02
The Gap
A plan against reality diagram.
Two timelines. One is clean. The other is what actually happens.
The plan is what the ERP shows on Monday morning: a clean week of jobs sequenced, materials staged, lines running to schedule. The floor is what the supervisor walks into at 6 AM. The gap between these two is rarely visible to anyone above the floor until the cost lands in the P&L.
MonTueWedThuFri
The planas the ERP shows it
Job A4hr
Job B6hr
Job C5hr
Job D7hr
Ship Friday
The gap
The floorwhat actually happens
Job A starts +2hrMaterial late
PausedSpec change
Rework Job AQuality escape
C 1/2Downtime
Expedited freightPromise at risk
Each disconnect is an exception the system did not see, did not route, and did not resolve.
59%reported the broken workflow cost at least $250K per year
33%reported more than $1M per year
The source
Survey of 235 small and mid-market ops leaders, $25M to $500M revenue band. Self reported annual cost of one chronically broken workflow.