Orders and tasks that have stopped moving

Find the few jobs that need attention today

Show what is waiting, why it is waiting and who should act next before a quiet pause becomes a missed delivery date.

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What happens today

The order says “in progress”, but everyone is waiting

A production order is planned for next week. Purchasing asked the supplier to confirm the steel delivery, but no reply arrived. The order still appears as active because the ERP only knows that material was requested, not that the promised confirmation is now two days late.

The planner assumes the material will arrive. Purchasing has many other requests in the inbox. The problem becomes visible only when the machine schedule is about to start and there is still no steel.

A useful control looks for the missing next action much earlier. It does not show every normal order. It shows this order, the overdue supplier reply, the person responsible and the date by which someone must decide what to do.

How it can work

Check what should have happened next

  1. Read the current informationUse agreed exports, emails or records from the tools the team already has.
  2. Find the last confirmed stepFor example, the purchase request was sent but the supplier has not confirmed delivery.
  3. Check the expected next stepUse a simple rule for what should happen next, who owns it and by when.
  4. Show the problemFlag the missing reply, approval, drawing or material only when it needs attention.
  5. Give useful contextShow the order, deadline, last action and the person who can move it forward.
  6. Close the alertRemove it when the missing evidence arrives or a responsible person records another plan.

Who does what

The system finds what has stopped. People decide how to recover.

What the system can watch

  • Collect the selected status changes, replies and due dates
  • Compare the last action with what should happen next
  • Find a missing owner, document, approval or response
  • Prepare a short daily list for each responsible person
  • Remove an item when the expected action is recorded

What the responsible person decides

  • How long each normal step should take
  • Which order matters most when priorities conflict
  • Whether to contact a supplier, customer or colleague
  • Whether to wait, change the plan or assign another owner

Keeping the list useful

An alert must explain the problem and point to an owner

  • The source has not updated: show when the data was last refreshed instead of calling an old record current.
  • The wait is planned: let an authorised person record the reason and the date to check again.
  • The owner is unclear: send the item for assignment instead of notifying the whole team.
  • Two systems disagree: show both statuses and ask a person to choose the correct one.
  • Too many alerts appear: group related problems and reserve urgent messages for situations that can still be changed today.
What a useful attention item looks like. It explains the missing action instead of merely colouring the order red.

What has happened

The supplier was asked to confirm delivery of 8 mm steel. The reply was due on Tuesday. It is now Thursday and the production order is planned for next week.

What purchasing sees

Delivery confirmation is two days late. Owner: purchasing. Next action: contact the supplier today, record the new delivery date or tell planning that another source is needed.

A practical way to start

Start with one kind of wait that regularly causes trouble

  1. A simple report: check a regular export for one overdue reply, approval or document.
  2. A daily owner list: group the items by the person who can move them forward.
  3. Connections to current tools: read the agreed events from email, ERP, CRM or task software.
  4. Actions from the same screen: create a task, record a reply or approve a planned wait.
  5. A view for management: show the recurring reasons for delay after the team trusts the basic alerts.

Where this helps

Work where each step has a clear next action but nobody sees when it is missing

This can help with orders, purchases, document approvals and customer follow-ups when the normal next step is known. If nobody agrees who owns the work or what should happen next, that process decision needs to be made before software can monitor it.

Where does work wait until somebody remembers to ask?

Tell us what the current status says, what should happen next and how people notice that it did not happen. We can suggest a focused first check.

Tell us where the work gets stuck
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