OTIF (On-Time In-Full)

OTIF – On-Time In-Full – measures whether a shipment arrived when it was supposed to and contained everything the customer ordered. It's a single metric that captures two failure modes at once: late delivery and short shipment. A load that arrives on time but missing two pallets fails OTIF. A complete load that arrives a day late also fails. Only shipments that meet both conditions count as a pass.

OTIF is typically expressed as a percentage – the number of orders meeting both criteria divided by total orders. Major retailers like Walmart, Target, and Costco enforce strict OTIF thresholds, often 98% or higher, with financial penalties (chargebacks) for non-compliance. The "on-time" window is usually defined by the delivery appointment or a narrow grace period, while "in-full" means the exact SKUs and quantities on the purchase order were received without overages, shortages, or damages.

For shippers, OTIF is the metric that connects logistics execution to commercial relationships. Consistently missing OTIF targets leads to chargebacks that erode margins, strained buyer relationships, and in severe cases, lost shelf space or delisted products. It's also a diagnostic tool – when OTIF drops, the underlying cause could be carrier service failures, warehouse picking errors, inventory shortfalls, or dock scheduling bottlenecks. Breaking OTIF into its components helps pinpoint where the breakdown occurred.

Improving OTIF requires visibility across the entire order-to-delivery chain. Shippers who only see a shipment's status after it's delivered are always reacting. Those who track in transit and receive proactive exception alerts can intervene – rerouting, expediting, or notifying the customer – before a miss becomes a chargeback.