A late result is not a late number sitting harmlessly in an inbox — production keeps running while it is in transit. What that costs depends entirely on whether the batch is still inside the process by the time the result lands.
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A late laboratory result is not just a late number — production keeps running while it is in transit. What happens next depends entirely on whether the batch is still inside the process when the result finally lands.
The sample leaves for the laboratory and the batch keeps running. By the time the result comes back, four hours of production have already happened under whatever conditions actually held — not the ones the last known result described.
If the number that arrives is out of specification, there is no version of events where the batch is caught mid-process. The decision is now about what to do with finished material, not about how to run the batch differently.
Reprocessing is usually the cheapest path when it is available at all. Reclassifying into a lower-value grade recovers something. Disposal recovers nothing and adds a disposal cost on top. Which door is open depends on the batch, not on the paperwork.
With an inline measurement running throughout, the same drift is visible while the batch is still being made. A correction gets applied in-process, and the batch finishes in specification — one outcome, not a branch of three.
A resin producer running inline measurement for six months reported payback in 6–10 months and roughly €180,000 a year in savings. A water utility's payback runs 18–24 months. Neither number travels to a segment it was not measured in.
Feasibility runs on your process, your reference method, and your own cost of rework, reclassification and disposal — not a borrowed number from a different segment.