Example · operations
Have you ever found out an order was late on the day the crew needed it?
The supplier knew last Tuesday. Nobody asked. Now people stand idle.
Is this my kind of problem?
It fits firms waiting on lots of orders at once.
- You have dozens, maybe hundreds, of purchase orders open at any time.
- Calling suppliers for dates is the job everyone puts off.
- A late delivery means rush freight, idle hours or a let-down customer.
When we'd say it isn't worth doing
Three reliable suppliers? Keep calling them. No promised dates on your orders? Fix that first.
Where does it go wrong?
Between the purchase order and the loading dock.
- Need spotted
- Order placed
- Acknowledged
- Shipped
- In transit
- Received
- Checked
Orders go out and nobody confirms the date. Acknowledgments sit unread in a shared inbox.
The slip surfaces the morning the material was due. Short shipments get sorted weeks later.
In a machine shop, it's the bar stock second shift needs on Thursday. At a distributor, it's the container that decides a stock-out. On a building site, it's the windows the framers are waiting on.
What would you build?
A late-order early warning.
Each morning it checks every open order against its promised date, and tells you what's slipping.
What changes for your buyers
- Every open order carries a promised date and a status.
- An order with no acknowledgment gets a chase drafted the next day.
- Orders due within a week are confirmed in writing.
- A slip reaches the buyer with the jobs or customer orders it touches.
What would it be worth to us?
What it's worth is what late orders cost you today.
Total last quarter's rush freight and expedite fees. Add the hours a line or crew stood waiting.
Add customer orders that shipped late. Then count your buyers' weekly chasing hours.
231 open orders checked
- On track
- 204 confirmed against their dates
- Unconfirmed
- 13, chase emails drafted for the buyer
- Running late
- 9, of which 4 hold up customer orders
- Arrived short
- 5, discrepancy notes drafted
No chase leaves until a buyer sends it.
And the detail?
How it runs, from first check to last
Open the full steps
What it reads
Your purchasing system, its inbox and your receiving records, checked every morning. We confirm each source in the first conversation.
The steps
- Lists each open order with its promised date.
- Reads supplier replies for confirmations and new dates.
- Drafts a chase for any order still unconfirmed.
- Asks for written confirmation a week before each due date.
- Flags slips, naming the jobs and customer orders they affect.
- Compares what arrived with what was ordered, and notes gaps.
Where a person signs off
A buyer reads and sends every chase, and decides what a slip means.
What it never does
It never places, changes or cancels an order. It never agrees new terms with a supplier.
What we'd need from you
Read access to purchasing and the purchasing inbox. A list of your critical items. One buyer who owns supply.
What else tends to come with it?
It usually travels with these.
- Supplier invoices checked against what actually arrived.
- Customers told about a delay before they have to ask.
- Quotes that promise dates your suppliers can keep.
You become the owner who hears about a late order while it can still be fixed.
Late deliveries reach you with a week to spare, not on the morning they're due.
Yours won't look exactly like this. A first conversation is where we work out what it should look like.
Can we talk it through?
Yes. Start with a first conversation.
It's free, takes about an hour and needs no access.
A person writes back, usually within one working day.