Missed delivery dates
Two jobs. One machine. Same promise.
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.
In short
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.
The cost
What the gap takes every month.
2 to 4
Jobs a month rescheduled after commitment
Almost always a clash on the same machine group.
Both customers
Who end up unhappy
One waits and one is rushed, and quality risk rises on the rushed job.
One ordinary week
How it actually happens.
Your supervisor commits Wednesday and Thursday on the VMC to a regular customer. On Tuesday the owner accepts an urgent job for a bigger account on the same machine.
The regular customer is pushed to the following week without being told, and finds out when they call on Friday.
With the load on a board that both people can see, the second job is either scheduled elsewhere or accepted with a date the first customer is told about immediately.
The fix
Three steps, in this order.
01
Review the order before it reaches the floor
Specification complete, price approved, material position known, before any date goes to the customer.
02
Commit the date from the production board
The date comes from the current load and material lead time, not from the negotiating table.
03
Record progress at the job card
Status is a by-product of production, so slippage is visible days before the customer notices.
Straight answers
What owners ask us here.
Our schedule changes hourly. Is a board realistic?
The board holds commitments, not minute-level planning. It only needs to be accurate enough to stop two promises on the same hours.
Who updates it?
The floor, as jobs start and finish. It replaces the status calls rather than adding to the work.
What about urgent jobs from key accounts?
They still jump the queue. The difference is that you see who gets displaced and can tell them before they find out.
Questions people ask
Straight answers, no sales talk.
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.