All -
The company I work for provides medical plastic compounds - in pellet form. These products are sent to extrusion houses where they are extruded into medical catheters.
The issue we are experiencing is mostly communication, in my eyes anyways. Customers will call in, or email asking the status of their product, "Is it going to ship today, tomorrow, etc.?"
Customer service wouldn't know for sure though. Depending on the product, extra testing could be required. Sure, they could open up the file and see that it needs this or that for testing, but they don't understand how long the testing can take. QC is expected to do all this and test other jobs currently running.
Originally Customer Service was told to speak to Scheduling for updates on products running, being rejected, etc. But the woman in charge with Scheduling, (yes she has an assistant as well), is always so buried, that she can not answer every question emailed to her. And of course, she may not know as well what is going on in QC or on the Production floor at that time.
Eventually, Customer Service was bugging Scheduling so much that they were told to email her. But she gets a million emails a day!
Because of all these road-blocks, Customer Service replies to the customers' with the most vague responses. "It's being worked on." "It's on the schedule". "It's being reviewed right now."
Never any explanation of why the job is late (if it is) - In those situations, with a late order, Customer Service just replies that the job has shipped. No other information why it was delayed.
Looking at all of this - what is your thoughts on improvement? A person who is just in charge of tracking jobs? Just over-all better communication? Thoughts please?
The company I work for provides medical plastic compounds - in pellet form. These products are sent to extrusion houses where they are extruded into medical catheters.
The issue we are experiencing is mostly communication, in my eyes anyways. Customers will call in, or email asking the status of their product, "Is it going to ship today, tomorrow, etc.?"
Customer service wouldn't know for sure though. Depending on the product, extra testing could be required. Sure, they could open up the file and see that it needs this or that for testing, but they don't understand how long the testing can take. QC is expected to do all this and test other jobs currently running.
Originally Customer Service was told to speak to Scheduling for updates on products running, being rejected, etc. But the woman in charge with Scheduling, (yes she has an assistant as well), is always so buried, that she can not answer every question emailed to her. And of course, she may not know as well what is going on in QC or on the Production floor at that time.
Eventually, Customer Service was bugging Scheduling so much that they were told to email her. But she gets a million emails a day!
Because of all these road-blocks, Customer Service replies to the customers' with the most vague responses. "It's being worked on." "It's on the schedule". "It's being reviewed right now."
Never any explanation of why the job is late (if it is) - In those situations, with a late order, Customer Service just replies that the job has shipped. No other information why it was delayed.
Looking at all of this - what is your thoughts on improvement? A person who is just in charge of tracking jobs? Just over-all better communication? Thoughts please?
