Missed deadlines can have ripple effect, disturbing not only your facility but the entire supply chain. With every passing day, the heat is on when it comes to meeting on-time delivery targets. Customers want faster turnaround times but without any compromise on quality. A missed deadline may mean costly stops in production, delayed shipments, or even worse—lost business.
If you’re reading this, you know the frustrations of piling inefficiencies-machine downtimes, miscommunication on the shop floor, or the constant reallocation of resources. The good news? There are ways to hit your delivery targets without burning out your team or breaking the bank.
Why OTD is Critical in Manufacturing
Customer Loyalty and Retention
Your customers rely on you for timely delivery of quality products. The first casualty of continuous failure in meeting the delivery target is the loss of customer trust. Industry case studies show that manufacturers who regularly achieve the target for OTD can win as much as 20-30% more repeat business. While a company failing to meet OTD targets risks losing either contracts or even customers themselves.
You likely have first-hand experience with the fallout from a delayed delivery. A production line gets held up because your parts didn’t show, or worse still, an important client bucks confidence in your ability to fulfill their needs. To hit a deadline isn’t just some nicety; it’s a plank of survival in today’s cutthroat market.
Operational Efficiency
Let’s face it, every time a job gets delayed, inefficiencies are exposed.
And just like that, production grinds to a halt, and you’re scrambling to find the bottlenecks or juggle resources around. Those delays eat into more than your time; they gnaw at your profit margin. The inability to act fast and make workflow changes leads to waste: wasted labor hours, wasted machine time, and wasted opportunities.
Has your team ever been fully geared and running at full throttle, only to turn around and see underutilized machines or a labor force not aligned with production demands? It’s a vicious cycle in and of itself-one that leaves you and your team perpetually behind the eight ball.
Competitive Advantage
In manufacturing, being late gives the advantage to your competitors. Clients expect punctuality and reliability, and companies that hit their OTD targets regularly are far more likely to retain business and win new contracts. In fact, higher customer responsiveness correlates with a 30% higher customer satisfaction rate-equating to longer-term contracts and the leverage for premium product pricing. If you’re not delivering on time, the chances are your competitors are-and that’s one bitter pill.
Common Challenges That Lead to Missed Deadlines
The best-laid plans turn out to be just that – plans. That is not because a lack of effort has been put in-your team is working hard-but without appropriate systems and processes in place, things fall through the cracks.
Lack of Visibility
One of the most frequent problems faced by manufacturers is real-time visibility into the progress of jobs. How many times have you been caught off guard by a delay simply because you didn’t realize any machine was down, or a team was running behind until it was too late?
You cannot make decisions proactively without knowing the real-time status of jobs on the floor. You’re usually reactive, constantly firefighting instead of having smooth operations.
Break in Communication
In an operation that moves as fast as yours, poor communication cripples operations. Miscommunication between departments-be that machine operators, the quality control team, or the scheduling department–commonly leaves jobs sitting.
Think about those instances when the machine operator didn’t know the next job was ready and material delays aren’t communicated until it is too late. These breakdowns can lead to hours of lost production-a huge hit to efficiency. These hours are lost and cannot be regained, leaving you playing catch-up.
Wasteful Use of Resources
You’ve probably seen this happen: machines sitting idle, operators waiting for parts, or teams scrambling to adjust to last-minute changes. When resources aren’t allocated properly, every delay compounds over time. Often, the issue isn’t a lack of resources but a lack of insight into where they’re most needed at any given time.
Strategies to Reach Consistent On-Time Delivery
Having identified the common challenges, let’s see how practical solutions can be applied to meet your delivery targets. The strategies aren’t about overhauling your whole process but more about smart incremental changes – focusing on those quick, easy wins.
Leverage Real-Time Visibility Tools
The first step in fixing the problems of delivery is knowing exactly what’s taking place on your shop floor at any time.
Real-time work order management systems incorporated into the workflow can bring in just that clarity. Tools like Arma help track progress of a job, machine utilization, and team performance-all from one place. You immediately have access to data at your fingertips; allowing you to have actionable insights.
For example, it has been found that with real-time visibility tools, manufacturers reduce downtime by 20% and improve OTD performance by 15-30%. This they achieve through better foresight and faster decision-making.
Optimize Communication Across Departments
If communication breakdowns are one of your biggest hindrances, now is the time to put in a centralized system that allows all departments to stay updated on each other. Imagine this: your production, planning, and quality control teams all on the same page with real-time updates regarding the progress of jobs.
In a system like Arma, for example, each member of the team-from machine operators to production supervisors-can see the statuses of jobs, upcoming tasks, and any other key updates. This means no one is in the dark regarding what should happen next, and this will avoid those gaps leading to missed deadlines.
Track and Analyze Key Metrics
As they say – “What gets measured, gets managed.” Tracking KPIs like production turnover time, and labor efficiency allow you to identify the inefficiencies within your process. Based on that analysis, you’ll be able to make informed decisions toward continuous improvement.
For example, when your team can identify that a certain machine is underperforming, you will be able to make changes in real-time to accomodate. It reduces unplanned downtime and helps maintain schedule feasibility regarding production. This cuts down delays in production or other unwanted situations.
How We Help You Meet Delivery Targets
By this stage, it should be clear that on-time delivery is all about visibility, communication, and data-driven decisions. These indeed are very simple strategies, and they actually shall be useful only with the help of proper tools.
Arma is configured to integrate with your existing workflow and provide you with real-time work order management to assist you in:
- Seamless Job Visualization: Get real-time notifications the moment any job starts falling behind, and proactively take immediate necessary measures to get it back on track.
- Improved Communication: Informed, on-the-spot knowledge for production supervisors, quality control, and other teams.
- Data-Driven Decisioning: Access analytics such as machine performance, labor utilization, and job cycle times to find bottlenecks and further optimize workflows.
These are not theoretical capabilities. Indeed, the manufacturers that have instituted the real-time management platform have seen on-time delivery improvement at a rate of 20%, with a reduction in operational costs by 10-15%. More importantly, these systems empower your team to perform at their best-without the constant firefighting.
Conclusion
Manufacturing involves high stakes. Every single missed deadline chips into customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, and profitability. Target real-time visibility, enhanced communication, and data-driven decision making to improve your on-time delivery performance substantially.
You already know that getting it right first is an imperative for any production supervisor or manager. With the right strategies and tools, making your delivery targets can easily become a rule rather than an exception.
Tired of missing deadlines?
Request a demo today to see how Arma can help you meet your delivery targets and stay ahead of the competition.