I'm in need of a little help, and hopefully I can explain it properly.

I'm trying to measure on-time delivery turnaround on a monthly basis, and I'm trying to figure out the most accurate way to do this.

Here is the data I'm working with: I know the average turnaround time, the number of orders processed, and the number of pieces processed from those orders.

Here's an example for let's say the last two months:

November: Turnaround time: 4.33, # of orders processed: 1163
December: Turnaround time: 4.94, # of orders processed: 1023

Now I can see that there are obviously some other factors going into this since the number of orders decreased, while the turnaround time increased, not what you would expect:confused:. I don't want to look at this right now however.

Here's the question. How would I go about:

A) Tracking this from an efficiency standpoint to see if we are getting better/worse, and
B) A way to present this to shop personnel so that they will understand it and not just nod their heads and say that they do:bonk:

Hopefully I made since. If not, ask me and I'll try to clarify.

Thanks in advance!

I'm not sure if we mean the same thing, but on-time delivery is what was planned as a delivery (date) compared to what the actual delivery date was.

Turn around time is similar, but might be batch size dependent so would need a sliding scale. Which are you after? Or is it both, but reported discretely, that is separate from each other?

The easiest (and IMNSHO) most relevant way would be the average turnaround time for an order.

Since this may be impacted by the number of orders (don't know what your capacity is) you may want to post it also as a percentage: TAT/OQ (Turn Around Time divided by Order Quantity). That way, the percentage should always be somewhat similar.

Hope this is of some help.

I'm in need of a little help, and hopefully I can explain it properly.

I'm trying to measure on-time delivery turnaround on a monthly basis, and I'm trying to figure out the most accurate way to do this.

Here is the data I'm working with: I know the average turnaround time, the number of orders processed, and the number of pieces processed from those orders.

Here's an example for let's say the last two months:

November: Turnaround time: 4.33, # of orders processed: 1163
December: Turnaround time: 4.94, # of orders processed: 1023

Now I can see that there are obviously some other factors going into this since the number of orders decreased, while the turnaround time increased, not what you would expect:confused:. I don't want to look at this right now however.

Here's the question. How would I go about:

A) Tracking this from an efficiency standpoint to see if we are getting better/worse, and
B) A way to present this to shop personnel so that they will understand it and not just nod their heads and say that they do:bonk:

Hopefully I made since. If not, ask me and I'll try to clarify.

Thanks in advance!

on-time delivery turnaround sounds like two different things.
your customers might be interested in Delivery In-Full, On-Time

DIFOT = (number of items delivered on time)/(number of items promised)


your sales & management team might be interested in turnaround time

turnaround = average (finish date - start date) for all jobs
(the sales guys can then make good promises, management can understand your "efficiency")

there are three bits of data to look at
promise date
start date
end date (or delivery date)

i'm not sure if they can be combined into one measure and still be clear.
DIFOT and turnaround are definitely linked.

I'm in need of a little help, and hopefully I can explain it properly.

I'm trying to measure on-time delivery turnaround on a monthly basis, and I'm trying to figure out the most accurate way to do this.

Here is the data I'm working with: I know the average turnaround time, the number of orders processed, and the number of pieces processed from those orders.

Here's an example for let's say the last two months:

November: Turnaround time: 4.33, # of orders processed: 1163
December: Turnaround time: 4.94, # of orders processed: 1023

Now I can see that there are obviously some other factors going into this since the number of orders decreased, while the turnaround time increased, not what you would expect:confused:. I don't want to look at this right now however.

Here's the question. How would I go about:

A) Tracking this from an efficiency standpoint to see if we are getting better/worse, and
B) A way to present this to shop personnel so that they will understand it and not just nod their heads and say that they do:bonk:

Hopefully I made since. If not, ask me and I'll try to clarify.

Thanks in advance!

I'm not sure how you can expect to improve the process without understanding all of the variables--how do you know which ones can be controlled economically (or at all)? The things you don't want to look at right now might well be things you need to know in order to put together an improvement plan. If you want to improve turnaround time (which I presume is the elapsed time between receiving an order and shipping it), you'll need to know all you can about what affects the outcome.

Thanks for all the great responses! Sorry I should'nt have used the "on-time" verbage. Ideally would like to track that at this point, however it's nearly impossible the way things are currently setup. Something to work for in the future.

Jim-I appreciate the concern and I know where you are coming from, but not ready to jump into root cause at this point. Just looking for an accurate, yet understandable, way to track and present this information.

A lot of great ideas guys. Thanks!:agree1:

Jim-I appreciate the concern and I know where you are coming from, but not ready to jump into root cause at this point. Just looking for an accurate, yet understandable, way to track and present this information.


You said in the initial post that you wanted a way to present information to shop personnel "...so that they will understand it and not just nod their heads and say that they do." The problem is that it doesn't seem that you know at this point whether shop people have any control over the issue of order turnaround. What's the concern? Have there been customer complaints, or is there a desire on the part of your management to improve turnaround time? Without knowing something about why the numbers are what they are at present, any presentation of statistics that you might do is bound to met with resentment and ill will.

You said in the initial post that you wanted a way to present information to shop personnel "...so that they will understand it and not just nod their heads and say that they do." The problem is that it doesn't seem that you know at this point whether shop people have any control over the issue of order turnaround. What's the concern? Have there been customer complaints, or is there a desire on the part of your management to improve turnaround time? Without knowing something about why the numbers are what they are at present, any presentation of statistics that you might do is bound to met with resentment and ill will.


Actually improvement of turnaround time has been tagged by management as one of our new quality objectives, and not based off of customer complaints (although in our industry the customer needs everything yesterday :rolleyes:). Management does feel that shop personnel play a key role in the reduction of overall turnaround time, and I was looking for the most effective and understandable way to present this to them. This is a brand new quality system that we are currently rolling out and the majority of personnel have not been exposed to quality measures and how they play a part in them.

It took everyone a while to understand PPM defective (probably the teacher's fault :bonk:), so just trying to make this measure as accurate yet as user-friendly as possible.

<snip> Management does feel that shop personnel play a key role in the reduction of overall turnaround time, and I was looking for the most effective and understandable way to present this to them.

"Them" as in shop personnel or "management?" I would pick the latter. Reducing turnaround time is management's job.

The Great Teacher Dr. W. Edwards Deming would have asked: "By what method?"

Management does feel that shop personnel play a key role in the reduction of overall turnaround time...

Based on what data? (And I mean data that indicate that "exhortations" and the reading of statistics will have a salient effect.) Certainly shop people have an effect on how things move through the plant, but the question you should ask (before making presentations) is, "What can they do to make things better?" If you can't answer that question, and if you go to them with problems instead of solutions, you're asking for trouble.

Based on what data? (And I mean data that indicate that "exhortations" and the reading of statistics will have a salient effect.) Certainly shop people have an effect on how things move through the plant, but the question you should ask (before making presentations) is, "What can they do to make things better?" If you can't answer that question, and if you go to them with problems instead of solutions, you're asking for trouble.

I agree! :D

Management does feel that shop personnel play a key role in the reduction of overall turnaround time, and I was looking for the most effective and understandable way to present this to them. ...Really? Do your personnel gallop off like the pony express and deliver the packages personally?

Seriously, as Jim said you would need to understand what can be controlled and what can't. I recommend you separate the parts of the process that are done by different groups, and time them in their own categories. Use a flow chart to help pinpoint the activities and their measurement points. You can use a control chart without the statistical treatment, and see if you can spot patterns.

For example, you may find that shipping time stinks on Fridays or when weather is bad. (Some FedEx shipments to my sister's rural place around Christmas time arrived a couple of weeks late...they blamed it on the ice and snow.) Your crew should not be made to suffer for such a thing they can't control, but you might also consider trying a different carrier if you get good and fed up.

In any case, it's not enough to reduce turnaround time. You need to know why it was reduced, so the success can be repeated in some other process...this doesn't mean whipping the pony express either...:whip: The gains shouldn't be the sort of sprint that can't be maintained. They should be process improvements.

I appreciate the words of advice. Management already has ideas as to how turnaround time can be decreased, and this will be presented to all affected personnel in conjunction with the measures. We were not just planning to post these measures and objectives and just say "okay folks do what you have to do to meet our goals":nope:. There is a plan in place and management has already identified some areas where they see that efficiency is suffering.

I was really just looking for the best way to present the data and track this so that all personnel can see our progress and whether we are seeing improvements.

This is a new quality system and the whole goals and objectives deal is foreign to most of these folks. They have never been shown how their tasks affect overall quality.

"Affected", indeed. :whip: How well does management understand that which is impacting efficiency?

If it's a new management system, it's incumbent upon the most knowledgeable personnel to help guide others on what is important and why. That means you, it seems.

My advice is unchanged. Separate the parts of the process that your people don't do (freight?) and track the time needed to do them separately. I would not use averages because they don't help pinpoint causes. If your management's "efficiency" measures help, they should show up on a control chart. If not, you can spot spikes among the noise of business as usual and go after that, or else just trend a curve over time.

They don't know how their work impacts quality? Do your customers enjoy a reliable, speedy and efficient delivery? Is this a part of fulfilling someone else's Just-In-Time needs? There must be a way to communicate that.