Capacity promises sales can keep
A date promised without a glance at changeovers is a guess. Here is a lighter way to give sales a rule of thumb without a full planning overhaul.
Sales teams hate calling customers to move dates. Production teams hate being surprised by dates they never approved. The friction is rarely personal; it is arithmetic that nobody shared.
Count the scarce resource
Pick the one machine, bay, or skilled pair that everything waits on. Ignore average utilisation across the whole building — averages hide the queue.
Price changeovers honestly
If a colour or tool change costs forty minutes, stop pretending those minutes are free when a “quick insert” arrives. Fold them into the weekly sketch sales sees.
Offer two kinds of dates
- Standard — uses published lead times and needs no escalation.
- Stretch — requires a named operations approval the same day.
Customers prefer a slightly longer honest date to a heroic one that slips twice.
A Capacity & Scheduling Review walks through your actual week rather than a textbook model.