Quick answer

What is a good DIFOT?

A DIFOT number only means something once one definition is agreed and written down, because most DIFOT arguments are definition arguments. The review classifies every failure in a period by cause and by the function that owns it, quantifies the gap between your measure and the customer's, and names the few causes that carry most of the failures. Fixed price $5,900 plus GST; the Operational KPI and DIFOT Toolkit is $249 including GST.

Operations consultancy / DIFOT review and improvement

DIFOT review and improvement

Everyone quotes a different DIFOT number and none of them match what the customer sees.

What does the work involve?

One definition agreed and written down, because most DIFOT arguments are definition arguments.
Every failure in the period classified by cause and by the function that owns it.
The difference between your measure and the customer's measure, quantified.

What do you get?

A single DIFOT definition the business can stand behind.
Failure analysis by cause and owner.
A plan to lift it, with the few causes that carry most of the failures named first.

Who does it suit?

Operations under customer pressure on service, or anyone whose internal number is well above what the customer reports.

Who is it not for?

An operation that does not yet record the date promised to the customer; the review can set that measurement up but cannot reconstruct it for the past.

How long does it take?

A fixed scope: data read in the first week, causes ranked by the end of the second, the written plan in the third.

What do we need from you?

Missing some of this is normal and is not a reason to wait. Send what exists and we will tell you what the work can and cannot conclude before anyone commits.

Order and delivery data for at least three months, with promised and actual dates.
Any failure or complaint log, however rough.
Your customer's own service report if they send you one.

What does it cost?

$5,900 plus GST as a fixed price review. Improvement projects that follow are scoped once the causes are known, and the Operational KPI and DIFOT Toolkit is $249 including GST.

How does 360 work?

A consultant delivers the work and is accountable for the content. Findings come from the data you supply and what we observe inside the agreed scope, and estimated benefits are opportunities to test rather than guaranteed savings. Where a recommendation could lead to 360 earning from supply, we say so in the report so you can compare it against the market. Full terms are on the purchase terms page.

Get this work scoped Start with the free health check

Not sure this is the right one? The operations health check takes ten minutes, costs nothing and tells you where to look first.

Worked example

What does a DIFOT calculation look like on a real week?

One distributor, one week, 1,000 order lines promised. Counted from the proof of delivery against the promise, not from the despatch screen.

Measure	Lines	Share	What it means
Promised this week	1,000	100%	The denominator is the promise, including lines promised earlier and still open.
Delivered in full	975	97.5%	25 lines short or substituted; a substitution the customer did not agree to is not in full.
Delivered on time	965	96.5%	35 lines after the promised day or outside the agreed window.
Delivered in full AND on time	940	94.0%	The DIFOT. Not 97.5% times 96.5% (94.1%), because the same line can fail both ways; count the lines, do not multiply the rates.

Measured by order instead of by line, the same week reads lower: one short line fails the whole order. Measured against the customer's requested date instead of the promised date, it reads lower again. Those two choices are why the sales team quotes 98%, the warehouse quotes 94% and the customer says "about 90%": three definitions, one week.

The measuring template. One row per order line: order number, line, customer, promised date and window, delivered date and time from the POD, quantity ordered, quantity delivered, in full (yes or no), on time (yes or no), DIFOT (yes only when both are yes), failure cause (one of a fixed list: no stock, picked wrong, late despatch, carrier, customer closed, address, other), and the function that owns the cause. Sum the DIFOT column over the promised lines and you have the number; sort by cause and you have the review. The Operational KPI and DIFOT Toolkit on this page carries the workbook with those columns and the cause list built in.

Questions

What is a good DIFOT percentage?

There is no official standard, and the number means nothing until the definition under it is stable. What a good DIFOT actually is sets out the ranges used in Australian operations, the formula, how DIFOT and OTIF differ, and the four definition choices that move the number further than performance does.

Our data is messy. Is that a problem?

It is usually the first finding. We work with what exists and tell you what to start capturing.

Is this just a report?

The review is. Improvement projects are scoped separately once you know what is actually breaking.

Whose DIFOT number counts, ours or the customer's?

The customer's, because that is the one the contract and the relationship run on. The review reconciles your figure to theirs line by line, which is where the definition gaps show: a late despatch counted as on time, a short delivery counted as full, a promised date nobody recorded.

Can you set the measurement up if we do not have one?

Yes. If the promised date is not recorded today, the review sets up the capture and the weekly report so the number exists from then on. It cannot reconstruct the months before that, which is why the page says what data it needs.

All sixteen consultancy services.

On site across Australia, with the deepest coverage in Sydney and Melbourne. Travel outside those areas is quoted as its own line rather than folded into the fee.

Benchmarking yourself? We published what a good DIFOT actually is. Want the price before you ask? See what a review costs. Not sure where to start? Take the ten minute health check.