A late delivery shows up in operations but can begin in sales or finance. Trace the chain backwards from the delay to find where the plan and the facts stopped matching.
This lesson opens how business functions depend on each other. It applies the handovers from connecting departments in a business process.
The fictional case
Kilang Perabot Jati makes wooden chairs. A customer orders 30 chairs, and the sales executive promises delivery in 10 calendar days, which includes 2 weekend days. The workshop makes 4 chairs a day on working days.
The timber supplier delivers 3 days late because the company paid the previous invoice late. The order arrives 3 days after the promised date.
What do the numbers show?
The order needs 30 ÷ 4 = 7.5 days, so 8 working days. The promise gave 10 − 2 = 8 working days.
That leaves no spare time. Any delay, such as the timber arriving 3 days late, pushes the delivery to 11 working days at the earliest.
The chain in order
- Sales promised 10 calendar days without a spare margin.
- Finance paid the timber supplier late, so the supplier delayed the next delivery.
- Operations could not start on time, and capacity left no room to catch up.
Each function contributed. Operations simply held the last link.
The mistake that costs marks
The common slip is to blame the function where the delay is visible. A student writes, “Operations was too slow.”
A traced answer says, “Sales promised a date with no spare margin, and finance’s late payment delayed the timber. Operations then needed 8 working days but started late, so the delivery missed the date.”
| Feature | Single blame | Traced chain |
|---|---|---|
| Functions named | One | Three |
| Uses numbers | No | 8 working days needed and promised |
| Cause and effect | Missing | Stated |
A short recipe
Start with the symptom, then ask what each function did before it. Use any numbers to test whether the promise was realistic.
Finish with a fix that targets the first weak link, for example “check capacity and supplier lead time before promising a date”.
Check yourself
A bakery promises 120 cakes in 3 days and can make 50 a day. Is the promise realistic? Name the function that should have checked.
Answer
120 ÷ 50 = 2.4, so 3 days are needed, which just meets the promise with no margin. Any delay makes it late.
The sales function should have checked capacity with operations before promising the date.
What to study next
Continue with explaining how a staffing decision affects more than one function.
For a teacher to go through delivery cases with you, see online one-to-one Business tuition.