The Supplier Quality Engineer manages all product quality related activities with Rehrig Pacific Company’s suppliers to continuously improve quality and reduce the risk of disruptions to Rehrig Pacific Company’s operations and customers. The Supplier Quality Engineer advances the supplier quality program to ensure its effectiveness of meeting internal stakeholder needs. With cross-functional partners in Procurement and Design, the Supplier Quality Engineer evaluates suppliers for potential partnership and develops selected suppliers to meet quality expectations. The Supplier Quality Engineer uses advanced quality planning techniques to drive supplier understanding, control and delivery of Rehrig Pacific Company’s quality expectations during NPD and approved production. They use formalized processes to routinely evaluate supplier quality, assess and mitigate potential quality risks. The Supplier Quality Engineer drives supplier accountability by initiating and leading corrective actions and recovering costs.

Areas of accountability

Advances Rehrig Pacific Company’s supplier quality program – Develops and leads the processes that properly vet supplier capabilities, align supply chain partners to critical requirements and expectations, measures supplier performance, and ultimately ensures the consistency of the products and components being sourced by Rehrig Pacific Company.

Develops and leads processes to identify, collect and specify supplier quality expectations in a standardized and scalable format. Communicates the requirements to suppliers. Identifies the supplier quality management processes needed to meet Rehrig expectations and leads their development, training and implementation. Provides training and awareness within Rehrig to promote internal conformance with our supplier quality program. Continuously reviews and improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the supplier quality program, ensuring Rehrig Pacific’s stakeholders are satisfied and future needs are accounted for.

Leads all quality aspects of supplier selection and onboarding – Collaborates with internal stakeholders to understand critical-to-quality (CTQ) product aspects and uses them to define supplier requirements and needed capabilities. Works with cross-functional partners to properly vet, select and onboard suppliers.

Works with internal stakeholders (Procurement and Design) to develop and document the list of supplier capabilities needed to fulfill product quality expectations. Evaluates suppliers’ manufacturing processes, quality systems, and supporting quality processes as inputs to determine suitability for partnership. Works directly with supplier(s) involved in new product launches to develop, validate and implement quality plans through prototype and production builds.

Aligns suppliers to quality deliverables and expectations – Through advanced production and quality planning techniques, aligns suppliers to critical deliverables, ensures manufacturing readiness and the consistent supply of products and components.

Defines quality deliverables within the early stages of Rehrig Pacific’s New Product Development (NPD) process in alignment with stakeholders. Guides suppliers to successful completion of product and project deliverables during the NPD process by leading training exercises and overseeing supplier progress. Manages engineering changes on new and existing products to ensure changes are understood, properly validated, delivered on-time and properly controlled to consistently achieve quality requirements.

Continually evaluates and improves supplier quality and performance – Generates year-over-year improvement of supplier quality metrics and other quality aspects of our supply chain.

Develops and leads a supplier audit program to establish a baseline and assess ongoing performance. Establishes and leads a supplier quality scorecard process that collects and provides customer satisfaction (Rehrig) data to suppliers and cross-functional stakeholders. Implements and guides the execution of product inspection plans to assess supplier conformance and to reduce variation and risk in supplier processes. With the Procurement team, develops and leads formalized, time-bound improvement initiatives directly with suppliers. Communicates supplier performance directly to cross-functional stakeholders, specifically identifying issues or risks and aligns stakeholders on plans to mitigate.

Manages supplier accountability – Drives accountability and ensures that suppliers are consistently meeting expectations. When expectations are missed, works quickly with suppliers and internal stakeholders to minimize impact and thoroughly rectify issues with lasting countermeasures.

Guides suppliers’ utilization of feedback from audits, scorecards and product inspections to properly resolve deficiencies, reduce variation and mitigate risks. Leads supplier quality corrective action activities to achieve accurate root cause diagnosis and prompt corrective actions that effectively prevent issues from recurring. Works with procurement to capture and recover costs as a result of supply chain disruption.

General Responsibilities

Advances and manages Rehrig Pacific’ Supplier Corrective Action Reporting (SCAR) program Mitigates supply chain risks with cross functional partners (Procurements, Design) Maintains clear, timely communication between suppliers and Rehrig regarding all supplier quality topics. Provides formal reports on supply chain metrics and activities to Rehrig senior leadership and internal stakeholders. Acts promptly and with agility regarding supplier quality risks and issues to prevent disruption to Rehrig operations. Willingness to travel up to an estimated 50%, with rare international travel.

Knowledge, Skills, and Experience

B.S. Degree in Engineering or formal certification in Quality Engineering or Management. Minimum of 5 years’ experience in a supplier quality engineering role with manufacturing suppliers. Experience in a production quality engineering role with customer accountability strongly preferred. Experience developing and implementing APQP Control Plans within manufacturing processes. Experience approving PPAP or comparable comprehensive initial production readiness programs. Experience performing supplier audits in accordance with ISO9001 (IATF 16949, VDA 6.0 or comparable) and detailed manufacturing process audits that verify process controls, quality controls and product conformance. Experience as a project manager leading new product implementations into manufacturing (internally or suppliers). Experience applying statistical process control techniques to evaluate and improve process performance. Experience performing root cause analysis and implementing corrective actions. Excellent communicator (verbal & written) and an ability to summarize and communicate information clearly. Experience and success developing and improving productive relationships with supplier partners.