A rejected pallet and a phone call from the haulier
The driver rings from the depot. Two pallets have been refused because the date code does not leave enough days on the product for that customer. The haulier wants to know whether to bring them back, the customer service team wants to know what to tell the buyer, and the warehouse insists they picked the oldest stock first, which is exactly the problem.
Oldest first is sensible for most customers. It is wrong for the one whose depot rule is stricter than anyone else's.
Why first-in, first-out is not enough
The date codes themselves are set by your technical team. The despatch problem is simpler and more annoying: every customer has a different rule for how much of that life must remain on arrival, and the warehouse is picking without it in front of them.
- Minimum life rules differ by customer and sometimes by product.
- The rules are in trading agreements that the warehouse never sees.
- Stock sheets show quantities by product, not by date code.
- Transit time to each depot eats into the remaining life before arrival.
- Pickers under pressure take whatever pallet is nearest the door.
What rejections cost
Return haulage, redelivery, and a fine or charge from some customers. Stock that has come back is harder to sell. The customer's service level drops, which matters at the next review. And the office spends the afternoon on the phone arranging a replacement load.
Separately, stock that could have gone to a less strict customer ends up being written off because it was never allocated in time.
Despatch checks we build
- Each customer's minimum life on receipt is recorded, by product where it varies, from your trading terms. Your team maintains the list.
- Finished stock is booked into the warehouse with its date code, by scan or tablet entry at the end of the line.
- When orders are allocated, the system works out the latest acceptable date code for each order line, allowing for the transit days to that depot.
- Pick lists tell the picker which date code to take, and the scan at loading refuses a pallet that would fail that customer's rule.
- Stock that no longer meets any strict customer's rule is highlighted early, so sales can offer it to customers who will accept it.
- Rejections that still happen are logged with the reason, so the rules can be checked against what depots are actually doing.
| Check | When |
|---|---|
| Minimum life per customer | At order allocation |
| Transit days to depot | At order allocation |
| Date code on the pallet | At pick and at loading |
| Stock running out of saleable life | Daily list for sales |
A calmer loading bay
Pickers get told which pallet to take rather than guessing. The loading scan catches mistakes while the pallet is still on your dock. Sales hear about stock that needs moving while there is still time to move it. And customer services stop spending afternoons rebooking rejected loads.
The rejection log also gives you something to take back to customers. If a depot refuses stock that met the rule on paper, you have the date code, the despatch time and the agreed rule side by side, which makes a disputed charge much easier to argue.
Is this happening to you?
- Loads have been refused at depots for short life.
- Pickers do not know each customer's life rules.
- Stock records show quantity but not date code.
- Stock is written off that another customer would have taken.