsible for the expansion/addition of products into the company’s offerings. There were 3 departments inside of the 1 division, 2 separate in-house manufacturing shops as well as a field crew. In many cases, items had to be shipped overnight and across the country and I was in charge of managing the acquisition of the products as well as the shipping coordination with the vendor. I was able to make purchases of up to $50,000 without upper approval. Included in the job role was maintaining order acknowledgment data and tracking orders to make sure they were being completed on time and within requirements.
I’ve estimated my purchases to be around $2.5 million worth of product over the last 2 years I was with the company. I worked with over 100 different vendors. Internally I worked with around 25 different people throughout the different levels of the company on procurement including company executives, shop managers, salespeople, quality department, and many more.