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In reality, most production delays have nothing to do with slow factories or missed shipments. They happen when teams aren’t looking at the same information. Purchasing is ready to move, operations is waiting on confirmation, and design is working from a different version altogether. The result? Simple decisions stall, not because they’re hard, but because they’re stuck between departments. Fixing these data gaps is usually the quickest way to speed up your entire supply chain.
When one team is working off a spreadsheet from Tuesday and another is looking at an email from Friday, mistakes are inevitable. In 2026, with strict new laws like the EU’s ban on destroying unsold stock, these small communication gaps have become expensive risks.
The Three Most Common Gaps
Finance vs. Operations
Operations needs to move fast to secure a production slot, while Finance needs time to review suppliers and approve budgets. If both teams aren’t working from the same live data from each PO. A delay of a day or two can easily push a factory window back by weeks.
Design vs. The Factory
Small design changes like a trim update or color tweak, will often live in email threads instead of the PO. If the factory doesn’t see the update in time, production moves forward on the wrong version. These mistakes usually surface during quality control, costing time, materials, and rework.
Inventory vs. Purchasing
When sales data isn’t connected to purchasing, teams end up guessing. That leads to over-ordering “just in case” and excess inventory. With tighter rules in place from 2026, surplus stock can quickly turn into unsellable goods sitting in your warehouse.
The Real-World Cost of Data stuck in separate systems
When teams are working from different systems, costs quietly pile up. McKinsey estimates that companies without a unified view of their data face about 20% higher operational costs. In practice, that shows up in a few familiar ways:
- Rush shipping: Timelines slip in long email threads, forcing expensive air freight.
- The “human bridge”: Your best people spend hours copying and reconciling data instead of managing production.
- Extra inventory: Teams hedge their bets because they don’t trust their tracking data, creating safety stock that ties up cash and space.
The Advantage of a Single Platform
Everything changes when all your data lives in one place instead of scattered across emails and spreadsheets. Imagine an operations manager and a buyer both seeing the same numbers, updates, and approvals in real time. Suddenly, “Where do we stand?” meetings vanish, errors drop, and decisions happen in minutes instead of days. That’s the kind of clarity that lets your supply chain finally keep pace with your business.
Vintly is built to make this happen. If you’re ready to close those data gaps and get your teams on the same page, you can reach out to our sales team here and see how we help streamline production.
