02 / Verification
The number is right. The question is not.
Answers now arrive faster than anyone can check them, and a plausible number is the hardest mistake to spot. Show what an answer was checked against, together with the answer.
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Being able to say it is right.
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01The same question. 94% again.
A week later, for another large order, the same question came up. The agent answered 94% again. Memory still holds last time's correction, but that does not mean the answer follows it.
Before anyone decides, check two things and keep them apart: is the calculation right, and does it answer the question?
02Is the calculation right?
Recount last month's 100 orders by the definition the answer used.
Delivered by the factory's promised date: 94 / 100
94%, the same as the answer.
Pass · the calculation holds
03Does it answer the question?
Compare the definition the answer used with the correction held in memory.
The calculation has not been checked yet. Check it first
- The answer's definition
- Counted against the factory's promised dates
- Correction in memory
- Answer this question by the customer's requested dates (head of sales)
Fail · the calculation is right, but it answers another question
04Count it both ways.
Count the same 100 orders against the factory's promised dates and against the customer's requested dates.
The calculation has not been checked yet. Check it first
- Factory's promised date
- 94 / 10094%
- Customer's requested date
- 79 / 10079%
The 15 in between met the factory's date and missed the customer's. 6 missed both.
See the 15 orders
- O-005requested day 9promised day 10delivered day 10
- O-012requested day 14promised day 18delivered day 18
- O-018requested day 12promised day 14delivered day 14
- O-024requested day 10promised day 14delivered day 14
- O-031requested day 15promised day 18delivered day 18
- O-037requested day 13promised day 14delivered day 14
- O-043requested day 11promised day 14delivered day 14
- O-050requested day 16promised day 18delivered day 18
- O-056requested day 14promised day 18delivered day 18
- O-062requested day 12promised day 14delivered day 14
- O-069requested day 17promised day 18delivered day 18
- O-075requested day 15promised day 18delivered day 18
- O-081requested day 13promised day 14delivered day 14
- O-088requested day 18promised day 22delivered day 22
- O-094requested day 16promised day 18delivered day 18
The answer, rewritten
Last month's on-time delivery rate was 79% by the customer's requested dates (94% by the factory's promised dates).
05Whether to take it is a person's call.
The answer goes to the head of sales with its definition and its evidence. Take the large order with the tight delivery date?
The calculation has not been checked yet. Check it first
Held, on the grounds of the 79%. The decision is on record.
- Question
- Last month's on-time delivery rate?
- Answer
- 79% by requested date (94% by promised date)
- Checks
- Calculation pass · definition fail → counted both ways
- Decision
- Hold it
- Decided by
- Head of sales (you)
Who carries this decision out, and how far? Next: deciding what the agent may do.
03 / On to collaborationA correct calculation is not a correct answer.
Split checking in two: is the calculation right, and does it answer with the definition the question asks for? When the definition is unclear, say so. A person decides, and the decision is kept on record too.
A fictional, limited example: 100 made-up orders and one question. Both rates are counted from the order data on this page. Real verification also has to check where a definition comes from and what the count covers.