Production Liaison & Order Management Controller

Production Liaison & Order Management Controller

Location: Tottenham / Mount Street

Job Purpose:

As the Production Liaison & Order Management Controller, you will be responsible for enforcing compliance with established procedures throughout the order allocation and production processes. Your primary role will be to monitor workflows diligently and identify any discrepancies, promptly escalating issues to the Production Managers, Global Production Planning Manager, and QC Manager to uphold operational integrity, and escalating issues to the Strategy & Operations Manager as necessary to maintain operational integrity and efficiency.

You will ensure a constant proactive information and communication exchange between the production and sales teams. You will act as a key bridge between these departments, facilitating clear and timely updates to support the efficient execution of orders, from ecommerce, virtual platforms, showrooms, and bespoke requests. This role is crucial to maintaining alignment between production capacity and sales demands, requiring excellent communication skills, attention to detail, and the ability to manage real-time updates in a dynamic environment.

Order Flow & Allocation

• Full Awareness and Management of all incoming Orders for Ecommerce, Virtual, Showroom including Urgent Order Requests, Alterations, Recuts, VVIP orders, Bespoke orders.
• Ensure & review that each order is allocated to an atelier within a set timeframe and following the correct allocation rules, capturing any changes made on the order by Sales and their impact to production.
• Escalate any unallocated orders to the Global Production Planning Manager if they are not allocated within a set period of time.
• Flagging any unapproved orders to the sales team and getting their approval within a set timeframe.
• Ensuring that Rush Orders are clearly communicated and that proactive measures for resulting delays are taken into account.

Real time output and time tracking

• Track real-time progress of orders, flagging any misalignments in production capacity or scheduling to the Global Production Planning Manager, such as delay in production and pattern preparation and stock check on the day of order allocation.
• Follow up with production to ensure status updates are accurate and check that all ateliers are recording their output.
• Ensure compliance with established lead times and procedures, flagging any backlog to production teams or if required escalating to sales on possible delays, proactively resolving these internally. Immediately inform the sales team of any potential delays due to production or intercompany shipping issues, enabling them to manage client expectations effectively.
• Produce real time feedback loop & ensure that each order status is always up to date and communicated efficiently to production.

Quality Control (QC) & Issue Resolution

• QC failure escalation: If an order fails QC, promptly alert the sales team and collaborate on a plan to manage client relationships. You will oversee the implementation of QC improvements done by the QC manager in the production process to prevent recurrence.
• Digital QC image analysis: Conduct digital QC checks of all outbound orders to ensure alignment with customization notes, and ensure images are archived. Confirm sales team approval for bespoke orders before dispatch.

Capacity & Resource Management

• Unplanned capacity changes: If production team members are out (sick leave, etc.), assess the impact on capacity and propose solutions, such as reallocation or additional resources.
• Resource optimization: Unplanned order changes or due date changes, accessing if changes affect the planned threshold of ad hoc work allowance. In the case of insufficient capacity resources, strategise with Sales team on reliable solutions at hand (e.g. reviewing for any leeway of the ‘must ship’ date/ reallocation/ flag where additionally resources would be required to achieve deadline - to liaise with Production Manager/ Global Production Planning Manager).

Sales Liaison

Communicate order status: Proactively update the sales team on any order delays or production issues. Ensure sales are informed well in advance to manage client expectations.

• Planned issues: Update sales within 24 hours on any foreseeable delays or problems from order confirmation.
• Unforeseen issues: Communicate as soon as possible when unexpected delays arise. Flag to Global Planning Manager to see if a solution is possible.
• Order changes: Liaise with Sales on any order changes, alterations, recuts, exchanges, urgent requests which are needed adhoc in order to provide reliable and considered dates.
• Ensure that alterations are recorded in shopify and that there are videos of the fitting for the atelier to reference if needing to be done at the atelier.
• Material & resource availability: Ensure rush orders are only placed if there is sufficient material availability and capacity.
• Notify the Raw Materials Purchasing Manager or Global Production Planning Manager of potential material shortages impacting orders.

Key Skills and Qualifications: 

Experience in production planning, supply chain management, or order fulfillment in a fast-paced environment, with a strong focus on compliance, monitoring, and issue resolution within production processes, ensuring adherence to protocols.

Strong communication skills: Ability to effectively liaise between production, sales, and other departments to resolve issues and provide updates.

Organizational skills: Ability to manage multiple tasks, prioritize effectively, and track real-time progress on orders.

Problem-solving mindset: Ability to identify bottlenecks and issues in production and work proactively to propose solutions.

Attention to detail: High accuracy in tracking orders, quality control, and managing bespoke requests.