It is, most simply, the time it takes from the time the customer places the order until the customer receives the product or service. Frequently, delivery responsiveness is measured with the average. Reliability is the ability of a company to meet the commitments made to customers. Commitments to customers should not be made lightly. In today's competitive business environment customers have a right to and do expect absolute reliability.
Delivery reliability is a specialized case of reliability.
It is of critical importance to you if your customers use JIT inventory management. If your deliveries are not reliable, your lack of reliability will force your customer to warehouse a safety stock of your product, thus increasing your customer's costs in both warehousing space and inventory carrying costs. This will make you less competitive from your customer's viewpoint. Delivery reliability is often measured using the standard deviation. When businesses look at themselves, they frequently look at themselves much differently than does the customer.