Leadership: prioritize the next review
Compare estimated chargebacks on currently flagged orders with the spring goal. Decide which exceptions need investigation, cross-team coordination, or escalation.
Example engagement
See delivery risks before the spring rush
When orders are committed months ahead, leaders need to know whether the business can deliver. This example shows how reporting can connect purchasing, inventory, and customer commitments early enough for teams to act.
Illustrative example using a fictional company and sample data. This scenario demonstrates our approach; it does not represent a completed client engagement.
The business problem
The delivery failures were visible. Where to intervene wasn't.
Brightfield Home & Garden Supply serves about 300 retailers through three distribution centers. Much of its spring business comes from pre-season orders placed months ahead with requested delivery dates.
For four consecutive spring peaks, delivery performance declined. Customers deducted chargebacks for late or incomplete orders, and unfilled backorders became canceled sales. Adding distribution center labor each spring hadn't reversed the trend.
Purchasing tracked supplier orders. Supply planning tracked inventory. Distribution center operations tracked warehouse activity. Each team could see its part of the process, but leadership lacked a shared view of whether those activities would support the customer commitments already made.
The need was to identify risks during the November–February buying season, understand where the plan was falling behind, and direct attention to the right team before spring deliveries were affected.
The business goal
Protect spring revenue before the peak begins
For the spring season, the goal is to reduce chargebacks on peak orders by at least 50%, to no more than $64,636.96, while reducing sales lost to canceled backorders. This is a first step toward restoring the 95% delivery-in-full-and-on-time commitment.
The dashboard needs to help leadership judge whether the current plan supports that goal and decide what needs to change while there is still time to act.
Our approach
Start with the decisions. Then define the reporting.
In this illustrative engagement, the work begins by defining the decisions leadership and the operating teams need to make. Those decisions determine which measures, connections, and details belong in the dashboard.
- 01
Understand the decisions and when they must be made
Define what leaders need to review during the buying season and what each team can change before the peak. Establish the customer delivery window, financial goal, service commitment, and weekly review cadence.
- 02
Trace the plan from supply to customer commitments
Review how purchase orders, supplier shipments, inbound receipts, inventory availability, and customer orders connect. Identify where teams need a shared definition or where records don't provide a reliable link.
- 03
Agree on what the numbers mean
Define which orders are in scope, what makes an order “at risk,” how estimated chargebacks are calculated, and what counts as a missed delivery. Reconcile baseline figures and distinguish actual events, estimates, and indicators that require further investigation.
- 04
Design the leadership view and supporting detail
Give leadership a concise view of financial exposure and readiness across the process. Provide supporting views so teams can investigate the purchase orders, products, distribution centers, and customer commitments relevant to their work.
- 05
Test whether the reporting supports action
Walk through the decisions using the dashboard. Can someone identify what needs attention, find the supporting records, and determine who should investigate? Refine the reporting where a measure raises a question without providing enough context to act.
One view of the plan, from purchasing to customer delivery
The leadership dashboard brings supplier milestones, inventory shortfalls, and customer commitments into one weekly review. It shows estimated chargebacks against the goal and identifies exceptions for the teams responsible for investigating them.
Estimated chargebacks show exposure on currently flagged orders, not realized losses. Inventory shortfalls are not canceled sales, and an unflagged order is not guaranteed to meet the delivery commitment.
Decisions the dashboard supports
What should we do next—and who needs to act?
Purchasing: review supplier recovery options
Identify purchase orders past confirmed shipment dates. Confirm recovery dates and evaluate whether expediting or alternate supply should be considered with supply planning.
Supply planning: address inventory shortfalls
Review projected gaps by product, distribution center, and ship week. Evaluate transfers, alternate supply, or allocation choices against customer delivery commitments.
Distribution center operations: review processing priorities
Examine inventory in receiving, staging, and quality queues. Determine what needs investigation or release and coordinate priorities with supply planning.
The dashboard provides a shared basis for investigation and decisions. An overdue supplier shipment does not, by itself, prove the cause of a customer delivery risk. Teams still need to confirm the relationship and assess the available options.
Let’s talk about your business
Tell us what you’re working through and what you want to improve. We’ll help clarify what’s needed and discuss how GranVision can help.