Pointing Fingers
Another new batch of waste material stuffing arrived yesterday which made my punch bag crew smile as it makes a tough job that much easier. The daily numbers will jump up which highlights how important this is having the right material.
Over the last 12 months the warehouse business has been operating smoothly from our side and I wish I could say the same thing about our client. There were some hiccups over the Christmas rush which were not things we could control and learned how to overcome any issues for next time. The blame game is not something I like to get into and would rather find solutions that eradicates any problems.
I do believe if you know and understand your business properly you should foresee problems before they happen and why being hands on is so important. The problem is we have 3 admin staff who belong to our client working with us who take orders from their bosses 500 Km away.
The big issue is when we have any shortages we as the warehouse are liable which is 100% correct. When you have incompetent people who have not followed procedures and are not my staff and are my clients responsibility then I have a problem.
Over the last few weeks I think it has become even more clearer why our client had financial difficulties in the past and it is down to the people working for the company. The business is a great business if run properly and from how I am seeing things the problem starts from the top and works its way down to the bottom. Employing smart people cleverer than you may not have been the case here.
The blame game always comes from their side and each time our company has to show them where they made the mistake. Just in the last week we had 3 different cases where they had changed orders which become picking slips without adjusting the stock system. This should be impossible to generate an invoice yet the systems were being bypassed.
What transpired is the one person who adjusts the system is too busy catching up other stuff and she has not got around to doing the adjustments yet. The stock counts will never be right if we allow this to happen and firmly told them today that bypassing the procedure is forbidden. If they adjust an order it has to be redone and not added in with a hand written note.
This practice is very dangerous for our side as it is the buyers changing an order at the last minute not understanding he entire process. One fool even questioned the count wondering who had stolen such a big number of items and requested a recount. They were the ones who cocked the entire process up and yet still did not understand the implications they had created. There is no theft and if the system s wrong it will be administration related coming from their side.
We are just biding our time growing the business slowly so we can eventually call the shots, but we are not there yet. All we have to maintain is the morale of the staff and do out jobs by providing a service making sure our client does not make mistakes. This is time consuming because in many cases we are doing their jobs as well by double checking they have processed the orders correctly for my staff to pick and pack.
This is showing we do not need them and we have outgrown whatever admin tasks they provide. I know recently the 3 were asked to justify their jobs which has made the finger pointing and back stabbing even worse. Buses seem to come around very often lately and someone is thrown under one at least daily. You sometimes wonder if they are sabotaging things on purpose to set up someone else for failure as they are that devious. Are the mistakes genuine or intentional because you have to start asking these questions at some point.
Still after a little negativity the business is doing very well and we are as always squeaky clean by doing things the right way and will continue to do so without pointing fingers for now. We need their business and no one else will work with their budget so no one is going anywhere.
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