Shawna Knutson

Purchasing Manager for Wholesale distributor of fine art and craft supplies. Trained Purchasing personnel on how to use ERP configurations to improve efficiency. Responsible for replenishment forecasting for manufactured line of paper products. Identified and liquidated roughly $162K of obsolete inventory in 2015. Supported two annual trade shows and solicited supplier sponsorship.

Purchasing Manager for Agronomy division. Improved replenishment forecasting report tool; ERP had no replenishment planning functionality. Revised and documented new process for sales of Restricted Use Pesticides to ensure regulatory compliance as well as designed/documented processes for management of consignment inventory. Co-lead a year long ERP software transition project.

Hired as Purchasing Agent and took over the Management position in April of 2007. In 2006/2007 researched the functionality and settings within accounting software to maximize its capabilities and improve efficiencies, and then trained the department on process improvements. Updated many settings including Review Cycle, Safety Allowance, and K Cost default settings to fine tune replenishment processes. In 2009 worked to reduce inventory from $24M to $15M and then down to $10M by mid-2011 while maintaining fill rates of 95% or better. Worked closely with Service department to strengthen interface processes between two software platforms that weren't completely compatible. Monitor surplus monthly by branch and re-allocate to other locations as necessary to continuously manage and reduce surplus inventory costs. Initiated paperless processing/storage of vendor order acknowledgments. Collaborate with Accounts Payable/Receivable departments and Operations to identify and resolve issues and document resulting process improvements. Served on Employee Ownership Committee for three years, and was Committee Chair for two of those years.

Order materials for six branches of large West Coast company that sells and installs flooring materials in retail and income properties. Maintain inventory levels by monitoring daily and weekly usage reports. Update sales personnel and scheduling departments of inventory and order status. Obtain special pricing from product reps for competitive bid proposals.

Responsible for sourcing and procurement of all raw materials for pump system manufacturer and retail pump distributor. Filed claims with vendors for damaged and defective goods, and followed progress of claims through to the receipt of the credit/replacement. Developed inventory management/accounting protocol for month-end processing. Created job costing and profitability modeling tools to assist the sales department. Hired and supervised the shipping/receiving department personnel.