The lead time averages four weeks. Your customer plans for seven.

Hitting your average delivery time can still leave customers treating you as unreliable, and quietly pricing that unreliability into what they'll pay.

By Steve 5 min read
Abstract bridge artwork for The lead time averages four weeks. Your customer plans for seven.

A business measures its lead time, finds the average sits comfortably inside the quoted figure, and cannot understand why customers keep complaining about delays, keep ordering earlier than they need to, and keep asking whether a second supplier could take part of the volume. The operations report says the promise is being kept. The commercial evidence says it isn’t. Both are true. The gap between them is variance. Nobody consumes an average A customer doesn’t experience your mean lead time. They experience one order at a time, and they plan…

Keep reading for free

Create an account to read the rest.

The whole library is free. No card, no subscription, no trial that quietly ends. An account simply lets us know who we are writing for, and opens every article from here on.

  • Every article, in full, at no cost
  • New articles published every weekday
  • Takes about twenty seconds
Create a free account I already have one

Free means free. We will not charge you for the library, and you can read as much of it as you like.

Important: General information only. Rialto Bridge articles describe patterns and considerations that may apply to a business; they are not financial, legal, tax or accounting advice, and they take no account of your particular circumstances. Consider your own situation and seek advice from a qualified professional before acting.

More on Operations

Scroll to Top