When the packing bay quietly runs the company
If every rush order ends at the same bench, that bench is setting your real lead times — whether the boardroom knows it or not.
Many growing firms measure performance in sales or production hours, then wonder why customers still receive late carts. Walk the packing bay for a morning and you often find the true constraint: shared tape guns, one label printer, or a single person who knows how to build awkward kits.
Ask three questions on that walk:
- Which jobs wait here even when the floor says they are “done”?
- Who decides the sequence when two urgent orders arrive together?
- What information is missing from the pack slip often enough that people invent a workaround?
You do not need a full review to start. Fix one recurring missing field on the pack slip and protect ten quiet minutes for the bay lead to set sequence before the rush window. Small, visible changes beat a new slogan about urgency.