AI Readiness Survey

01 / Operational truth

A customer asks whether an open production order or shipment can be pulled in by two days. What happens next?

Customer service asks planning, planning asks production, and the answer depends on who responds firstPlanning checks the schedule, then separately asks materials and shipping whether the date is realisticPlanning can see the order status, but must manually confirm material availability, current operation status, and shipment readinessThe team can review the affected order, required materials, work center capacity, quality status, and ship date impact togetherThe pull-in request creates a controlled review showing feasible date, blocking constraints, tradeoffs, owners, and approval status

02 / Process model

A production order is scheduled to start tomorrow, but a required material may be short. How is that handled?

The shortage is often discovered during staging, picking, or production startA planner or material coordinator checks availability and messages purchasing or inventory controlAn exception report shows the shortage, but someone must manually determine affected orders and urgencyThe shortage is linked to required quantity, available quantity, affected production orders, supplier status, and ownerThe material exception triggers a governed readiness review with recovery options, approval path, and schedule or shipment impact

03 / Governance

Quality places a lot or work order on hold during production. What do planning and operations see?

The hold is known by quality and the local production team before other teams see itThe hold is entered in a quality system, but planning must ask what quantity, lot, or order is blockedPlanning can see the hold, but must manually assess whether it blocks the next operation, shipment, or only part of the lotThe hold record shows affected lot or work order, blocked quantity, reason, owner, next review step, and expected release dateThe hold status controls downstream movement and shows affected customer orders, required approvals, and release conditions

04 / Integration

Engineering changes a routing, inspection step, or work instruction after production orders are already released. How does the change reach execution?

Engineering sends an update and relies on supervisors or operators to stop using the old instructionThe document or master data changes, but released production orders are reviewed manuallyAffected orders can be listed, but someone must coordinate which operations need rework, reinspection, or new instructionsAffected production orders, operations, work centers, and owners are identified before execution continuesThe change is controlled through released work, required approvals, operator-facing instructions, and schedule impact

05 / Operational truth

A critical machine goes down mid-shift. How quickly can the team understand the production impact?

The supervisor estimates affected output and later updates planning when there is timeMaintenance records the downtime, while production separately lists delayed orders or batchesThe team can identify affected production orders, but alternate routing, labor, and customer impact are manualAffected orders, work center backlog, alternate resources, labor constraints, and promise-date risk are visible quicklyThe downtime event is connected to recovery options, schedule tradeoffs, approval decisions, and customer impact

06 / Governance

A supplier shipment might need to be expedited to protect a key customer order. How would your team handle that decision?

The buyer is asked to expedite, then later the team checks whether it was worth the costPlanning and purchasing discuss the order, supplier promise, and customer need in email or chatThe team can see the material need and supplier promise, but cost limits and approval rules are informalThe expedite decision includes affected orders, shortage date, supplier options, cost impact, and named approverThe expedite request follows a controlled workflow with evidence, approval limits, supplier action, and service or margin impact

07 / Process model

An operator uses an approved workaround to keep production moving. What happens to the official record?

The workaround is handled on the floor and may never be reflected outside the shiftThe supervisor notes the workaround, but the production order or batch record is updated later if neededThe workaround is recorded, but quality, planning, and engineering may not see it until a review or meetingThe affected order, lot, operation, approval, and reason are updated and visible to impacted ownersThe workaround is captured as controlled execution data with traceability, approval, schedule impact, and follow-up actions

08 / Adoption

A supervisor receives a daily risk list for their area. How likely is it to become part of the shift routine?

It would be another list to check, separate from the shift meeting and escalation processA supervisor might use it when time allows, but follow-up would depend on personal disciplineThe list would be reviewed in a pilot area, but actions and escalation rules would still be informalThe list is reviewed in an existing shift meeting with owners assigned for each riskThe risk list drives a standard shift routine with owner assignment, escalation, closure tracking, and management review

09 / Adoption

After changing how exceptions are detected and escalated, how would you know whether the new workflow worked?

People would say whether the process feels better or worseThe team would watch broad KPIs like output, late orders, or expedite costA pilot owner would manually track a few examples and summarize lessons learnedThe workflow tracks exception count, owner assignment, response time, and resolved blockers before and after the changeThe workflow measures detection time, action time, data quality, outcome impact, recurrence, and adoption by role

10 / Integration

A consultant or internal improvement team finds that supplier promise dates are unreliable. How does that finding turn into daily operating behavior?

The finding is documented, but buyers and planners continue using the same follow-up habitsA manual tracker is created for supplier promises and reviewed in planning meetingsA pilot tracks supplier promise changes, but affected production orders and escalation rules are still partly manualSupplier promise dates are tied to affected production orders, owners, and escalation rules in the planning workflowSupplier promise reliability becomes a governed operating loop with source data, ownership, exceptions, response actions, and measured outcomes

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