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Original Date: 02/19/2007
Revision Date: / /
Best Practice : Contract Line On-Time Delivery Reporting Tool
The Contract Line On-Time Delivery reporting tool provides easy Web accessibility to key product delivery performance data in addition to coupling that same source data to a three-month forecasting utility. It also includes an automated notification tool that facilitates awareness of open obligations to provide key forecasting information updates.
Prior to developing the Contract Line (CLIN) On-Time Delivery (OTD) reporting tool, Raytheon’s Network Centric Systems (NCS) Manufacturing Center in Largo, Florida, satisfied senior management requests for a monthly CLIN delivery report by following a 51-step manual process that could entail three days of intense labor to complete. Since the report was targeted to address a senior management request, it was not intended to be share with lower- level managers. It also did not provide the level of data awareness needed to effectively improve OTD outcomes. Delivering product on a time schedule specified in the contract with a customer is one of the crucial elements of customer satisfaction, making on-time product delivery performance a key management metric for gauging overall manufacturing process effectiveness. Preparing historical reports that detail delivery information involves labor- intensive data mining, compilation, and preparation. Reports prepared using this methodology typically provide only a snapshot of the information. More important, correlating the report data to perform functions such as trend-line analysis is extremely difficult or virtually impossible without significant effort, resulting in senior managers receiving a requested report that lacks essential data.
Development of the CLIN OTD has resulted in the following features:
Automated retrieval of relevant data from the Achieve Process Excellence (APEX) mainframe data source that ensures more consistent data
Automated report generation that reduced the process from three days to approximately 10 minutes
Effective data retrieval that makes report generation efficient for creating weekly and monthly reports feasible, with the potential for daily reports
An intuitive Web access screen that allows anyone with data access rights to view the available reports
Reports that identify delivery forecasts three months into the future in addition to reporting historical data
Facilitated entry of delivery forecast data via a Web-based access that allows detailed descriptions of causes affecting potential delinquent deliveries
An automated e-mail reminder system that gives managers an active role in developing forecast data and automatically notifies them of any open obligations
The CLIN OTD tool has significantly improved manager awareness on delivery performance by a more effective and timely sharing of consistent data. The expectation is that by making delivery obligations more visible, the essential planning needed to meet those delivery dates is enhanced, moving toward a desired goal of a 98% on-time delivery success rate. The improvement results to date indicate CLIN OTD has provided significant benefits since the on- time success rate has moved from 67.4% to 96.6%. One unforeseen outcome from making the CLIN data readily available has been the identification of incorrect or faulty contract data loaded in APEX that adversely affected the reported outcomes. The net result of correcting those detected problems is more accurate and consistent core data, producing a corresponding accuracy in the reported outcomes. This also allows the data to support effective trend- line analysis with minimal interventions, but it is the forecasting features that provide the most potential for affecting on-time delivery success rates. By projecting deliveries three months into the future, there is a greater opportunity for proactive management intervention to take the necessary corrective action for preventing delinquent deliveries. Since timely entry of forecast data is essential to realize this benefit, the tool includes automated e-mail reminders sent to managers when their data entry obligations have not been met. This ensures that stakeholders are not only reviewing the data but are updating data to reflect status changes.
By automating what was formerly a labor-intensive data collection process, Raytheon Largo is now able to compile associated management data more frequently and effectively with the CLIN OTD tool, enhancing awareness on a key management metric – on-time delivery of Contract Line items. By providing the framework for defining three-month delivery forecasts, it serves as a useful data-based planning tool, facilitating proactive solutions resulting from awareness of potential delivery problems.
For more information see the
Point of Contact for this survey.
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