Company Profile:
Industry: Wholesale distribution
Market: Worldwide / Domestic
Employee size: 500+
Problem:
Order line items were being mis-picked, and/or orders were missing their promised ship dates; on an alarming basis.
Findings:
Too many Sales Staff, and Upper Management were trying to push their individual orders to the front of the line and literally walk them out the door. This resulted in a major interruption to inventory flows thus fueling customer order processing bottle necks.
Recommendations:
Enforce proper Warehouse Management material processing rules and best practice procedures in both receiving and order picking logic. Designate team leader(s) to interface; where applicable; between the sales department and the warehouse. All sales personnel and upper management were no longer allowed in the warehouse. Once paperwork was issued to the warehouse for picking, no changes can be made to the order; only on an occasional exception basis, AND when approved by Owner of the Company.
Also advised using their existing software to further implement order status, through viewing and reporting, negating the need for non-warehouse personnel walking around the warehouse.
