In short
A chip schedule slip is prevented by acting in the hour a commitment starts to move, not in the week a review discovers it. That requires three things: every commitment the date depends on known and held against its evidence; the dependent work re-planned the moment one moves; and a named owner working the fix with the impact already quantified. Tymeline does this continuously, which is why its measure is that the date does not move.
Where slips come from
Rarely from one dramatic event. Usually from a commitment that moved quietly and nobody re-planned around: an IP drop a fortnight late, a coverage curve that flattened, a long-lead board part, a foundry shuttle that shifted. Each was visible in its own tool or in an email. The slip is the sum of the days between the move and the response.
The discipline that prevents them
Three habits, held every day rather than every review:
- Know every commitment the date depends on, including the ones that live with suppliers and the fab, and hold each against evidence rather than a status.
- Re-plan dependent work the hour a commitment moves, so no team spends a week building to a date that is already wrong.
- Put the fix in front of its owner with the impact quantified, and let a named approver decide anything consequential in minutes.
Doing it without adding people
This discipline is too much work for a program manager to do by hand across fifty engineers and four suppliers. Tymeline does the holding and the re-planning continuously, Kendrel works out the fix, and the AI Employees carry out what has been approved. The program manager spends the week on decisions instead of collection.