Also called on-time delivery, OTD, fill rate
What is on time in full?
The share of orders delivered complete and on the promised date. Both conditions, or it does not count.
What else it is called
- Other names
- on-time delivery, OTD, fill rate
- In French
- livraison complète à temps
Related entries
Understanding on time in full
The proportion of orders that arrived both complete and on the date promised. Both conditions have to hold, which is what distinguishes it from a simple on-time figure and why it is always the lower of the two.
The interesting part is definitional, and it is where almost all the disagreement between a manufacturer and its customer lives. Measured against the date first promised or the date later revised - revising dates and measuring against the revision can produce excellent scores and furious customers. Measured on your ship date or their receipt date, which transfers transit risk between you. Counted by order line or by complete order, where a nineteen-of-twenty-line delivery is either 95 per cent or zero.
None of those choices is dishonest, and every one of them changes the number. What goes wrong is having this conversation after the first scorecard arrives instead of before.
How it is calculated
On time in full = orders delivered complete and on the promised date ÷ total orders due
A partial delivery counts as a failure however small the shortfall. That is deliberate, and it is why this figure is always lower than a plain on-time number.
In practice
Agree the definition in writing with a major customer before the first scorecard arrives. It is a far easier conversation then than at the quarterly review.
Frequently asked
Should we measure against the original promise or the revised date?
Both, and watch the gap. Performance against the revised date tells you whether your plant executes to plan. Performance against the original promise is what the customer experienced. A wide gap between the two means you are managing the measure rather than the delivery.
Is early delivery on time?
Not to a customer running lean, who may refuse the receipt or charge you for holding it. Most formal scorecards define a window - a few days early to zero days late is common - and that window belongs in the agreement rather than in an assumption.