Indirect Purchasing Intern

About the role

FORVIA is looking for a year-round Indirect Purchasing Intern to support its Group Indirect Purchasing (IdP) team at the headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The intern will assist with day-to-day responsibilities, productivity initiatives, and cost-saving actions within the Indirect Purchasing group.

Responsibilities

• Work closely with commodity buyers, plants, and plant departments to identify and implement cost-saving actions beyond price negotiation, including best practices, consumption reduction, technical optimization, and standardization.
• Assist with productivity action plans involving suppliers.
• Drive benchmarking and best practices efforts at plants to identify, implement, and contribute to cost savings at plant, regional, national, and global levels.
• Support commodity buyers with assigned IDP projects, including participation in competitive bids, data collection, specifications, and evaluation of results.
• Assist with the implementation of corporate contracts in the region, ensuring follow-up and regular audits of contract compliance.
• Contribute to purchasing portfolios not covered by commodity contracts, including consolidating local needs, managing competitive bids, reducing the supplier base, and handling local one-shot projects and negotiations.
• Ensure actions align with commodity strategy and identify opportunities for national or corporate-level generalization.
• Assist in managing the administrative purchase order process, including supporting buyers and plants with purchase orders, payment issues, and NRFTs (not right first time).
• Help manage supplier issues under purchasing responsibility, such as contract non-compliance, price agreement updates, and discrepancies between purchase order and invoice prices.
• Apply IDP methodologies and tools, including project management, cost savings tracking, Ariba contract management, and SAP Purchasing modules.
• Adhere to all applicable Forvia Core Procedures.

Requirements

• Pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or Supply Chain.
• Willing to work as an intern for a full year.
• Results-oriented with strong written and oral communication skills.
• Ability to work in a matrixed organization.
• Comfortable with local travel to assist commodity buyers, both solo and accompanied.
• Strong Microsoft Office skills (advanced Excel is a plus).

About FORVIA

FORVIA is a sustainable mobility technology leader and the seventh-largest global automotive supplier, employing over 157,000 people in more than 40 countries. We bring together expertise in electronics, clean mobility, lighting, interiors, seating, and lifecycle solutions to drive innovation in the automotive industry. Our technology is used in approximately 1 out of 2 vehicles produced worldwide.

FORVIA is committed to sustainability and became the first global automotive group certified with the SBTI Net-Zero Standard in June 2022, aiming to reach CO₂ Net Zero by 2045. We prioritize recyclability, circular economy, and three guiding principles: use less, use better, and use longer.

We foster a multicultural, inclusive environment that values diversity and international collaboration. Employees benefit from an average of over 22 hours of training through FORVIA University, with five campuses worldwide. We welcome energetic, agile individuals who thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative setting and share our passion for excellence and sustainability.