If you get an order and find yourself with a tight deadline, it might be worth calculating a "takt time". It's the time you need to complete one unit of the job in order to meet the deadline.
Let's assume you need to make 90 parts in the next 3 days to complete the order. You have 4 employees, and they actively work 7 hours per day. To calculate takt time, you use this formula:
Takt Time = Available (Planned) Run Time ÷ Required Quantity
In our case:
- Available time: 4 employees × 7 hours × 3 days = 84 hours total (5,040 minutes)
- Demand: 90 parts
- Takt time: 5,040 ÷ 90 = 56 minutes per part
So your team needs to finish one part every 56 minutes on average to hit the deadline. If any part takes longer than that, you're falling behind and won't make it by day 3.
You don't need a fancy system to figure this out. Just count your orders, count your hours, and see if the numbers actually work.