From OTIF 10% to 98%, in 8 weeks
A client asked me for help on a delivery flow that was losing orders every day: nine out of ten arrived late or wrong. In 8 weeks, OTIF rose to 98%, and returns dropped from 12% to 0.5%.
The client's name stays confidential, at their request; the numbers and the situation are real.
What I found
A team of 20 people managed orders through three or four apps that didn't talk to each other, plus parallel spreadsheets for whatever didn't fit anywhere. No one knew in real time where an order stood. The result: only one order in ten reached the client on time and correct (10% OTIF), and 12% of deliveries came back as returns.
What I changed
The first step wasn't a new tool, but a map of the real flow, from order to delivery, so I could see exactly where things stalled. Most of the bottlenecks were in how information moved between people, not in actual work capacity. I reorganized the steps, assigned clear owners for each stage, and put in daily indicators visible to the whole team, not just in the monthly report.
In parallel, I built a custom CRM, in three languages (English, Polish, Romanian), to replace the parallel spreadsheets and give real-time visibility into every order. It wasn't a complex platform: it was exactly the tool this flow was missing.
The result
In 8 weeks, OTIF rose from 10% to 98%, and returns dropped from 12% to 0.5%. The revenue managed by the team grew from €200,000 to €600,000, now that clients could count on deliveries arriving as promised.
Do you have an operational flow losing orders or money? See your business thermogram or let's talk.