When Customers Make Changes to Orders

" Trying to implement a quality system, correct problems, or improve systems in such a place is a constant uphill fight that you will most often lose. I suggest looking for a job elsewhere or otherwise you will eventually suffer ill health from the frustration of working in such a toxic environment. Life is too short to put up with such crap. "

The other hazard is that one can become addicted to the challenge, and the endorphins from the occasional hard won victory. Kind of how some retired military types go on to become mercenaries after their term is completed.

There's even been a twelve step program created to treat those of us who suffer this mindset - although, last I heard a process improvement team had reduced it to somewhere around nine and a half steps.

Ninja said:

Well, it happens in my business fairly often...

"I ordered 30Kg but just got an update on demand...can you make it 45Kg and ship it all together?"
A PO revision takes a couple weeks, and my normal turn time is 24-48hrs.
If they don't email me, it won't get done for weeks. The paperwork drudge catches up with reality a few weeks later.

"I know I ordered 12" wide, but could you make it 14" wide instead?"
Same deal as above.

I just got an email this morning asking for 24Kg due February 6th to instead be 40Kg shipped ASAP. From experience I know that I will get the PO revision after the material arrives at the customer...the email "in writing" is enough to patch the liability hole.

I suppose it depends on the time scale that operations works on. If you have the time to do formal drawing changes and formal paperwork signoffs I would use that method...but there's a whole lot going on in the world that runs a lot faster than that...things that can't handle "stop, wait, there's a change in process". You know what they want, you have your butt covered by the email, and you go and get it done. Paperwork follows instead of leading.

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Those aren't really "email chains." More like a simple change request. Which happens to us as well. However, my customers won't be able to receive the extra quantity unless their system is updated as well. Back in the snail mail/fax machine days, sure it would take some time to get a revised PO. But these days it's just an attachment to the email.

Golfman25 said:

Those aren't really "email chains."

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The pseudo-excerpts I mentioned are typically buried in chains of 30 back-n-forths...yes, they are chains...I just pulled out the pertinent parts.
The "it just happened this morning" one was followed by at least 15 more replies and discussion today...

My excerpts are not chains...reality is.
That's why I ask for a non-chain directive.

Golfman25 said:

But these days it's just an attachment to the email.

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An attachment put on by the purchasing department,
after they read the email from engineering,
do internal paperwork,
get approval signature from Purchasing supervisor,
get approval signature from finance,
and get around to sending it to me
...two weeks minimum for Lockheed, 5-6 weeks minimum for GM or Ford.

Don't even get me started on DOD...I got an email once saying "we got an invoice from you, did we order something?" three weeks after they had reordered more...

Even with DOD, I regularly had to deal with the difference between delivering what was specified in the P.O. vs what had been decided upon by the back channel communications between our engineers and theirs.

Me too, every time...that's why I mentioned it.

For me, If I formalized every change before shipping (even if formalized by email attachment) it would cut revenue and profit by at least 25%...likely more like 40%. Both email body text and text message have been proven through the courts as legally binding/culpable (Thank you Hillary and Harvey).
The OP is simply asking about how to handle these emailed changes in a regular process that works...it can be a challenge...

Correct.

As long as the evidence trail is sufficient, our work has been done.

[NDesouza], as soon as you put this in place, you can ride off into the sunset, head held high, going to the next town that needs you.

Or, as I tell our comrades, if you didn't drink before you got into this field, you will eventually.

Have a good weekend

NDesouza said:

something was overlooked and customers are not happy because they wanted us to make a change to their order that did not happen because we did not see the request in the email text

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normzone said:

the difference between delivering what was specified in the P.O. vs what had been decided upon by the back channel communications between our engineers and theirs.

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I just want to point out that these are two different scenarios, at least, as described. In one case, a request in an email is overlooked; in another, it is not overlooked, but simply impractical. And, in my experience, what can also get "overlooked" is the need for whoever received the request to not agree to it without consulting whoever must implement it.

As a long-suffering customer (aren't we all), I would never expect to receive a changed order if I had not received confirmation from whomever I directed my request to that it had been received and that the change would be implemented. If I did not receive this type of confirmation, rightly or wrongly, practically speaking, the onus is on me to follow up or accept a high risk of not receiving the order I want.

As a server of customers, I prioritize managing expectations, so my customers would know that, if they request anything from me and don't hear back, they should request again until they do, because I always acknowledge requests from my customers.

As for things getting overlooked in long emails, I just have to ask: How many of these emails are being read (or at least scrolled) on a stupidphone instead of a computer screen? Or at least a decent-sized tablet?

NDesouza said:

The culture has been to hold on to the "old ways" of doing things because "we have been in business for 50 years and we didn't need to do any of the things you are trying to get us to do before" From the leadership all the way to the shop floor, the culture does not support the objective.

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To me this raises the obvious question, "Then what are you doing there?" Did you discuss this in your job interview? Did anyone express any interest in improvement? If not, you can pretty much take it to the bank that they are not interested. Even if they did, it seems clear that it was just "rhetoric." (I love that euphemism, don't you?) If no one is interested in improvement, you can pretty much take it to the same bank that improvement will not happen.

[NDesouza] may have taken on one of those missions where they say they need your skills, then after you start the owner says " Solve all our problems, but don't spend any money. And we shouldn't have to to change anything, because change is tedious]

We won't know until we hear back from [NDesouza]

Really? That happens?

My fave is when they say they really need your help, but what they want is your help doing it the way they've always done it, when the way they've always done it is why they need help in the first place.