I think one area of focus that has had little light shed on it over the last few years is deliveries. The focus has been so much on product quality, availability and price. But you don’t hear so much about the quality of deliveries.
As far as I’m aware, there are very few companies that record and analyze their results. There is Door-Stop International who do publish their weekly delivery results every week. Today on Twitter however, @jfplastics revealed that they do record their delivery results too. @jfplastics: Our on time deliveries in full are still consistent at over 99.5% average on All products including Foils. What is your suppliers OTIF ????
By anyone’s measure, over 99% in full is a bloody good number. Delivering thousands of any sort of product on time, in full in all options to all your customers at nearly a full 100% level is a feat and testament to having the right members of staff in the right place to make sure the deliveries department works as efficiently as possible.
So are suppliers missing a trick here? You don’t hear much boasting about delivery times. I don’t think this is because deliveries aren’t getting there on time, I think most manufacturers have at least a good track record. But do most of you suppliers record when your deliveries arrive to your customers and if everything gets there? If you do, then maybe you should use this sort of info as a selling tool. For those who don’t, I realize something like this will mean you have to set targets and record performance which will add a bit more pressure. But with customers demanding more for their money these days, then this is just one of those things that has to be done.
Let’s be honest, all installers rely on their manufacturers to get their goods to them in good time to make sure installations get done according to schedule. So why not make a point of having excellent delivery times a bit more?
