The schedule says it can be done. Reality says otherwise. And the customer starts calling.
Unreliable delivery is rarely a matter of discipline on the shop floor. The information is scattered across the ERP system, planning spreadsheets, maintenance schedules and the shop floor’s own records. Every function holds a fragment, nobody holds the whole, and the promise to the customer is already unachievable at the moment it is made. We bring the functions and their information together, and show where they are working at cross purposes without realising it.
What your colleagues see
The finished-goods inventory profile doesn’t match what customers order, and stock keeps rising. The production schedule changes mid-stream, so work in progress grows. Maintenance no longer gets time for preventive work, so equipment reliability falls. The raw materials don’t match the latest schedule: Production comes up short and reshuffles the schedule yet again. And Sales no longer trusts it and hedges by asking for more, and earlier, than the customer has ordered.
Overtime and expedited deliveries increase, working capital and operating costs rise, and customer satisfaction falls.
The shop floor isn’t ignoring the plan. It is working around a plan that never described the real week.
Everyone points at everyone else
Every function is trying to do a good job, and feels held back by another. Maintenance points at Production. Production points at Planning, Maintenance and Purchasing. Planning and Sales point at each other.
None of the functions can solve it alone. Everyone holds a piece of the puzzle, and nobody can see the whole.
A self-reinforcing spiral
- A delivery date is missed, and someone escalates.
- The schedule is broken for the customer who shouts loudest.
- Extra changeovers cost time, and net capacity falls.
- More overtime is needed, and Maintenance gets less time for preventive work.
- Equipment availability declines, and capacity falls further.
- The schedule has to be changed again, and preparation on the floor is thrown into disarray.
↺ And the next delivery date is missed.
How the integrated picture emerges
Together with people from the various functions, we map each one’s piece of reality: which KPIs they manage by, what information they work with, where it comes from and how decisions are made.
In a joint session they lay the pieces side by side. They arrive at a single picture, see where things break down, and come to understand each other and their mutual dependencies.
Why delivery improves for good
The functions now share one picture that they all accept, because they built it together on the basis of facts. The finger-pointing stops; people start to understand each other’s situation. Together we set a target and develop the route to it: in data and information, in the management system and in behaviours.
The reporting and meeting structure brings the right people together at the right moment, and helps the new behaviours stick. The line organisation makes the changes itself, and owns both the target and the result.
At two sites in two countries, delivery reliability rose from 65% to 85% during our engagement. Six months after we left, it stood at 98%.
