Confirm the requested date
SAP-feasible, above the floor and eligible under the current schedule.
KPI Optimization · Case Example
Improving On-Time Delivery Using Hybrid Cognition
An industrial manufacturer already used SAP available-to-promise and finite scheduling. The dates were feasible—but customer feedback and an OTD rate near 89% showed that feasibility alone was not producing dependable commitments.
01
The purpose
Improve the commitment process—not replace SAP
SAP remains authoritative for inventory, backlog, routing, capacity and the finite production schedule. The intervention adds machine-assisted perception around that process: it detects changing conditions in operational and customer narratives, estimates how reliably each SAP-feasible date can be kept, and gives people a governed set of alternatives before the customer confirmation is issued.
Important customers: protect requested dates when probability and capacity support them.
Other customers: issue a vetted promise that is likely to be kept.
Production: prevent continuous expediting from destabilizing the schedule.
A Hybrid Cognition Forum working case
A starting design—not the final answer
This case is intended for Forum members to examine and improve together. The present solution is an executable starting design: members can challenge the 80% floor, probability communication, CRM priority rules, planning cadence, portfolio protections, human authority and the evidence required before deployment.
The objective is practical: determine how human judgment and machine-assisted perception should be combined to improve a real KPI without shifting risk invisibly to customers or production.
The intervention
A continuous hybrid-cognition loop
Hover to preview a stage. Select it for the full explanation.
↺ Delivery outcomes and new narratives refresh the next operating cycle.
The order-entry rule
From requested date to responsible promise
1Customer requests a date
The requested date remains visible throughout the process.
→
2SAP confirms feasibility
ATP and finite scheduling include backlog, material, routing and capacity.
→
3Is it at least 80% probable?
Use the calibrated probability range and all schedule-governance gates.
Best efforts toward the request
Show its probability range, but confirm the earliest later vetted date the plant can responsibly keep.
Escalate—do not promise
No SAP-confirmed alternative currently clears the reliability and stability requirements.
Two measures remain separate: requested-date attainment is measured against what the customer asked for; confirmation OTD is measured against the firm date SAP issued.
03
The simulated result
Better OTD without turning the schedule into a daily negotiation
In the controlled matched simulation, the complete intervention improved the KPI while preserving a common commitment floor and bounded planning cadence.
Hybrid-process OTD
up from 89.9%
Important-customer attainment
up from 88.4%
Other-customer confirmation OTD
a promise the plant can keep
Promises below the 80% floor
across 1,652 matched orders
+3.87 points OTD uplift2 per week maximum priority moves0 existing promises silently revised
These figures are reproducible scenario evidence, not an observed client result or deployment forecast.
The larger idea
OTD is one instantiation of KPI optimization.
Evidence becomes percepts; percepts form a situation model; causal interpretation produces alternatives; governed human judgment selects an action; outcomes create new evidence. The same architecture can be applied to other continuously managed performance measures.