What are the most effective ways to improve on-time delivery in make-to-order production?

1 Define and measure delivery performance

The first step to improve on-time delivery is to define and measure how you evaluate your delivery performance. You need to establish clear and realistic delivery targets, based on your production capacity, customer expectations, and market conditions. You also need to track and analyze your delivery performance, using metrics such as on-time delivery rate, delivery lead time, delivery accuracy, and delivery reliability. These metrics will help you identify the root causes of delivery delays, the gaps between your targets and actual performance, and the areas for improvement.

2 Optimize your production scheduling

The second step to improve on-time delivery is to optimize your production scheduling, which is the process of allocating resources, tasks, and time to complete the customer orders. You need to use a production scheduling method that suits your make-to-order production environment, such as finite capacity scheduling, priority-based scheduling, or constraint-based scheduling. These methods will help you balance the demand and supply of your production system, reduce the waiting time and idle time of your resources, and increase the utilization and efficiency of your production process.

4 Integrate your production planning and control

The fourth step to improve on-time delivery is to integrate your production planning and control, which are the functions of coordinating and managing your production activities, resources, and information. You need to use a production planning and control system that integrates your production planning, production scheduling, production execution, and production monitoring. This system will help you align your production plans with your customer orders, synchronize your production schedules with your resource availability, execute your production tasks with real-time feedback and control, and monitor your production performance with timely and accurate data.

5 Collaborate with your customers and suppliers

The fifth step to improve on-time delivery is to collaborate with your customers and suppliers, which are the external parties that affect your production process. You need to establish a close and transparent communication with your customers and suppliers, using tools such as customer relationship management (CRM), supplier relationship management (SRM), and electronic data interchange (EDI). These tools will help you understand your customer needs and preferences, anticipate and respond to your customer changes and feedback, coordinate and optimize your supplier deliveries and quality, and reduce the risks and uncertainties in your production process.

6 Continuously improve your delivery performance

The sixth and final step to improve on-time delivery is to continuously improve your delivery performance, which is the process of learning and applying the best practices and innovations in your production process. You need to use a continuous improvement method that follows the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle, such as six sigma, total quality management (TQM), or theory of constraints (TOC). These methods will help you identify and prioritize your delivery problems and opportunities, implement and test your delivery solutions and improvements, measure and evaluate your delivery results and outcomes, and standardize and sustain your delivery performance.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?