The lead time for delivery of a certain product is three weeks….Sales book orders and the system indicates the probable delivery time based on current booking and the lead time….Now the demand has picked up for the product family and suddenly there is huge back log and the manufacturing is way behind the sales booking….mind you orders booked..

Value Stream Mapping is done, constraints identified, processes are balanced, new stations are introduced and the lead time for manufacturing gets reduced. And suddenly finished goods gets piled up and no dispatches. So why are there no dispatches?

Well no orders to be dispatched, but there was a backlog…what is the mystery?

Unraveling, two causes came out, one was sales were booking orders (not dispatch schedules) ahead of time in view of the long lead time projected from the ERP, and when the improvements happened resulting in lead time reduction, the system was not updated as it had to be done by the ERP vendor (Rs 4000/hour or so) and budgets had to be sought to call the vendor. So a wrong projection of expected dispatch dates, leading to overbooking to hedge delays when the reality was that manufacturing was ready to meet market needs.

If only the ERP was flexible, the changes then could have been done inhouse, as the lead time reduced and stabilized and finished goods could have been in control…

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