Sales commits dates operations cannot meet
Connect delivery promises to stock, capacity and production readiness.
01 · What is usually happening?
To win the order, sales promises a date. The date is a guess, because stock, capacity and the plan are not visible at the moment of the promise.
Production then works backward from a date it never agreed, and the customer is disappointed anyway.
The question people usually ask“Why does sales promise dates we cannot meet?”
The more useful question“What can we honestly promise today, given stock and capacity?”
02 · Common causes
- 01Sales cannot see current stock or free capacity
- 02No agreed standard lead time by product
- 03Dates are given on the phone, then written later
- 04Material arrival is not part of the promise
- 05Urgent orders are accepted without checking what moves
- 06Missed dates are not reviewed
03 · What to check now0 of 6 checked
04 · What good looks like
- 01A standard lead time exists for common products.
- 02The date comes from stock, material arrival and capacity.
- 03Operations confirms any date outside the standard.
- 04The promised date is written the moment it is given.
- 05Missed dates are reviewed each week for the cause.
05 · Where this connects
This rarely stays in one department
What it can lead to: Trust with customers erodes with each missed promise.
Start from a problem
Work flows left to right, top to bottomKEYMost important for manufacturing
These support every part of the business
Problem
Sales commits dates operations cannot meet
Usually connected to
How it spreads
- Customers & Sales
What it can lead to: Trust with customers erodes with each missed promise.
lamplamp could check stock and plan before a date is promised.
08 · lamp
lamp could keep this moving
lamp is not available yet. These are things it is being built to do.
- lamp could check stock and plan before a date is promised.
- lamp could suggest the earliest date production can meet.
- lamp could warn sales when a promised date is at risk.
- lamp could tell the customer early when a date moves.
Does your business handle this differently?Tell us what we have missed: a cause, a check, or a better way of handling it.
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