An alert mechanism for the release lateness

The impact of releasing a product after its required date might carry negative consequences for the manufacturer. This paper presents an alert mechanisms for the risk involved by not releasing a product on time. The alert mechanism is the delay tolerance index (DTI), which is a function of the value or importance of the product and the lateness of its release. DTI has the characteristic of being 1 when there is no delay and approaches 0 (zero) when the delay is intolerable. An additional benefit of the alert mechanism is that it serves as performance measure for the manufacturer.