Given the above considerations, what are the things responsible managers can do to intelligently commit to delivery schedules? Here are our recommendations:
Understand the organization’s existing lead times, publish them, and do not allow the sales department to commit to earlier deliveries without the manufacturing organization’s concurrence.
Regularly assess capacity versus load in all work centers. We recommend performing this analysis on a weekly basis. Where loads exceed capacity, increase capacity (internally or through off loads) or lengthen the quoted delivery time.
In cases where orders are booked under lead time (for marketing or other considerations), replan and micro-manage the progress of the work through the factory to assure the end item delivery is met.