Overtime, full machine occupancy, the team gives it its all - and the customer calls asking: „Where's my order?”. The salesman asks when he can promise shipment. The production manager spreads his hands as everything seems to be running at full steam.
If you manage production, planning or supply chain, this scenario is probably not unfamiliar to you. People are working hard, occupancy rates look good and deadlines are slipping anyway. Frustration grows on both sides - at the customer and in the team.
The problem is that working intensively is not the same as working efficiently. Full machine occupancy does not guarantee punctuality. In this article, we will show you why this is the case and how to regain control of your lead times step by step.
Causes of production delays - 5 recurring patterns
Before you start looking for solutions, it is worth understanding what is really causing the delays. In most companies, the mechanism is similar - it's not a single error, but several cumulative patterns.
Local optimisation instead of flow. Each department pursues its own objectives: production maximises machine utilisation, the warehouse reduces stock, purchasing negotiates large batches. The result? Orders jump between departments and time is lost in queues. And all this happens with great occupancy rates.
Hidden queues between stages. An order waits for a position to be released, then for quality control, a technologist's decision, internal transport. And each wait is hours or days, invisible in the reports.
Everything is urgent. When every order has a „high priority” none really does. Employees decide the order themselves, often based on who shouts louder or their own judgement.
Planning detached from reality. The planning system is based on theoretical times and does not take availability into account. Meanwhile, on the shop floor: a machine is waiting for changeover, an operator is in training, a material delivery has been delayed. The plan lives its own life, production its own.
Variability and intermittency. Breakdowns, urgent orders, material shortages, quality corrections. Each unexpected event results in a delay and triggers a wave of postponements throughout the process.
It is not the fault of the people, but of a system unsuited to a smooth flow. Adding assignments or overtime usually only makes things worse.
How to reduce lead times in production?
The good news is that you can eliminate the causes of delays and reduce lead times. Not by adding people or machines, but by managing the flow effectively.
Here are four steps to help move from chaos to predictability.
How to map the order flow?
Value Stream Mapping is a tool that shows the full turnaround time of an order - from order receipt to dispatch to the customer. Typically, companies know the times of operations (machining, assembly, packaging), but ignore order queues and waiting for decisions.
The flow map reveals a brutal truth. Very often we find that in 2 weeks of lead time the actual work takes 2 days and the rest is waiting. Value Stream Mapping also shows where information gets lost or loops. How many times does an order go back for improvement, how long does it wait for approval, where decisions are made too late?
Only when you see the full picture of the process can you consciously decide and choose priorities.
How do you identify a bottleneck in production?
A bottleneck is the slowest stage in a process that dictates the pace of the entire production. It could be a machine, a quality control station or a person approving decisions. Speeding up other process steps will not reduce lead times as long as the bottleneck remains unchanged.
Once you know where the bottleneck is, protect it: don't burden it with extra tasks, ensure work continuity, eliminate downtime. Every hour lost on a bottleneck is a lost hour for the whole process.
Why does reducing WIP reduce lead times?
Intuition tells us: 'let's put in more orders, more will come out’. In practice, the opposite is true. Excessive work in progress (WIP) increases the lead time for all orders. A simple analogy: on a motorway, when traffic is light, cars drive smoothly, but as soon as traffic increases, a traffic jam forms and everyone is stuck. The same happens with orders. The more of them that enter the system at the same time, the longer each one waits in the queues.
Reducing WIP requires courage - you have to say „no” to new orders before the previous ones are completed. The effect is measurable: faster delivery and predictable deadlines.
How does visualising the status of orders improve timeliness?
When you ask where the order in question is, how many people need to check the system, make a phone call, write an email? If the answer to a simple question requires investigation - you have a visibility problem.
Flow charts, colour coding and simple visual signals allow everyone to see the status without looking into the system. You can immediately see what is in progress, what is stagnant, what needs intervention.
Visualisation also changes the dynamics of daily work. Instead of reports and continuous meetings, a quick glance at the whiteboard is all that is needed, enabling an immediate response to problems.
How to reduce lead time from 4 weeks to 12 days? Case study from the automotive industry
The lead time at the automotive plant was 4 weeks (10 working days were declared to customers). Machine occupancy was above 85%, internal on-time performance was above 90%, and quality was within target standards.
The key problem was that each job went through 6 departments, with an average of 2-3 days queuing in each department. The total waiting time significantly exceeded the sum of the actual working times.
What we did:
- We have mapped the order flow from order to dispatch
- We have identified a bottleneck (final test bed)
- We have reduced the number of work in progress (WIP) orders by 40%
- We have introduced a dashboard visualising the status of each order
Effect after 4 months: actual lead time was reduced to 12 working days, on-time delivery increased from 68% to 91%. Equally importantly, the team no longer operates in continuous firefighting mode.
Frequently asked questions about on-time delivery
How long does it take to implement a visual management system?
A basic flow chart can be implemented in 2-4 weeks. A full system with regular reviews requires 2-3 months.
Won't the reduction in WIP cause a drop in revenue?
No. Fewer orders in progress means that each order is completed more quickly. Throughput remains the same or increases and deadlines become predictable.
Where to start to improve on-time delivery?
From measuring the full pass time of an order - from order receipt to dispatch. This shows where we are really wasting time.
What is a production bottleneck?
A bottleneck is the slowest stage of a process that limits the throughput of the entire line. It can be a machine, a station or a decision-making process.
What is WIP and why should it be reduced?
WIP (work in progress) is the number of assignments in progress. The more jobs in the system at the same time, the longer each job waits in the queue. Reducing WIP reduces lead time.
First step to on-time delivery
If people are working hard in your company and deadlines are not being met anyway, then the problem lies with the system, not the people. Start by measuring the full order throughput time. If you don't know this figure then this will be the best starting point.
At BE Partners, we help manufacturing companies reduce their lead times. From auditing and flow mapping, to identifying bottlenecks, to implementing visual management systems. We work with teams on the shop floor, not from behind a desk.
Want to see where in your process you are losing time? Make an appointment to talk to us and we'll help you identify bottlenecks and hidden queues.
