Production Administrator

Production Administrator

Location: Oldbury, West Midlands
Salary: £30,000 pern annum
Monday–Thursday: 8:00am–4:45pm and early finish of 13:30 Friday

The Opportunity

An established and growing manufacturing business based in Oldbury is looking for an experienced Production Administrator to join its close-knit Operations Team.

This is an office-based role with regular interaction with both customers and the shop floor. You will take ownership of the customer order process from initial order through to production, shipment and invoicing, ensuring customers receive a high level of service while managing expectations around what can realistically be delivered.

The business is experiencing significant growth, with an expanding customer base and increasing production volumes. This is an excellent opportunity for someone who enjoys building strong customer relationships, coordinating multiple moving parts and working closely with production and supply chain teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage customer orders and schedules from receipt through to completion and delivery.
• Take ownership of the order-to-delivery process, ensuring orders are accurately processed and progressed through production.
• Act as a key point of contact for major customers, building strong and professional working relationships.
• Liaise closely with customers to understand their requirements, upcoming demand and longer-term forecasts.
• Proactively engage with customers to improve forecasting and gain a strong understanding of their business and future requirements.
• Translate customer demand into achievable production requirements, working closely with the Production Team to schedule work.
• Coordinate weekly production schedules alongside additional ad-hoc customer requirements.
• Monitor orders throughout production and ensure any issues, changes or priorities are communicated effectively.
• Identify and manage urgent or non-standard orders, working with internal teams to establish what can realistically be achieved.
• Manage customer expectations professionally, providing clear and honest communication where requirements cannot be met as requested.
• Coordinate with production to ensure customer orders are completed correctly and on time.
• Prepare shipping and container documentation/notes as required.
• Liaise with delivery partners and pallet networks where required to support the despatch process.
• Manage raw material requirements relating to customer orders, ensuring appropriate stock is available to support production.
• Monitor inventory levels and established maximum stock levels, helping to prevent shortages and unnecessary excess stock.
• Work closely with suppliers where raw materials need to be ordered to meet customer and production requirements.
• Support the smooth handover of information between customers, sales, production, purchasing and despatch.
• Ensure accurate and timely administration throughout the customer order process.
• Provide a consistently high level of customer service while balancing customer requirements with operational capacity.

About You

We are looking for someone who has previous experience in a customer service, order management, planning or sales administration role within a manufacturing environment.

You will be comfortable managing multiple customers and orders simultaneously and will understand the importance of keeping customers informed while working within the realities of manufacturing capacity and lead times.

You will be naturally inquisitive and confident speaking with customers to understand their business, ask the right questions and develop accurate forecasts.

Essential Experience & Skills

• Strong customer service and relationship management experience.
• Experience managing customer orders from initial receipt through to production and despatch.
• Strong planning and organisational skills.
• Ability to interpret customer demand and translate this into practical production requirements.
• Experience working closely with production/shop-floor teams.
• Confident managing customer expectations and communicating delays, constraints or changes.
• Working knowledge of Sage Line 50 is desirable.

The Working Environment

You will join a close and supportive team within a growing manufacturing business where people work collaboratively and are encouraged to build strong relationships across the organisation.

Although the role is primarily office based, you will need to regularly engage with colleagues on the shop floor and work closely with production to ensure customer requirements are delivered effectively.

The business offers a friendly working environment where people work hard, support each other and enjoy working as a team