Empowering Sunseeker International to reduce overdue furniture by 60% in six months
Improving production prioritisation, flow and daily operational control
Sunseeker International, a luxury yacht manufacturer, was struggling with a growing backlog of overdue furniture components, delaying the flow of parts into downstream boat builds.
Teams were working on too many orders at once, production sequencing did not always reflect what the boat build needed next, and managers lacked a shared view of where attention was most urgently required.
We worked with production teams and management to improve how work was prioritised, give the business clearer visibility of overdue orders and constraints, and build that information into the daily management process.
The result was a 60% reduction in overdue furniture within six months.
Key Issues
High Work-In-Progress
Production teams were working across multiple orders rather than concentrating capacity on completing the most important work first.
That created unnecessary Work-In-Progress and meant jobs spent longer moving through production before they were completed.
Misaligned production sequencing
Similar work was often grouped together because it was efficient for an individual production area.
That made sense locally, but it did not always reflect the sequence in which the wider boat build needed components.
As a result, lower-priority work could progress while more urgent orders remained outstanding.
Limited priority and performance visibility
There was no shared view showing which orders were most important, where overdue work was concentrated, what was preventing those orders from progressing, or how delivery performance was changing across teams.
This made it harder for managers and team leaders to intervene early, focus attention where it was needed most and see whether performance was improving.
Approach
Shared production priorities
We brought overdue and priority orders into a single view, giving managers and team leaders a common picture of what needed attention.
This helped teams focus on completing the most important work before starting additional jobs, supporting the wider effort to reduce unnecessary Work-In-Progress and move orders through production more quickly.
Visible constraints and team performance
Managers could move from the overall view into individual teams and orders to see where overdue work was building up and what was preventing priority jobs from progressing.
This included visibility of the inputs required to complete the work, delivery performance by team and the issues requiring escalation.
Daily management reporting
The reporting became part of the daily manager and team-leader stand-up.
Each morning, teams used the same information to agree priorities, identify constraints, escalate issues and review whether overdue work and lateness were improving.
Rather than acting as another dashboard, the reporting became part of how the operation was run.
Results
Reduction in overdue furniture
Overdue furniture components reduced by 60% within six months. Focusing teams on completing priority work before starting more helped reduce Work-In-Progress and shorten cycle times.
Internal OTIF
Internal On Time In Full increased by 27% over the same six-month period, supported by a shared daily view that kept teams focused on what the wider boat build needed most.
Daily management
Problems were identified and escalated earlier, giving management a more structured way to control performance instead of reacting after delays had already built up.
“Helped the Technology Centre site reduce overdue components by 60% within six months.”Steve Timms, Chief Operating Officer