Chasing parts sitting at the plater or heat treater
Parts leave on a Thursday with a purchase order for the service and a packing list, and the system keeps showing the operation as open until somebody receives them back. Nothing in between raises a flag. The vendor promise date usually lives in a mail reply rather than on the order, and the quantity coming back is often short by whatever was lost in the tank. The process certificate arrives separately, or not at all. Lead time has to count both transit legs, which is what most schedules leave out.
The quote was built against one revision and the drawing in the operator hand is another, which is the defect this sector is built around.
A request to quote arrives as an archive of geometry files and drawings, or as a line in a customer portal, or as a scan. An estimator opens each one, decomposes the part into operations mentally, estimates setup and run times, and emails suppliers for material pricing before typing a number into a spreadsheet.
- JobBOSS2
- Outlook
- Epicor Kinetic
When this is the wrong thing to build
Pick something else if you send everything to one processor two miles away and the driver of that shop calls you when a rack is ready. Chasing pays when several vendors hold work at once and when late returns are what push your promise dates. If your outside operations are not on the router yet, start there.
The constraint that shapes it
Quality certification is the constraint that shapes everything here. More on how this sector works.
A list of things that are missing, worked until it is empty. Read what this shape is, or start from one of these.
- Chasing a compliance file to complete
- Chasing a referral fee through to a closing you cannot see
- Asking for the replenishment before the retainer runs to zero
- Chasing medical records until the set is complete
- Getting a deposition on the calendar of every party
- Chasing the warranty credit the distributor has not issued
- How do I track parts out at heat treat and plating?
- Why does my ERP show a job at an operation for weeks?
- How do I chase a plater for a promised return date?
- What lead time should I allow for an outside process operation?
- Why does the quantity back from plating not match what shipped?
Back to manufacturing, or see how this is priced and scoped.