The 12 Days of Productivity for Make-to-Order Manufacturers
By Katie Foley
The holiday season is a hectic time both personally and professionally, especially for make-to-order manufacturers. Manufacturing businesses are faced with juggling customer deadlines, managing year end reporting, and preparing for the new year. Rather than let the holiday rush overwhelm you, we've created a list of 12 small, but meaningful improvements you can get started on now.
Set your team up for a strong start to 2026 by adding the "12 Days of Productivity" to your calendar. These initiatives are straightforward, impactful, and designed to help you finish the year efficiently - positioning your business for ongoing success.
Day 1: Schedule a Check-in with your Visibility Account Manager
Your Visibility Account Manager is available to help answer questions, get advice, and discuss upcoming intiatives. End of year is a great time to check in to recap the year and plan for the future.
Day 2: Clean Up Open Orders
Review old or inactive sales and work orders. Closing or updating them keeps WIP accurate and reduces clutter.
Day 3: Review Material Shortages
Checkage shortage reports for accuracy so purchasing can act on real needs, not outdated data.
Day 4: Analyze Job Cost Variances
Identify trends in material usage, labor efficiency, and outside processing to improve future quoting and planning.
Day 5: Refresh Production Schedules
Review upcoming jobs, capacity, and labor availability to keep teams aligned through holiday downtime.
Day 6: Reconcile Inventory
Cycle counts and location checks now help avoid surprises in the new year.
Day 7: Verify Supplier Lead Times
Lead times often shift during the holidays. Updating them keeps planning accurate.
Day 8: Audit User Access and Permissions
Ensure employees have the right roles — and remove access for any inactive accounts or former employees.
Day 9: Build or Refresh Dashboards
Create or update dashboards for key metrics your team will track in the new year — on-time delivery, margin performance, schedule adherence, backlog, and more.
Day 10: Consider a Business Process Assessment
A year-end or early-year evaluation can uncover inefficiencies and give you a roadmap for improving operations in 2026.
Day 11: Plan ERP Training Refreshers
The start of a new year is an ideal time to schedule refresher training for your team. Small improvements in user knowledge lead to large improvements in data quality and efficiency.
Day 12: Register for VCC 2026!
Make sure your team is signed up early so you don’t miss out on our best pricing.
We hope the "12 Days of Productivity" will keep your make-to-order manufacturing company on track for the last few weeks of the year and pave the way for a successful start to 2026! Even just a few small adjustments can add up to big results in your bottom line.
If you believe Visibility ERP might be the right vendor to help bring these ideas to life, reach out to us here ❄️🎁.
