Troubleshooting a critical issue

We were called into a medium sized manufacturer (T/O ~ £15M) of products used in the construction industry. Half of the business was based on standard product that was "build-to-stock" and sold through large trade and retail outlets, this section was well-understood and the owners were happy with its overall performance. The other half of the business was focussed on direct delivery to large scale construction projects. The growth in demand for this sections product was particularly healthy; the problem was that they were unable to satisfy the demand and each month the overall delivery times for these products increased. Initial indications from the owners pointed to errors in the standard build times used to arrive at the overall delivery times.

An extensive "Technical Audit" was carried out covering all of the operations relating to this product line. Numerous problems and issues were identified and these were condensed down to a small number of fundamental issues, primarily associated with the fact that this section was dealing almost exclusively with custom-designed product but this factor had not been accommodated by any of the internal processes from pre-sales through to production scheduling. Tackling these fundamental issues was not a quick job but the owners were really on the ball and realised that the resulting rewards were worth the effort. 

• Multiple problems reviewed 
• Causes unearthed 
• Line put under control