Parts leave for plating or coating; master planning adds a fixed cycle from ship date. When the vendor's tank backs up, the floor still assumes parts are returning. Surface treatment is often the bottleneck yet enters systems last. Vendors must report tank-in, tank-out, inspection, and ship-back—then master planning uses a real calendar, not habit days.
Shipped does not mean processing started. Without feedback, master planning plans air.
Outsourced Steps Need Pass Events Too
Log ship, tank-in, tank-out, and return each as events. Over-cycle auto-alerts purchasing and planning. Nonconformance returns reasons—no verbal "just redo it." Compare vendors on feedback completeness, not just lead time.
- No feedback—do not mark the outsourced step complete.
- Tank capacity enters rough-cut capacity—avoid dumping all jobs on one vendor the same week.
- Return count must match ship count.
Feedback Returns to the Same Plan
The XYN digital intelligence system treats outsourced steps as off-site workstations—progress writes back to master planning. Plating can happen outside; planning cannot disappear outside. Missing progress becomes rush orders and empty lines at final assembly.
Sample ten in-process plating jobs—can you state current status? If not, connect feedback before compressing cycle time.
