How’s your delivery? Well, the only person that can speak to that is your customer. Delivery is quite often the trump card at the buying table. Delivery of a small product can enable a large project…or hold it up. The value of the project is far greater than the products price and not having it can be extremly costly.
Our delivery performance is compared to what we say that it will be.  If we state that our “product will ship in 48 hours or less” and it does not happen we have a performance failure. If, on a manufactured item, delivery is quoted in 10 working days…then nine days is good…ten equals “as promised” and eleven represents a utter failure. In our society we are spoiled to quick-quick-quick and many of our cost initatives require just-in-time purchasing. A failure reminds me of the commercial about credit cards – everything is running smoothly until the guy pulls out cash and trys to pay for his meal. This departure from the flow causes the wheels to come off of the whole process. Order is restored only when the predictable transactions once again occur.
Delivery is a performance that is measured and stored by our customers and used in their evaluation of their vendors. Failures and successes in the area of delivery can significantly effect our vendor score and our next opportunity to bid may be met with our past failures. It is important in the bidding process not to “fudge” a day or two. Stating what will happen is more important than getting the order based on things that cannot happen.
To be totally self-serving….John and his production crew at Bluff Manufacturing has maintained a 99% on-time shipping record for over a year now.Â
Good selling.
