Purpose and Responsibilities
- To manage and optimise the procurement of castings, forgings, and fabricated components with a strong technical focus on pattern management and patternless casting strategies.
- The role bridges technical expertise and commercial accountability, ensuring cost-effective, high-quality, and timely supply of critical components.
- This role is essential to maintaining technical oversight of foundry processes and patterns while driving innovation through the adoption of patternless technologies to reduce lead times and improve procurement value
Main tasks and responsibilities
Procurement – Castings, Forgings & Fabrications
- Source, negotiate, and procure castings, forgings, and fabricated items in alignment with production and engineering requirements.
- Evaluate and manage supplier performance with regard to cost, quality, delivery, technical compliance, and responsiveness.
- Analyse market trends and cost drivers in the casting and fabrication space to identify cost-saving opportunities.
- Maintain a reliable supplier base for critical components, including risk mitigation strategies to reduce single-source dependency.
- Execute purchase orders and contracts in accordance with company policy and engineering specifications.
Foundry & Pattern Technical Oversight
- Oversee and manage the company’s pattern inventory and associated
- documentation, including pattern ownership registers and condition reports.
- Review and approve technical drawings and specifications in collaboration with engineering and quality teams.
- Audit foundries for technical capability, pattern storage conditions, and compliance with company casting requirements.
- Support root cause investigations into casting-related quality issues and assist in implementing corrective actions with foundries.
- Act as the central liaison between engineering, operations, and foundries on all pattern and tooling matters.
Patternless Casting Strategy Development
- Identify cast components suitable for patternless casting methods based on cost, lead time, and technical feasibility.
- Work with existing and new suppliers to pilot patternless casting projects, including additive manufacturing or CNC-machined mold strategies.
- 1Track and report on the % of casting spend converted to patternless manufacturing, with target progression toward 10–15% over 24 months.
- Develop technical and commercial benchmarks for evaluating patternlesscasting performance and ROI.
- Create and maintain a roadmap for patternless strategy adoption across product lines and supplier capabilities.
Cross functional Collaboration
- Collaborate closely with Engineering, Quality, and Planning departments to align casting procurement with product development and production schedules.
- Participate in design for manufacturability (DFM) reviews with engineering to influence casting-friendly designs early in the process.
- Prepare monthly reports on casting procurement KPIs, including cost savings, supplier performance, and patternless adoption metrics.
- Lead supplier technical workshops to communicate product changes, tolerance expectations, and future technology roadmaps.
- Support CAPEX or R&D initiatives related to casting improvements or new patternless production technologies.