Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Expediter

🎯 Role Definition

The Expediter is a logistics and supply chain-focused professional responsible for ensuring materials, components and services arrive on time to meet production, project, and customer delivery schedules. This role proactively manages supplier relationships, purchase orders, and shipment status to minimize lead-time delays and reduce disruption to manufacturing or project timelines. The ideal Expediter blends strong vendor communication, hands-on tracking and escalation, and the use of ERP/warehouse systems to keep inventory and production schedules aligned with business priorities.

Key keywords: Expediter, expediting, supplier follow-up, vendor management, PO tracking, production schedule, on-time delivery, logistics coordination, inventory control, ERP (SAP/Oracle), purchase order expediting.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Purchasing Coordinator / Purchasing Assistant
Logistics Coordinator / Shipping & Receiving Clerk
Inventory Control Clerk / Materials Handler

Advancement To:

Senior Expediter / Lead Expediter
Production Planner or Materials Planner
Procurement Specialist or Buyer
Supply Chain Analyst / Supply Chain Manager

Lateral Moves:

Supplier Quality Engineer (with supplier-facing experience)
Warehouse or Inventory Supervisor
Logistics or Transportation Coordinator

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Proactively manage and expedite open purchase orders and subcontract orders to ensure materials, components and services are delivered on time to support production schedules and project milestones.
Maintain daily communication with suppliers, vendors and subcontractors to obtain accurate shipment status, lead-time confirmations, and any potential delays that could impact delivery dates.
Track and update order status in ERP systems (e.g., SAP, Oracle, NetSuite) and supply chain dashboards, ensuring all PO records, expected delivery dates, and shipping details are current and auditable.
Raise timely and clear escalations to procurement, production planning and senior management when supplier performance or logistics issues threaten schedule adherence.
Coordinate and schedule expedited shipments (air, courier, or priority ground) and obtain routing instructions, shipping quotes and bill-of-lading documentation to meet urgent delivery needs.
Review and verify supplier acknowledgements, packing lists, commercial invoices and certificates of conformance to ensure shipments meet contract and compliance requirements.
Collaborate with production planners and manufacturing supervisors to align incoming material arrivals with build schedules, minimizing line downtime and inventory shortages.
Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) such as on-time delivery, supplier lead times, fill rates and expedited cost to identify risk trends and take corrective action.
Perform root-cause analysis for repeated supplier delays and work with procurement to implement corrective action plans, supplier development or alternate sourcing when required.
Manage inbound shipment tracking and coordinate with carriers, customs brokers and internal receiving teams to solve transit problems, customs holds, and unexpected carrier exceptions.
Facilitate cross-functional daily or weekly expediting meetings to review critical POs, prioritize expediting resources and update stakeholders on status and mitigation plans.
Negotiate delivery commitments, partial shipments and split shipments with suppliers to achieve the best balance between schedule, cost and inventory levels.
Create and distribute timely status reports to stakeholders (procurement, supply chain, production, project management and customers) summarizing high-risk line items and mitigation strategies.
Validate and escalate issues related to supplier quality holds, non-conforming materials or documentation discrepancies that could delay acceptance or production.
Maintain relationships with freight forwarders, carriers and 3PL partners to streamline inbound logistics and resolve transportation-related delays impacting schedule.
Manage supplier scorecards and performance feedback loops by capturing metrics and working with procurement to implement supplier improvement plans.
Support purchase order changes, cancellations and re-routes, ensuring supplier acknowledgements and logistics implications are documented and communicated.
Coordinate pre-shipment inspections, factory acceptance tests and vendor site visits when required to validate schedule and quality prior to shipment.
Implement and enforce expediting policies and standard operating procedures to ensure consistent handling of critical POs across projects and plants.
Support sourcing activities by providing lead-time assessments, landed-cost impacts of expedited shipping and supplier capability input during RFx and contract reviews.
Enter and maintain accurate expediting notes, carrier tracking numbers, and delivery confirmations in the company’s ERP or TMS to support traceability and audit processes.
Manage exceptions such as shortages, backorders, and allocation releases; evaluate the business impact and recommend mitigation options including temporary production changes or alternate parts.
Assist in inventory planning by providing timely lead-time updates to inventory control and purchasing to avoid excess safety stock or stockouts.
Stay current with import/export regulations and documentation requirements; coordinate with customs brokers to resolve clearance delays that affect delivery schedules.
Drive continuous improvement initiatives focused on reducing expedite frequency, improving supplier delivery performance and lowering expedited freight costs.

Secondary Functions

Support cross-functional continuous improvement projects (Lean, Kaizen) aimed at reducing lead times and improving on-time delivery.
Prepare and analyze weekly expediting and supply chain risk reports for leadership, highlighting trends, root causes and recommended corrective actions.
Train and mentor junior procurement and expediting staff on vendor follow-up techniques, ERP usage and escalation protocols.
Participate in supplier performance reviews and quarterly business reviews to align expectations and prioritize corrective actions.
Assist procurement and sourcing teams with supplier on-boarding for high-risk or strategic suppliers, including documentation and logistics setup.
Help maintain accurate safety stock calculations and reorder points by providing real-world supplier lead-time variance and reliability data.
Contribute to ERP data cleanup efforts by validating supplier lead times, contact data and shipping locations to improve tracking accuracy.
Work with quality and compliance teams to ensure necessary certificates, material test reports and regulatory paperwork are obtained prior to release.
Coordinate with customer service and sales to provide realistic delivery commitments and shipment updates for customer-facing communications.
Participate in emergency response and business continuity planning to maintain supply of critical parts during disruptions.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Strong experience with ERP systems for PO tracking and expediting (SAP MM / SAP APO, Oracle E-Business Suite, NetSuite or equivalent).
Practical use of transportation management systems (TMS), shipment tracking portals and carrier/customer EDI integrations.
Advanced Microsoft Excel skills (VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, pivot tables, conditional formatting, data filtering and basic macros) for status reporting and KPI analysis.
Experience with purchase order lifecycle management including PO change notices, order confirmations, and supplier acknowledgements.
Knowledge of international logistics and customs documentation (commercial invoices, packing lists, AWB, B/L, Incoterms) for import/export expediting.
Familiarity with materials requirements planning (MRP) concepts, lead time analysis, safety stock, and reorder point calculations.
Ability to analyze supplier on-time delivery metrics and generate supplier scorecards and performance reports.
Working knowledge of RFQs, contract terms, and supplier service-level agreements (SLAs) that affect delivery commitments.
Experience coordinating expedited freight (air, express courier, charter) including cost negotiation and documentation.
Proficiency with collaboration and ticketing tools (SharePoint, Jira, Teams, Slack) to manage cross-functional communications and actions.
Basic data analysis and reporting skills; ability to synthesize large data sets into action-oriented summaries. (Experience with Power BI or Tableau is a plus.)

Soft Skills

Clear, proactive written and verbal communication for supplier follow-up, internal escalation and stakeholder reporting.
Strong stakeholder management and ability to influence suppliers, procurement, production and leadership without direct authority.
Excellent organizational skills and the ability to prioritize multiple high-impact tasks under tight timelines.
Strong problem-solving and root-cause identification skills with a bias for ownership and timely resolution.
High attention to detail and accuracy when managing critical dates, documentation and shipment records.
Resilience and calm under pressure; capacity to manage crises and tight deadlines effectively.
Negotiation skills to obtain commitments, partial shipments or improved lead-times from suppliers.
Cross-functional collaboration and teamwork orientation with the ability to work in matrixed environments.
Continuous improvement mindset and willingness to challenge current processes to reduce expedites and costs.
Customer service orientation and the ability to balance internal production needs with external supplier realities.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

High school diploma or equivalent; combination of education and relevant expediting/logistics experience is acceptable.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Business Administration, Industrial Engineering, or related field.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Supply Chain Management / Logistics
Business Administration / Management
Industrial or Manufacturing Engineering
Operations Management

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

2–5 years of expediting, purchasing, logistics coordination, or materials coordination experience in manufacturing, aerospace, construction, or high-mix production environments.

Preferred:

3–7 years of progressive experience managing vendor expediting, PO lifecycle, and international shipments; experience with ERP (SAP/Oracle), MRP processes, and high-volume manufacturing environments preferred.