One of the best ways to improve your on time delivery performance is to be consistent with how you run your business.
I know of many owners that wince when their instruction to work in a certain way only lasts for two weeks, until other distractions and ingrained habits take over, taking their team back to their previous ways of working.
When I’ve witnessed these instructions being given, they have merely been a ‘reset command’ back to the way that everyone is meant to work in the first place.
What works?
Logically, when you work in a consistent way you can start to look at what is working and what isn’t. From here you can make changes to the way that you work and control your on time delivery performance.
If you don’t do it this way, you’re just guessing at what works and what doesn’t.
So, if this rings a bell with you, what can you do about it?
Be the rock
If you’re the leader, you need to be the person with the highest standards.
Take one of the inconsistent ways of working and be unrelenting needing it done a certain way (until someone tells you why it can’t be done). You might need to keep reminders for yourself, to keep asking for what the business needs.
Remembering periodically and barking at your team to work a certain way usually doesn’t work. Continuous (daily) repetition is required in order to make this normal and something that you don’t have to complain about.
Should you have to do this?
No, I don’t think so. But as a wise person once told me, “you can be right or have results and results are the only thing that counts.”
So, pick one process that doesn’t get operated the way that it is meant to (and one that has a significant impact on delivery performance) and make that your quest. Keep reminding the team until it happens consistently without poking and then pick your second item from the list.
Feel free to provide them with visual aids and reminders, such as Kamishibai Boards, Sunrise Meetings or recurring appointments in their calendars. Do whatever it takes to coax / enforce compliance.
From here, you can start to manage your on time delivery performance far more easily.