Why are customer orders getting delayed?

Read the scenario, find the problems, and suggest improvements. Try it on paper first, then open the sample answers to compare.

The scenario

Sunrise Stationers (a fictional company) sells office supplies to small businesses. The owner says: “Customers keep complaining that their orders arrive late, and my team is always chasing each other. I do not know where the delay is.”

You are the Business Analyst. You speak to the team and learn how an order is handled today:

How an order is handled today

Step	Who	What happens	Typical time
1	Customer	Sends an order by phone call, WhatsApp or email.	—
2	Sales executive	Writes the order in a paper register. Orders that arrive after 5 pm are entered the next morning.	Same day or next day
3	Sales executive	Walks to the store room to check if items are in stock.	20–30 minutes
4	Accounts executive	Prepares the invoice in a spreadsheet after the sales executive hands over the register page. Waits for the owner to approve orders above a set value.	1–2 days
5	Store keeper	Packs the order once the invoice reaches the store. Does not know which orders are urgent.	Half a day
6	Delivery person	Delivers orders in batches, twice a week.	Up to 3 days
7	Customer	Receives the order. If an item is missing, the customer calls to complain.	—

These timings are made up for the exercise.

Your tasks

Find the problems. List at least five things that could cause delays. Look for waiting, hand-offs, repeated work and missing information.
Find the bottleneck. Which one step or rule adds the most waiting time?
Draw the current process. Use boxes and arrows on paper (see the flowchart example).
Ask questions. Write five questions you would ask the owner and team before suggesting any solution.
Suggest improvements. Propose three practical changes. For each, say which problem it solves and what could go wrong.
Write one user story for a change that needs software (see user story example).

Sample answers

Try the tasks first. Then compare — there is more than one good answer.

Task 1 and 2 — Problems and bottleneck

Orders arrive through three channels and are copied into a paper register, so details can be lost or mistyped.
Orders after 5 pm wait until the next morning.
Stock is checked by walking to the store room, with no live stock list.
The invoice is typed again from the register page (repeated work).
Large orders wait for the owner’s approval, with no time limit.
The store keeper cannot see which orders are urgent.
Deliveries happen only twice a week.

Likely bottleneck: the twice-weekly delivery batch adds up to three days, and the invoice and approval step adds one to two days. Always check this with data (for example, ten recent orders) before deciding.

Task 4 — Questions to ask

How many orders do you receive on a typical day, and how many are delayed?
Which orders need owner approval, and why is that rule in place?
What happens when an item is out of stock? Who tells the customer?
Why are deliveries done in batches? Would a daily run be possible?
What does the customer see as “late”? What did you promise them?

Task 5 — Suggested improvements

Improvement	Problem it solves	What could go wrong
Enter each order once in a shared order sheet (or simple software) and create the invoice from it.	Re-typing, lost details, hand-off waiting.	Staff need training; the sheet must be kept up to date.
Keep a daily stock list that is updated when goods arrive and leave.	Walking to check stock; promising items that are not available.	Needs discipline; the list can drift from reality.
Set a rule: approval within 4 working hours, with a named backup approver.	Orders waiting for the owner.	The owner may feel a loss of control; agree the value limit first.
Mark urgent orders and deliver daily.	Batch delay; urgent orders treated like others.	Delivery cost may go up; test for a month.

Why we ask questions before solutions

A good analyst first understands the real cause. If the data shows that most delay is in delivery, improving invoicing would not help much. Check the facts, then suggest changes.

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Original educational material created by Bigsun Technologies for the Bigsun Udaan initiative. The people, companies and figures in the examples are fictional. This is a learning aid, not an accredited course or a guarantee of employment.