Constraint & Delivery Manager

About the Role
In this position, you will play a crucial role in managing constraints and ensuring effective supplier delivery performance within the plant. Your expertise will facilitate proactive identification of material and capacity constraints while establishing recovery plans and coordinating with various teams to mitigate risks. You will also lead initiatives to improve supplier capacity and handle disruptions effectively to maintain operational continuity.

Key Responsibilities

1. Constraint Management

   • Proactively identify current and future material and supplier capacity constraints.
   • Own constraint management and shortage resolution at the plant level.
   • Coordinate with Production Planning to maintain an aligned constraint and delivery horizon.
   • Analyse demand, open orders, supplier commitments, and inventory coverage to identify potential shortages before production is impacted.
   • Establish recovery plans for constrained materials with clear actions, owners, and completion dates.
   • Support inventory optimisation by highlighting excess, shortage, and coverage risks to the Planning team.
   • Maintain visibility and reporting of critical constraints through to closure.
   • Escalate unresolved capacity, quality, or delivery risks through the appropriate Procurement channels.

2. Supplier Delivery Performance & Expediting

   • Manage supplier delivery performance at the plant level, including OTD/OTIF, overdue orders, and repeated delivery failures.
   • Expedite critical materials as the first-line resolver.
   • Obtain firm and realistic recovery commitments from suppliers for delayed materials.
   • Prioritise expediting activities according to production requirements and line-down risk.
   • Conduct root-cause analysis of delivery failures using 5-Why, 8D, or equivalent methodologies.
   • Agree and track supplier corrective actions through to sustainable closure.
   • Identify recurring supplier delivery issues and escalate them to the relevant RCM/GCM for further supplier or commercial intervention.
   • Work with Logistics, Planning, and suppliers to minimise emergency freight while protecting production continuity.

3. Supplier Capacity & Production Constraints

   • Assess supplier capacity against current demand, forecasts, and future production requirements.
   • Identify potential capacity bottlenecks before they become delivery constraints.
   • Understand supplier manufacturing processes, equipment, tooling, cycle times, shift patterns, manpower, and raw-material constraints.
   • Challenge suppliers on capacity assumptions and validate whether available capacity can support plant requirements.
   • Coordinate supplier recovery and capacity improvement plans where capacity is insufficient.
   • Monitor agreed capacity actions and investments through to implementation.
   • Escalate structural capacity constraints requiring sourcing, investment, or commercial support to Procurement/RCM/GCM.
   • Support alternate-source development where capacity or continuity risk cannot be adequately mitigated.

4. Disruption & Escalation Management

   • Mitigate line-down risk and coordinate emergency supply actions before impact on production.
   • Lead plant-level response to critical supplier shortages and delivery disruptions.
   • Coordinate Planning, Procurement, Logistics, Quality, Engineering, and suppliers to establish immediate recovery actions.
   • Exhaust first-line operational recovery options before escalating commercial leverage requirements to the RCM.
   • Provide clear escalation covering:
     • Production impact
     • Material availability
     • Supplier commitment
     • Capacity position
     • Recovery actions
     • Required management support
   • Ensure critical issues remain actively managed until material availability and supply stability are restored.