Urgent orders disrupt everything
Set rules for priority changes without breaking the rest of the plan.
01 · What is usually happening?
An urgent order arrives, usually from an important customer, and the plan is torn up. Machines are changed over, material is diverted, and the orders that were on time now slip.
Because nobody tracks what each urgent order displaced, it feels free. It is not.
The question people usually ask“How do we handle urgent orders?”
The more useful question“What does each urgent order cost the other orders, and who decides to accept it?”
02 · Common causes
- 01No rule for what counts as urgent
- 02Anyone can mark an order urgent
- 03The cost to other orders is not shown when it is accepted
- 04No spare capacity is kept for the unexpected
- 05Material is borrowed from other jobs without a record
- 06Urgent orders are not reviewed afterwards
03 · What to check now0 of 6 checked
04 · What good looks like
- 01A clear definition of urgent, agreed with sales.
- 02One person decides whether to accept it.
- 03The orders it will delay are listed before it is accepted.
- 04Urgent work carries a premium or a condition.
- 05A small share of capacity is kept free each week.
05 · Where this connects
This rarely stays in one department
What it can lead to: Every other order is a little later, and nobody sees why.
Start from a problem
Work flows left to right, top to bottomKEYMost important for manufacturing
These support every part of the business
Problem
Urgent orders disrupt everything
Usually connected to
How it spreads
- Orders & Delivery
What it can lead to: Every other order is a little later, and nobody sees why.
lamplamp could show which orders an urgent one would push back.
Related guidesHow to identify production bottlenecks
08 · lamp
lamp could keep this moving
lamp is not available yet. These are things it is being built to do.
- lamp could show which orders an urgent one would push back.
- lamp could ask the decision maker for a yes or no with that list.
- lamp could warn the affected customers early.
- lamp could report each month how much urgent work displaced.
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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