Order fulfilment process improvement in a ceramic industry

In the current business landscape, customers’ orders compliance with the established delivery dates and the efficient use of resources are two relevant topics on the agenda. In this context, order fulfilment (OF) is a key business process dealing with all the activities needed to define customer requirements, design the production and logistics processes, and fill customer orders. In this paper, a case study developed in a ceramic company is presented. Its aim was to analyse and improve the company order fulfilment process that had been deteriorating after the introduction of a new product line that implied a new production process. Due to the change in the usual paradigm, there were several challenges that hindered customer service. The DMAIC cycle was applied. At the end of the study an improvement in the process capacity, as well as a 30% reduction in the percentage of delayed orders was achieved, amongst other improvements.