Playbook: a promise to a customer the plan can't keep

The situation

Two customer orders in the demo workspace were promised for 30 September. Both are still open a month later.

• SO-PRED-SPLIT for Northwind Retail: 5 × Split-Stock Widget. The stock is not there yet; the earliest it can ship is 29 October.
• SO-PRED-SLA for Halden Systems: 12 × Split-Stock Widget. There is no stock, no purchase order and no production order for it. No date is possible at all.

Neither customer has been told. The sales team still reads "30 September" on both orders.

Before you start

• The check runs on open sales orders that carry a promised date. Orders without one are not judged; set a date on the order or per line to include them.
• Command only reads. Nothing on the order, the purchase order or the production plan changes until you change it.

Step 1 — See every promise that cannot be kept

Open Command → Claims & Consistency and choose the Promises tab.

What you see: each open order with a promised date (five in the demo), its promised date and the realistic date: the earliest date that stock on hand, incoming purchase orders, planned production and machine backlog allow. Under each order is the line that decides it.

• SO-PRED-SPLIT: promised 30 Sep 2026, realistic 29 Oct 2026 (+29 d). Split-Stock Widget × 5 becomes available on 29 October.
• SO-PRED-SLA: promised 30 Sep 2026, no date possible yet. Split-Stock Widget × 12 has no stock and nothing incoming or planned.

The other three orders can be kept, so they show no gap.

Keep in mind: each order is assessed on its own. If two orders wait for the same incoming stock, both see it as theirs. Read the list as "what each order needs", then decide who gets the stock first.

Step 2 — Find out why the order is late

Open SO-PRED-SPLIT and choose the Process tab.

What you see:

• Why this is late: 29 days late, 100 % explained. All of it is time spent waiting to ship.
• Flow of the order: Order *done* (planned 30 Sep, actual 27 Sep), Procurement and Production *not needed*, Shipment *blocked*. The order was ready on time; the goods were not.
• Waiting between steps: the shipment step has waited 32 days since 27 September.
• Promised date per line: set a separate promise for a line when only part of the order is late, so the check holds each line to its own date.

The Customer timeline (PDF) button exports the same flow for the customer, without internal notes.

Step 3 — Act while there is still time

For SO-PRED-SPLIT the date is known: tell Northwind Retail it ships on 29 October, or ship what is available now and promise the rest per line.

For SO-PRED-SLA nothing is coming, so a new date is not enough. Create a purchase order or a manufacturing order for the 12 units first, then the Promises tab shows the realistic date it gives.

After you act: the realistic date moves as soon as the purchase order, production order or stock changes. When it is on or before the promised date, the order drops off the list.

Step 4 — Make the next promise honest

When you create a new order or offer, Otiox shows the realistic delivery date under the items while you are still writing it. Promise that date, not the one the customer asked for.

Why it matters

A delivery date depends on a chain: stock, the purchase order behind it, the build and the machine that runs it. Otiox follows that chain for every promise, so the broken promise is found before the customer finds it.

What you have at the end

• Every open promise checked against what is actually possible.
• The reason for each gap, down to the line and the missing stock.
• A customer-ready timeline and realistic dates for the next order.

Screenshots come from the Otiox demo workspace. Choose Switch to demo in the sidebar to follow along; changes there never touch live data. Command reads your records and never changes them.