Buying Analyst

Job Summary

Assists with purchase of requisitioned items and executes buying strategies in accordance with agreed upon buying plans at the optimum cost. Analyzes sourcing information and presents findings for process improvement and cost reduction while maintaining high quality product and/or service delivery.

Key Responsibilities

Assists in the procurement of services, inventory items, supplies, and capital goods. Analyzes sourcing and procurement initiatives and processes in support of the delivery of cost effective and high quality goods and services. Consistently applies sourcing policies, procedures and processes. Supports procurement/sourcing management in activities such as price benchmarking, vendor management, process analysis, market and industry research, and model building.

Requests, analyses and evaluates supplier quotations. Manages loading and retrieving of legal and compliance documents into applicable storage systems to support regulatory, audit and research activities. Assists in the process of interviewing and evaluating sales representatives and vendors. Supports Six Sigma projects through active team membership or provision of data and market intelligence. Interacts with suppliers and internal customers with regard to invoice reconciliations/payments.

Identifies and implements opportunities for Ariba catalogs. Facilitates Purchase Requistion approvals Liaises with Supply Chain Services to ensure suppliers are enabled on Ariba Network Seeks opportunities to identify diverse suppliers.

Competencies

Financial acumen - Interpreting and applying understanding of key financial indicators to make better business decisions.

Action oriented - Taking on new opportunities and tough challenges with a sense of urgency, high energy, and enthusiasm.

Balances stakeholders - Anticipating and balancing the needs of multiple stakeholders.

Collaborates - Building partnerships and working collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives.

Communicates effectively - Developing and delivering multi-mode communications that convey a clear understanding of the unique needs of different audiences.

Courage - Stepping up to address difficult issues, saying what needs to be said.

Drives results - Consistently achieving results, even under tough circumstances.

Manages conflict - Handling conflict situations effectively, with a minimum of noise.

Situational adaptability - Adapting approach and demeanor in real time to match the shifting demands of different situations.

Data Analytics - Discovers, interprets and communicates qualitative and quantitative data; determines conclusions relying on knowledge of business or functional frameworks; simultaneously applies statistics, data validity, data visualization, and problem solving approaches to effectively extract meaningful patterns and business insights; presents conclusions and outcomes that enable data driven business decisions.

Procurement Ethics - Avoids supplier engagement that may compromise supplier sourcing, selection, and management processes and seeks counsel to ensure compliance.

Procurement Policies, Procedures, Tools - Understands all of the relevant Procurement policies and procedures and complies with them in daily work; Masters all tools required to conduct procurement work. Knows how to access documents in the appropriate Document Management System (DMS) and/or who to ask if clarification or expansion of the information contained in each document is needed.

Sourcing - Utilizes the purchasing functional system to support the Request For Quote process and establish a Total Cost of Ownership comparison of suppliers based on the category strategy and define the supplier that is most likely to meet Cummins and customer's needs.

Values differences - Recognizing the value that different perspectives and cultures bring to an organization.

Builds networks - Effectively building formal and informal relationship networks inside and outside the organization.

Education, Licenses, Certifications

College, university or equivalent degree in a related business field such as supply chain management.

This position may require licensing for compliance with export controls or sanctions regulations.

Experience

• Minimal prior experience is required.
• Develop and maintain should-cost models for castings and forgings, covering raw material, conversion, machining, heat treatment, surface treatment, tooling, overheads, and supplier margins.
• Analyse supplier quotations and validate cost break-ups to identify cost gaps and opportunities for cost optimization.
• Track raw material prices, including pig iron, steel scrap, ferroalloys, steel billets, and forging-grade steel, to establish commodity benchmarks.
• Validate supplier price revision requests and raw material indexation calculations against agreed commercial terms and market indices.
• Benchmark component prices across suppliers, manufacturing processes, and sourcing locations to identify competitive sourcing opportunities.
• Analyse machine-hour rates, cycle times, material yield, scrap recovery, rejection rates, and manufacturing conversion costs.
• Prepare RFQ commercial comparison sheets and provide data-driven recommendations for supplier selection and sourcing decisions.
• Analyse purchase price variance (PPV), track price movements against baseline costs, and quantify the financial impact of price changes.
• Identify and quantify cost-reduction opportunities through value engineering, process optimization, alternate sourcing, localization, and import substitution.
• Support buyers in supplier negotiations by providing should-cost estimates, cost breakdowns, market intelligence, and negotiation targets.
• Maintain historical pricing databases, supplier cost break-ups, commodity indices, and benchmarking records.
• Monitor commodity market trends and assess their impact on purchasing costs and sourcing strategies.
• Evaluate supplier cost structures, manufacturing efficiency, capacity utilization, and financial health to support sourcing decisions.
• Support new product development and localization projects through cost estimation, supplier quotation analysis, and commercial feasibility assessments.
• Collaborate with buyers, engineering, supplier quality, manufacturing, and finance teams to validate technical assumptions and cost-saving opportunities.
• Track identified and realized savings against annual purchasing targets and prepare periodic cost performance dashboards.
• Ensure accuracy and timely reporting of commodity costs, price revisions, PPV, and savings performance.
• Support supplier development initiatives by analysing cost competitiveness, capacity-related investments, and opportunities for manufacturing cost improvement.
• Analyse casting and forging manufacturing processes, including melting, moulding, forging, fettling, heat treatment, machining, and finishing, to identify cost drivers.
• Ensure compliance with established purchasing policies, commercial agreements, and pricing approval procedures.