Industrial Engineer / Materials Manager

Now interviewing for an Industrial Engineer / Materials Manager for a manufacturing company in Aldine, TX.

Salary to $100k with profit sharing. Must have a BS in Industrial Engineering, 5+ years of experience and be bilingual. The IE / Materials Manager will design, build, and then run the core materials and scheduling systems that support a roughly $25 million powder coating operation.

IE/Materials Manager Key responsibilities

• System design and ownership:
  • Design, document, and implement end‐to‐end materials management systems that can scale with growth (process maps, work instructions, KPIs).
  • Transition systems from design to steady-state operation, continuously monitoring performance and driving improvements.
• Purchasing and supplier management:
  • Build a standard purchasing process including requisition flow, quote comparison, PO creation, and receipt controls with clearly defined levels of authority and approval limits.
  • Develop and manage supplier relationships for powder, media, packaging, and consumables to ensure on‐time delivery, competitive pricing, and consistent quality.
  • Implement standards for safety stock, lead times, and order frequencies aligned with demand and production requirements.
• Plant scheduling methodology:
  • Create a scheduling framework tailored to powder coating operations (batching by color, substrate, cure profile, and customer priority) to maximize oven throughput and minimize changeovers.
  • Coordinate daily and weekly production schedules with Operations, Sales, and Customer Service to meet customer due dates and maintain company's reputation for fast turnaround times.
  • Monitor schedule adherence and capacity utilization, adjusting plans based on constraints, rush orders, and equipment availability.
• Inventory management (powder and related materials):
  • Develop and maintain inventory control systems for powders, primers, masking materials, and packaging, including location management, lot traceability, and cycle counting.
  • Set min/max levels and replenishment rules to prevent stock-outs while reducing excess and obsolete inventory.
  • Partner with Quality and Operations to minimize waste from expired, off‐shade, or slow‐moving powders and to enforce FEFO/FIFO practices.
• ERP implementation and data integrity:
  • Serve as the primary materials lead for ERP implementation, mapping current and future‐state processes into the system (items, BOMs, routings, purchasing, inventory, and scheduling modules).
  • Define master data standards and ensure accurate setup of items, units of measure, lead times, and safety stocks.
  • Help train end users on ERP transactions related to purchasing, receiving, inventory movements, and production reporting; own ongoing data cleanliness within materials functions.
• Real‐time oven analytics and production visibility:
  • Collaborate with Operations, Engineering, and IT to implement real‐time analytics for ovens (load status, cycle times, temperature profiles, bottlenecks, and downtime).
  • Use real‐time data to refine scheduling rules, improve throughput, and reduce rework caused by under‐ or over‐curing.
  • Build dashboards and standard reports that connect oven performance to materials consumption, schedule adherence, and on‐time delivery.
• Cross‐functional leadership and continuous improvement:
  • Work closely with Production, Quality, Sales, Finance, and Logistics to align materials strategy with customer requirements across industrial, commercial, architectural, and residential markets.
  • Identify and execute cost‐reduction and process‐improvement initiatives (e.g., color changeover strategy, lot size optimization, freight consolidation, vendor agreements).
  • Establish and track key metrics such as inventory turns, on‐time delivery, purchase price variance, schedule adherence, and material yield.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering.
• Five years of materials, supply chain, or production planning experience in a manufacturing environment; coating, finishing, or metals experience.
• Must be fluent in English and Spanish (Bilingual).
• Demonstrated experience building processes or systems from the ground up and then running them day‐to‐day is desired.
• Hands‐on experience with ERP systems; prior involvement in ERP implementation or major upgrade is a plus.
• Strong analytical skills and comfort working with data, metrics, and real‐time production information.
• Effective leadership, communication, and change‐management skills with the ability to work across departments.

Preferred attributes

• Experience in powder coating, surface finishing, or related metal finishing operations.
• Familiarity with real‐time production monitoring, manufacturing execution systems, or industrial IoT tools.
• Exposure to Lean, Six Sigma, or similar continuous improvement methodologies.

Equal Opportunity Employer