Solutions

Three leaks, five kinds of plant.

Lost enquiries, rates quoted below the book and delivery dates the plant never agreed to. Pick the one that sounds like your week.

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In short

What do these pages cover?

Each page takes one recurring leak in a B2B plant, lost enquiries, price leakage or missed delivery dates, in one category of manufacturing, and sets out what it costs, how it happens on an ordinary week, and the three steps that close it.

Lost enquiries

Enquiries that never got a reply

Losing enquiries in a wire plant

Wire plants lose enquiries because coil enquiries arrive as a voice note or a size list on WhatsApp, sit in one officer's phone, and never become a record. Put every enquiry in one shared list with an owner and a next contact date and the leak closes in a week.

Losing enquiries in a fastener plant

Fastener plants receive many small, mixed-size enquiries and instinctively answer the big ones first, so half the list is never called back. A single enquiry list with owners and next dates makes the small repeat buyer visible, and that buyer is usually the annual one.

Losing enquiries in a fabrication shop

Fabrication enquiries arrive as drawings, site photos and rough sketches that need someone technical to look at them, so they wait. Log the drawing as an enquiry with an owner, a reviewer and a date, and the wait becomes a scheduled task instead of a silence.

Losing enquiries in a packaging plant

Packaging enquiries usually begin with a sample, and samples are where plants lose the thread: dispatched, then never followed up. Track the sample as a step in the enquiry, with a feedback date, and the conversation continues instead of ending at the courier.

Losing enquiries in a job work shop

In job work the enquiry is perishable: the customer needs machine time this week, so a reply on Thursday is worth nothing. Logging every enquiry against available capacity lets you answer the same day and fill the gaps that would otherwise run empty.

Price leakage

Rates quoted below the approved book

Price leakage in a wire plant

Wire plants leak margin two ways: rates quoted from a price list that predates the last rod revision, and small discounts nobody approved. One live price book by product, slab and delivery basis, with approvals for anything below it, stops both.

Price leakage in a fastener plant

A fastener catalogue runs into thousands of size, grade and coating combinations, so nobody can hold the right rate in their head. Slab-based price books per family, with approval gates below the book, replace memory with a rate anyone can quote confidently.

Price leakage in a fabrication shop

Fabrication rarely leaks margin at the quotation. It leaks afterwards, through scope added by phone and never priced. Treat every change as a recorded revision with its own price and approval, and the job you costed is the job you get paid for.

Price leakage in a packaging plant

Packaging margin leaks through absorbed tooling: dies, plates and setup given free against promised volume. Price those separately in the book, with a recorded approval whenever they are waived, and the gamble becomes a decision somebody owns.

Price leakage in a job work shop

Job work leaks margin when a per-piece rate is quoted from an estimated cycle time that the job never achieves. Price from recorded cycle times and setup hours per machine group, and the second order for the same component is quoted from fact.

Missed delivery dates

Delivery dates the plant never agreed to

Missed delivery dates in a wire plant

Wire plants miss dates because the drawing machine load and rod availability are checked after the promise, not before. A short review gate between the booked order and the shop floor, where the plant confirms the date, removes most of the slippage.

Missed delivery dates in a fastener plant

Fastener dates slip at the processes you do not control: heat treatment, plating, and the transport between them. Track those as steps on the order with their own expected dates, and the delay is visible while there is still time to act.

Missed delivery dates in a fabrication shop

Fabrication dates break because the lead time starts at drawing approval but the customer counts from the purchase order. State the starting point in the quotation and hold the committed date against approval, and the delay stops being yours.

Missed delivery dates in a packaging plant

Packaging runs on short leads against a customer's production schedule, so a one-day slip stops their line and threatens the account. Committing dates from the actual board, and tracking board and print availability as part of the order, protects the relationship.

Missed delivery dates in a job work shop

Job work shops miss dates by promising the same machine hours twice, because the load exists only in the supervisor's head. A visible production board, with each job holding its machine group and hours, makes double-promising impossible.

System of Marketing & Sales

Put enquiry to dispatch on one governed line.

Tell us how your plant sells today. We'll show you where the line breaks and what it takes to close it.

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