Under PSICN's current high-mix, low-volume production model, last-minute customer orders and urgent order changes have become part of daily operations. Frequent rush and urgent orders not only disrupt the established production schedule but also lead to process waiting time, capacity loss, and even affect the on-time delivery of existing orders. Based on my five years of experience at PSICN, this article shares several practical approaches to handling rush orders while meeting customer requirements and maintaining production stability to the greatest extent possible.

To prevent rush orders from disrupting production in an unstructured manner, we first establish clear criteria and an approval process for identifying urgent orders.

Not every last-minute request can be inserted directly into the existing production schedule. The Sales Department is required to provide the order priority, latest delivery date, and any special requirements in advance. Only after Production Planning and the production workshop jointly evaluate available capacity can the rush order be approved for scheduling. This process helps minimize unnecessary schedule changes from the outset.

In our daily production planning, we reserve a fixed buffer period in the production schedule specifically to accommodate urgent orders. For production orders that must be adjusted, tasks are split or consolidated based on the principles of delivery priority and capacity alignment, ensuring that the impact on key orders is kept to a minimum. At the same time, the production workshop, warehouse, and Quality teams are informed immediately to ensure smooth coordination across all functions and to prevent additional issues caused by delayed communication.

Although rush orders cannot be eliminated entirely, their impact can be effectively minimized through standardized processes, flexible production scheduling, and efficient cross-functional collaboration. Going forward, we will continue to refine our experience and optimize our production planning approach to balance customer requirements with stable shop floor operations.