Tweet
My company builds office furniture. Quite a lot of it is custom. (when I say customer, I mean Our customer. They are always a middle man, a furniture dealer or interior designer.)
When a customer comes to us with a request here is the process:
-They send the custom request to us along with drawings, sketches, pictures, whatever helps them communicate what they want.
-Generally about 3 days later I have a quote and drawing back to them of what we will create, and how much it will cost.
-If they don't like it they can communicate with us and start the process over by revising the quote. If they do like it then they are ready to order.
So, when they are ready to order they send us a Purchase Order (PO)
80% of the PO's we get are "Dirty'. Dirty means that the PO does not contain enough information to enter the order. i.e. they don’t tell us what color they want, or things are wrong, or they have a special and did not reference a quote number.
A common question is "What is your lead time?" Lead time is defined as the following:
The lead time clock starts when you send us a CLEAN PO. It pauses if we send you something to approve (i.e. engineering drawings of your special product, or a custom wood stain), it re-starts when you approve what we send you. The lead time is complete when we put the products on a truck.
Things that affect the time it takes to get your furniture, but that are not in that "Lead time" are:
-The time it takes from the time you send in your Dirty PO to clean it.
-If you do not approve engineering drawings or the wood finish and ask for them to be re-done.
-Shipping time (this is important later in the story)
So.
I get a call from a customer ("C"):
C: What is your lead time?
Me: Currently we are just about average at 5-6 weeks for a standard, and another 2-3 on top of that for a special. I should mention that in about two weeks we have a large project that is coming in that will add about a week to those.
C: Oh...
Me: Anything else?
C: Well....kind of. What would it take to get my furniture here in 4 weeks. (Note, "C" is in California, we are in Michigan)
Me: An act of God...specifically, spontaneous manufacturing.
C: What?
Me: Even if we had a PO, that was clean, Today, and it was standard, we would not be putting it on a truck for another 5-6 weeks, then it is a week or more in transit to California.
C: So...who do I have to talk to to make this happen.
Me: I can transfer you to someone else, but there is nothing that can be done. Even if the president of the company were to personally walk this order thru the plant, forcing everyone to drop what they were doing and work on this, it would still be 5 weeks until it is loaded on a truck.
C: (in a very crestfallen and somber voice) oh.....crap.
So. That was 7 weeks ago. I get a call this morning from "C".
C: WHERE THE @#$% IS MY FURNITURE!!!
Me: Calm down, Who are you?
C: I'm C from XYZ company. I expect it here by the end of the day.
Me: ok..., well let me look up the order. Here it is. It looks like we received the PO 5 weeks ago, it had no wood or metal finishes on it, and it had incorrect pricing, and it did not mention a quote number. A fax was sent to you...6 hours after we got the PO requesting that information. You responded back to that 4 days later, but still did not give us a metal finish. 2 hours later we faxed back requesting that finish. You responded 2 days later. So, to clean the PO you consumed 6 days. Then 5 days later we sent you a set of engineering drawings. You took 2 days to reply with changes. We replied with revised drawings in less than a day. You signed off on those 4 days later. So, another 6 days it took you to sign off on the drawings. After that the furniture went into manufacturing where it currently is.
C: so, what does that mean?
Me: Well, you called 7 weeks ago asking for a 4 week lead time. Then it took you 2 weeks to send in a PO, and you caused another 2 weeks worth of delay once the order was in by not replying ASAP. Our lead time was about 7 weeks when you sent in your order, and we are well on track to hit that.
C: But I am supposed to have this installed by the end of the day tomorrow.
Me: Well, then you ordered it about 4 weeks too late.
C: but...but...what can we do now.
Me: Well, now you are in the "sit and wait" part. You have started the gears in motion to get the furniture built. At this point there is nothing that you can do to speed up the manufacturing. IF prior to ordering you had changed your request from Special to Standard, then it could have skipped the engineering phase and saved 2-3 weeks...but we are already thru that phase, so it is to late to make that change. The ONLY thing that could possibly speed up your order would be expedited shipping. That basically means as soon as it is done manufacturing then you are paying to rent your own truck and get it out immediately directly to your site. However, that is quite expensive. The other catch is that we ship once a week to California...on Fridays. Your furniture is scheduled to be complete on Thursday, so paying for expedited shipping will really only save you one day.
C: So, what if I sweeten the pot. I'll pay 10% extra if you can get it to ship out tomorrow.
Me: Mr, if you offered to pay me $50 million dollars I could not make it ship out this week much less tomorrow. If God himself came down and said that he would smack me and everyone in the factory with an old testament Smiting, there is no way to get it out of the factory in the next two weeks.
He got really quiet. He hung up.
This took me some time to write. That last call was at 9:30 my time (6:30 CA time) this morning.
I just got a call at 11:17 my time (8:17 CA time):
D: Hi this is D from XYZ company. I heard you have been the one working with C on this project.
Me: Yes.
D: What is the status.
I gave him the whole timeline from the conversation 7 weeks ago, thru the one this morning.
D: Ok. I understand. Well, my phone number is (#). If you need anything please call me. C has been let go this morning.
I feel kid of bad for the guy, but I can’t say that it was a bad decision. What he did would be like jumping out of an airplane, hitting the ground, then pulling the parachute cord, then complaining that you still have broken bones. Waiting too long to do something has consequences.
When a customer comes to us with a request here is the process:
-They send the custom request to us along with drawings, sketches, pictures, whatever helps them communicate what they want.
-Generally about 3 days later I have a quote and drawing back to them of what we will create, and how much it will cost.
-If they don't like it they can communicate with us and start the process over by revising the quote. If they do like it then they are ready to order.
So, when they are ready to order they send us a Purchase Order (PO)
80% of the PO's we get are "Dirty'. Dirty means that the PO does not contain enough information to enter the order. i.e. they don’t tell us what color they want, or things are wrong, or they have a special and did not reference a quote number.
A common question is "What is your lead time?" Lead time is defined as the following:
The lead time clock starts when you send us a CLEAN PO. It pauses if we send you something to approve (i.e. engineering drawings of your special product, or a custom wood stain), it re-starts when you approve what we send you. The lead time is complete when we put the products on a truck.
Things that affect the time it takes to get your furniture, but that are not in that "Lead time" are:
-The time it takes from the time you send in your Dirty PO to clean it.
-If you do not approve engineering drawings or the wood finish and ask for them to be re-done.
-Shipping time (this is important later in the story)
So.
I get a call from a customer ("C"):
C: What is your lead time?
Me: Currently we are just about average at 5-6 weeks for a standard, and another 2-3 on top of that for a special. I should mention that in about two weeks we have a large project that is coming in that will add about a week to those.
C: Oh...
Me: Anything else?
C: Well....kind of. What would it take to get my furniture here in 4 weeks. (Note, "C" is in California, we are in Michigan)
Me: An act of God...specifically, spontaneous manufacturing.
C: What?
Me: Even if we had a PO, that was clean, Today, and it was standard, we would not be putting it on a truck for another 5-6 weeks, then it is a week or more in transit to California.
C: So...who do I have to talk to to make this happen.
Me: I can transfer you to someone else, but there is nothing that can be done. Even if the president of the company were to personally walk this order thru the plant, forcing everyone to drop what they were doing and work on this, it would still be 5 weeks until it is loaded on a truck.
C: (in a very crestfallen and somber voice) oh.....crap.
So. That was 7 weeks ago. I get a call this morning from "C".
C: WHERE THE @#$% IS MY FURNITURE!!!
Me: Calm down, Who are you?
C: I'm C from XYZ company. I expect it here by the end of the day.
Me: ok..., well let me look up the order. Here it is. It looks like we received the PO 5 weeks ago, it had no wood or metal finishes on it, and it had incorrect pricing, and it did not mention a quote number. A fax was sent to you...6 hours after we got the PO requesting that information. You responded back to that 4 days later, but still did not give us a metal finish. 2 hours later we faxed back requesting that finish. You responded 2 days later. So, to clean the PO you consumed 6 days. Then 5 days later we sent you a set of engineering drawings. You took 2 days to reply with changes. We replied with revised drawings in less than a day. You signed off on those 4 days later. So, another 6 days it took you to sign off on the drawings. After that the furniture went into manufacturing where it currently is.
C: so, what does that mean?
Me: Well, you called 7 weeks ago asking for a 4 week lead time. Then it took you 2 weeks to send in a PO, and you caused another 2 weeks worth of delay once the order was in by not replying ASAP. Our lead time was about 7 weeks when you sent in your order, and we are well on track to hit that.
C: But I am supposed to have this installed by the end of the day tomorrow.
Me: Well, then you ordered it about 4 weeks too late.
C: but...but...what can we do now.
Me: Well, now you are in the "sit and wait" part. You have started the gears in motion to get the furniture built. At this point there is nothing that you can do to speed up the manufacturing. IF prior to ordering you had changed your request from Special to Standard, then it could have skipped the engineering phase and saved 2-3 weeks...but we are already thru that phase, so it is to late to make that change. The ONLY thing that could possibly speed up your order would be expedited shipping. That basically means as soon as it is done manufacturing then you are paying to rent your own truck and get it out immediately directly to your site. However, that is quite expensive. The other catch is that we ship once a week to California...on Fridays. Your furniture is scheduled to be complete on Thursday, so paying for expedited shipping will really only save you one day.
C: So, what if I sweeten the pot. I'll pay 10% extra if you can get it to ship out tomorrow.
Me: Mr, if you offered to pay me $50 million dollars I could not make it ship out this week much less tomorrow. If God himself came down and said that he would smack me and everyone in the factory with an old testament Smiting, there is no way to get it out of the factory in the next two weeks.
He got really quiet. He hung up.
This took me some time to write. That last call was at 9:30 my time (6:30 CA time) this morning.
I just got a call at 11:17 my time (8:17 CA time):
D: Hi this is D from XYZ company. I heard you have been the one working with C on this project.
Me: Yes.
D: What is the status.
I gave him the whole timeline from the conversation 7 weeks ago, thru the one this morning.
D: Ok. I understand. Well, my phone number is (#). If you need anything please call me. C has been let go this morning.
I feel kid of bad for the guy, but I can’t say that it was a bad decision. What he did would be like jumping out of an airplane, hitting the ground, then pulling the parachute cord, then complaining that you still have broken bones. Waiting too long to do something has consequences.
Comment