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Job due dates

01:37pm Jun 21, 2001 PST (#1 of 6)

We are moving our due dates every day so that nothing is past due. However, when we get jobs in that have a due date that can absolutely not move our production department doesn't have that information. In addition, they are so used to deadlines moving that due dates don't mean as much. How are you handling due dates? What are some ideas on how to break the production department of missing deadlines?

Stephanie
Vintage Marketing

planning has to be worked out by the production/traffic managers to make a realistic schedule coordinated between client, vendors, and the ultimate end point of the job (magazine, trade show, etc). Through daily communication, a good traffic manager should be able to find out in advance if a deadline is going to be missed, and start acting on it before it happens.

If your production department is constantly missing deadlines, you should do an analysis and find out why. . . Are you not getting needed elements (logos, images, copy, etc)? Then communicate with the sources of the late information. Is your production department so slammed with work that they just can't do it all? Then hire an extra person, or hire a temp until they catch up. Are they not able to prioritize their workload? Then you need to get some help there. Are the AE's bringing in work that can't be done in the proposed timeframe? They need to be trained to check with production manager to see if a job is do-able.

You don't "fix" a missed deadline by moving the deadline, you "fix" it by finding out why it is late. Once anyone sees a deadline as not being real, they won't honor it.

Jan Scogin,
Manager,
Print Production,
RSW Creative

We leave the due date blank unless, or should I say until, it's a drop dead date. Then it means something.

Meg Ridings
Project Coordinator
ProWolfe Partners
www.prowolfe.com

Our agency:

A) First, once a schedule is done (and production should have a say in the beginning as to how long it should take for a particular piece), it can't be changed without a change order detailing why a schedule change is necessary. (agency or client related). Due dates don't change without a good reason, i.e. Client missed approval milestone, which is then documented and the client signs off.

B) Only traffic can "change" the schedule. Not AE, Or Print Producer, or Creative!!!

C) Do a final analysis of some jobs to see when and why job went off schedule. Check Diary and see who "changed" due dates. If you aren't scheduling properly to begin with, you will have changes. Once input is given and the schedule done and client approves it, it stays in stone, unless some unforeseen thing happens to a milestone, which should be documented.

D) Talk to your production dept. Are they getting to give input in scheduling phase? Are the projects getting to them by the date specified? Or is the schedule going haywire earlier and you are trying to "make up" time in final production (analysis will tell you and this needs to be corrected, not the production dept)? One of our milestones is Studio (when a piece must leave studio for final client approval) and then Studio Approval (client approval of final mechanical), if those dates are met and production receives on time, there is not a good excuse for missing a deadline (other than a big truck hit me, a tornado leveled the vendors printing shop or film shop, etc. which should be documented in writing).

E) Do you have weekly traffic meetings to review schedules and what the status is and any "bottlenecks"? These can help a lot to keep projects on time. And everyone should attend. We like AE's to know what is going on in the shop even if it isn't their accounts so they are less likely to "promise" delivery dates without consulting traffic first.

Shelly Constantz
Just Partners

you are totally right about moving due dates arbitrarily will diminish the meaning of them all. I think that the best way to help production meet deadlines is to first allow a reasonable amount of time for the job. Be sure they have all the information that they will need, so that there are so excuses for missing deadlines. And also I find that you have to constantly check up and remind them of the upcoming due date. Telling them once is not good enough. Don't take it off your "to do list" even though you may not be responsible for the work itself. Also let your production department know that you will tell them the dates that you need something and that they are not arbitrary. Also let them know that if they get in trouble and need more time to let you know and maybe you can shuffle jobs around to help with workload. I have found that clients always make more time to fix a job that is delivered with an error. Why not take an extra day and get it right the first time.

Laura Epperson
Creative Energy

Though I don't know your exact position in the company, I have two suggestions:

1. Only allow one person to change the deadlines. Everyone can mark when a job is finished, but can also e-mail the person responsible to let them know that a deadline has changed. But having more than one person move deadlines can create a lot of confusion and a gap in communication.

2. If you don't have one person that can be responsible for this or if it is more common to have changed deadlines than solid ones, whoever is responsible should make it a point to notify those involved when a due date is not flexible. Pointing this out will take only a quick e-mail but could avoid a lot of grief (internally and from the client).

Don't know if this helps!!

Aimee Syverson
Rumbletree
(formerly Barradas, Yeaton & Wold)
http://www.rumbletree.com