Find the missing part before the job is due to start

The team is ready. The job is on the schedule. Then someone finds a key part isn't there. Purchasing chases the supplier, looks for an alternative, raises an urgent order or asks for a revised delivery date. Production reshuffles, staff move to another job, other jobs are pulled forward or pushed back, and someone has to tell the customer.

Shannon Reshno, Central Innovation's Managing Director, puts it plainly: "If your product is promised in 10 weeks and you suddenly discover a critical part takes 16 weeks to arrive from offshore, you've broken that promise to your customer."

The shortage itself isn't the whole cost. The full cost is what it does to everything around it: other jobs, other teams and delivery dates. Rush orders, extra freight, stop-start work, stock pulled from other jobs and quick substitutions all follow.

Look back at a late shortage and the warning signs were usually there. The supplier lead time was known. The purchase order went out late. The BOM showed the requirement. The stock level was already too low.

The information existed. It just wasn't connected early enough for anyone to act on it.

Lead time is what turns that into a crisis. A part can be cheap and simple, but if it takes eight weeks to arrive and is ordered too late, it becomes a major production risk.

The gap usually comes from a few habits that made sense when the business was smaller:

• Requirements, stock and supplier dates live in different places. Planning happens in one place, inventory lives somewhere else, and supplier updates arrive too late, so nobody sees them together until production is ready to start.
• Lead times are treated as certain. Many businesses plan as if supplier lead times are stable. Then one supplier slips and everything downstream shifts.
• Stock on paper isn't stock you can use. A part may be on the shelf but already allocated to another job, so using it creates a new shortage somewhere else.
• Purchasing reacts instead of plans. Buyers respond to urgent requests rather than working from reliable production demand.

What sits underneath all four is a lack of early warning. Nothing clearly tells you "this job is safe" or "this job is at risk" early enough to act calmly.

MaXXflow connects demand and BOMs to available stock, allocations, supplier lead times, inbound orders and schedules, then surfaces shortages, supplier delays and work orders that need attention. Instead of a single stock total, you see what's available, what's already allocated, what's expected from suppliers, what upcoming jobs need and when, and which shortages affect the most urgent work.

The value isn't only knowing what's missing. It's knowing early enough to do something about it. That might mean placing the order now, checking another supplier, reviewing stock allocated to other jobs or adjusting a delivery promise before it's broken.

Manufacturing orders can check component readiness and hold work that's waiting for components, so the gap shows up in the plan rather than at the workbench. Material requirements planning explains how requirements are worked out, and Purchasing and suppliers covers the buying side.

MaXXflow won't stop suppliers slipping. What it gives you is more time to respond before a problem becomes a disruption.

You can ask MaXXflow plain questions, such as "Which shortages need attention first?" or "Which late supplier lines affect scheduled production?", and get answers drawn from your own data, within your permissions. Its AI also summarizes shortages, late supply and schedule conflicts, so you can see what's likely to break next week before it breaks.

It supports the decision rather than making it. Whether to buy still depends on supplier conditions, alternative stock and customer priority, and that call stays with your people. AI in MaXXflow explains what it does and doesn't do.

1. When a part turns up missing, what does it cause: rescheduling, urgent freight, overtime, a call to the customer?
2. Which risks currently appear too late, and what happens when they do?
3. When a supplier item is late, can you see straight away which jobs it affects?
4. Are your lead times maintained, and do they reflect what suppliers actually deliver?

Shortage events, urgent orders and expedited freight are costs you can estimate from your own numbers. The planning cost check gives you a rough annual figure.