Logistics Officers
Verify and maintain records of incoming and outgoing goods in warehouses and distribution centres, and prepare goods for dispatch.
Friday at the dispatch board
You are a logistics officer at a distribution centre, on the last Friday before a long weekend, with trucks both arriving and leaving. It is 2pm. The last outgoing truck must leave at 4. Two deliveries are still on the dock, one picker is away sick, and the supervisor is on the phone to a customer.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
I have six more stops after this and I am already behind. The docket says twelve cartons of tea. Sign here and I am gone. You do not need to count them, I have never short-changed you.
Count every carton against the docket, and note anything that is off
It takes five minutes. One carton is crushed and noted on the docket. Wes grumbles, then thanks you for keeping the blame off him.
Sign it, because you can always raise a claim later if something is wrong
Weeks later the shortage turns up in stocktake, and with a clean signature on the docket, the supplier will not accept the claim.
Count only the top row, since the rest look the same as usual deliveries
The top row is fine, but you cannot say the whole delivery was checked. A partial count gives you less to stand on if something is missing.
The customer's truck is here for order 77 and it is all wrapped. I just noticed one carton is split at the corner. It is only the outside, the stuff inside looks fine. Can we just send it?
Send it, because it is only the outer carton and the truck is waiting
The customer receives a split carton and refuses the whole order line. You spend Monday sorting out a return that was avoidable.
Send everything except that carton and tell the customer it will follow
The customer gets most of their order and fair warning. It helps, but a replacement carton was available in stock if someone had looked for it.
Hold it, swap it from stock and fix the record before the truck goes
It costs ten minutes, and the order leaves complete and in good order. The record matches what is on the truck.
Quick favour. The orders staged in bay 4 will not leave until Monday, but if you mark them dispatched today, this month's figures look much better. They are basically gone anyway.
Mark them dispatched, because they are packed and nothing will change
On Monday a customer rings asking where their order is, and the system says it left on Friday. The records no longer tell the truth, and you cannot fix that quietly.
Say no, keep the status as it is, and suggest he talks to the supervisor
Gareth is annoyed but accepts it. Records that show what really happened are the whole point of the job.
Mark only half of them dispatched, so the change is not so obvious
You compromised, but half a false record is still a false record. You made the problem harder to find later.
How it went
The last truck left at five to four with matching paperwork, and the bay 4 orders were honestly shown as waiting. Logistics officers are the people whose records everyone else trusts, so small checks matter. Do you like the idea of being the person who makes sure things are what they say they are?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: Twenty pallets on the docket, nineteen on the truck
A fictional case set in the receiving and dispatch docks of a fictional regional distribution centre.
The situation
Mei Ling was the logistics officer on the receiving dock at Bluegum Distribution when a truck from a supplier backed in just before the afternoon break. The delivery docket listed twenty pallets of tinned goods. The driver was due at another stop and held out the pen, saying it was all there and he had counted on the way. Mei Ling's first look made the load seem right, but the stack on the left looked a bit low.
What they did
She asked the driver to wait ten minutes, counted each pallet against the docket and found nineteen. She wrote the shortfall on the docket before signing, took a photo of the load and told her supervisor. Then she emailed the supplier with the docket number and the photo. The driver was irritated, but he checked his truck and confirmed nothing had been left on board.
How it turned out
The supplier found the missing pallet had been left at its own warehouse and sent it the next day. Because the shortfall was recorded at the dock, nobody argued about it. The driver later said he had been caught out before by sites that signed for everything.
What would you do?
- How would you handle a driver who is running late and wants a quick signature?
- Why does it matter that the shortage was written down at the time?
- What would you like or dislike about counting and checking all day?