Steven Fister

A highly experienced supply chain and leadership professional who maximizes company performance in a world that is volatile, uncertain, complex and full of ambiguity.
Expert at calculating and planning flow.
Able to quickly devise winning training plans that enable teams to think and act as 'one', and ensuring that knowledge 'lives on' for future successful outcomes, despite changes.  

SPECIALTIES
Strategic purchasing, inventory control, international freight, customs, the documentation of administrative processes, and managing a team.

Rimowa, Cambridge — Procurement Planner

MAY 2022 – MARCH 2023 

• Inventory Management Program: engage in weekly inventory planning, comparing demand patterns against inventory to minimize risk of supply disruption; minimize investment in inventory levels from 25+ vendors, with lead times up to 180 days; sourced from Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, India, the US, and Canada.

• Financial Management: regulate flow of incoming stock and manage deliveries to confirm compliance with contracts while monitoring stock levels and verify purchase requisitions in a very busy office with conflicting priorities.

• Research and Development: research and study supply chain analytics for strategic sourcing of potential components, vendors, and services, comparing price and quality to ensure the best deal.

• Cost Reduction: drive consistent lean cost savings, strategic initiatives via alternative vendors.

• Transportation Costs: develop purchasing strategies and identify buying trends with a focus on lowered transactional cost based upon effective routing, product geometry, and source country.

• MRO Purchasing: conduct research to become familiar with what products are available as well as their costs and benefits; share administrative work with decision makers.

• Vendor Localization: develop and implement plans to localize vendors to reduce lead-time and cost.

• Vendor Quality: communicate damaged or defective goods and develop solutions or corrective actions with the supplier. Keep detailed records and prepare and submit necessary performance reports.

• Quality Control: analyzing supplier quality and working with Quality Engineering team to address defects.

• Vendor Relationship Management: maintain single point of contact relationships for follow-up with suppliers, enforce warranty, and ensure continuous improvement of costs and of product/service against agreed upon Key Performance Indicators (KPI's). Accountable to management, engineering, and corporate finance.

• Technical Administration: accountability, excellent organization and detailed record keeping: purchasing prices/scales, technical data sheets, purchasing specifications, performance tests, NDA agreements, technical drawings for a product master of over 8,000 components, and various other general administration activities.

Cambridge Toyota, Cambridge — New Car Sales and Leasing Consultant

FEBRUARY 2020 – MAY 2022 

• Active client service: develop new and existing relationships with customers to exceed assigned sales targets while managing entire sales cycle.

• Product knowledge: have a good understanding of the businesses' products and services and be able to advise others about them, including knowledge of the competition

• Customer service: interact with customers to learn and understand their needs and their decision making. Experience daily opportunities to serve clients with limited English, which can be overcome with time, eye-contact, and perhaps even Google Interpreter.

• Single point of contact: acting as single point of contact for the new customers in collaboration with the applications and development teams.

• Open houses and special events: Support development of the sales and business strategy

• Prospecting: Research and identify new business opportunities

• Education: Attend seminars, conferences and events where appropriate

• Honest advice: Understand and help customers find appropriate solutions for their needs

• Daily CRM use: Maintain accurate reporting and records in CRM

Viessmann Manufacturing Company Inc., Waterloo — Supply Chain Manager 

JANUARY 2020 – JANUARY 2021 

• Overall Management of the Purchasing Function: experienced supply chain management professional with creative sourcing experience in Europe, N.America, and China; research 12+ new components/vendors per annum saving up to 69% employing different sourcing strategies; ensure accurate quoting; annual spend: $35 million Canadian.

• Material Master Maintenance: used advanced MS Excel skills to sort and clean 100s of thousands of lines of data in the material master; advanced SAP data management administrator: creation and change to basic data, sales, customs, purchasing, MRP, quality and accounting views.

• MRP Experience: run weekly for 30,000 SKUs 99% of which were full-control; experienced with seasonality and strategies to accurately and quickly increase/decrease on-hands for the coming period.

• Cross-Functional Team Work: provided analytical support and created proposals to Design Engineering to bring new products to life in N.America; with QC to assess samples from Asian sources; with Marketing to print $200K colour brochures and BW technical literature.

• International Freight: 15+ years experience booking 40' sea containers (3+ per week; 1,500+ containers from Europe and China), LCL (5+ per week; 2,500+ LCL from Europe and China), courier (15+ per week; 7,500+ couriers from Europe, N.America, China), LTL truck ( 5+ per week; 2,500+ LTL from Canada and the US).

• Product Launches: ensured stock, spare parts, parts lists, electronic platform maintenance, and display models.

• Product Management and Forecasting: sales and inventory, both of which are seasonally adjusted, for internal and external (vendor) stakeholders; developed custom sales reporting using Excel and data from Business Objects; committed to an 80%+ forecast accuracy.

• Inventory Control: managed stock for 3 distribution locations: Waterloo ON ($8 million), Langley BC ($4 million), and Warwick RI ($6 million).

• Back-up IT Coordinator: troubleshooting all information technology, on-site copiers, 40 PC workstations, software, and audio/visual equipment; assist staff using my MS Office skills.

• Interview, Hire and Manage Employees: hired, trained, and evaluated dozens of staff, and mentored dozens of co-op students (2 per year), all the while developing my mentorship and presentation skills.

• Indirect Purchasing (capital items + plant services): MRO: Waterloo facility operations, office layout, cars, 3PL warehousing and capacity planning, etc.

Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo

Honours Bachelor in Business Administration