Experience Report Nilesh | thyssenkrupp rothe erde

Nilesh Patil

Operational buyer at Rothe Erde India Private Ltd.

My job

Today as an Operative Buyer, I am responsible for the purchasing of MRO items, tools and fixtures, safety equipment, production consumables, facility and management services like housekeeping, employee transportation, canteen services etc. In addition to this, together with my colleagues I am responsible for the alignment with lead buyers for global contracts and managing rate contracts with local suppliers. I also drive cost reduction projects and support big investment projects.

 My functional responsibilities include:

1. Analyzing the requirements of internal customers

2. Cross-functional evaluation and selection of suppliers

3. Negotiations of contracts and purchase orders

4. Support for invoice checking/verification

5. Support in claim management

6. To be a part of a cross functional team for development activities and new projects

Our typical working day

My job is very often a mixture of multiple tasks. Typical tasks of my working day are sending enquiries, negotiations with suppliers, creation of PO’s, follow ups with vendors for urgencies, discussions with suppliers, review meetings with internal customers, finding opportunities for cost reduction, making reports etc.

Our challenges

Due to the large variety of demands from various stakeholders, it is a big challenge for me to technically understand each and every requirement to conclude the right decisions. To overcome this challenge, I always interact with respective technical experts and the global procurement network of thyssenkrupp rothe erde.

It is a daily challenge to reconcile barriers, opinions and expectations with colleagues and superiors for the satisfaction of our customers. To overcome this challenge, I am focusing on prioritizing tasks, properly coordinating with colleagues and completing planned tasks in a timely manner.

My qualification

I am a Production Engineering Graduate. I started my career with thyssenkrupp rothe erde India as a Tooling Engineer in 2008. Five years prior, I had gained experience in different areas, e. g. tool engineering, process engineering and machine maintenance.

During the project establishing stage, it was a very good learning experience to work with the tooling department for more than 3 years. After completing the project, I felt a strong desire for change. Therefore, I was looking for a new opportunity within thyssenkrupp rothe erde to contribute my own technical experience and ideas as well as developing myself further. And fortunately, considering my overall performance and contribution in the development of sources for cutting tools, I was offered the opportunity to work with the procurement department in 2011.

Thanks to the support of my bosses, I have been able to gain an insight into my new career path. To strengthen my profile in procurement, I have upgraded my qualification by completing “Post Graduate Diploma in Material & Logistics Management”.

Working with thyssenkrupp rothe erde is a wonderful experience every day.

Our slogan is „engineering. tomorrow. together.” Together means for me …

For me our slogan means “an engineers’ innovative approach for better tomorrow, with the proper team of experts, working together on creating common business opportunities”. 

Working together is a top priority in my department and in line with our slogan, each of our team members make their own contribution with a strong sense of togetherness.

My employer thyssenkrupp rothe erde

At thyssenkrupp rothe erde, the further development of our employees and networking culture are the things which I like most.  I am completely satisfied with this!

Working at thyssenkrupp means for me to be a part of an innovative, future oriented company, a company that treats its employees in an extremely fair and balanced manner.

The working atmosphere, the general conditions and the opportunities for development – all these are simply attractive and encouraging.