Madness @ Work

~or~

Shall I Change My Ways? No!

Here@work.com we have an inventory system that works fairly well, when proper procedures are followed. Everything with a barcoded inventory number (SKU) gets shipped to the customer. Say you have a box with multiple items all in a lot together. The SKU goes on the box, and the whole box gets pulled and shipped. If the things inside are identical, individual lots, each of them should have a barcode on the item, or the box should have a sign with the SKU on it, prominently marked "Take n per sale" or some such.

We had a customer most unhappy to receive one of two items I listed for sale as one lot. The other of the two items was still on the shelf, in a box with the SKU on the outside of the box. It was brought to my attention that I might want to individually label these (small) things with 1-of-2 and 2-of-2 labels. To compensate for a failure by someone else to comply with established practices.

Then I heard about another, similar, foul-up on the same day. We had a big box full of 5" widgets and a big box full of 8" widgets, on the same shelf (and so with the same location in inventory). The paper in the widget-fetcher's hand said 8" widgets. The fetcher fetched 5" widgets. This would normally not be a problem because the fetcher was supposed to scan the barcode to deduct 1x from inventory, and it has to match the SKU on the paper in his hand. There is a manual override so he can enter the SKU of the pulled item manually. Which he did, in error.

You have a VERY CLEAR PROBLEM of somebody ELSE not doing it right, and then you want me to try to work around their crazy?

No. Train or fire them; don't break what works to accommodate someone who can't get it right.

(/rant)