We develop a method for quoting manufacturing due dates to achieve a target
service level (percent of orders filled on-time). We posit a very general
function for determining leadtimes as a function of work in process and use
a control chart method for adjusting the parameters in this function over
time. We make almost no assumptions about the nature of the underlying prod
uction system (i.e., we do not require any particular distribution of proce
ss times, nor do we require that the system be in steady state). Using simu
lation we show that our method is very accurate for a simple case where an
exact analytic solution is possible and that it outperforms other due date
quoting methods from the literature in more complex situations.