Linked Shipping Board: Plan Shipments From Production Completion Dates

What is a Linked Shipping Board?

Why it works

The board turns production status into reusable knowledge for shipping, which adds value by making the next process plan from known facts.

• Knowledge reuse: Production completion dates are made visible to shipping instead of being reasked, guessed, or recreated.
• Added value: Shipping plans around the work that will actually be ready, which supports customer delivery planning.
• Mistake proofing: Pink and green magnets make material status visible, reducing the chance that a job is treated as ready before material has been ordered.
• Handoff control: Passing scheduled completion dates from production control to shipping makes the transfer of information explicit.

Evidence: The transcript says the shipping board ties in from the production board, and after the production control manager schedules jobs and knows when they will be done, she passes it over to shipping.

How to create this idea

1. 1
   Define the date source

   Decide who owns the production completion date. In this example, the production control manager schedules the jobs and identifies when they will be done.

2. 2
   Build the production board

   Show each job and its current status where production, purchasing, and shipping can read it. Include the information shipping needs to plan later work.

3. 3
   Add simple signals

   Use clear visual markers for status. For example, use a pink magnet for material that still needs to be ordered and a green magnet for material that has been ordered.

4. 4
   Create the shipping board

   Set up a shipping board that receives job completion information from the production board. Make the link between the two boards part of the normal scheduling process.

5. 5
   Hand off completion dates

   When the production schedule is set and completion dates are known, update the shipping board. Shipping then plans shipments from those dates.