Parts packed at three, still on the bench at five
The batch has passed final inspection and is boxed. Now the office has to type the delivery note, fill in the certificate of conformity with the customer's PO number, part number, revision and quantity, print the customer's own labels with their barcode format, dig out the material and anodising certificates, and put it all together.
The courier arrives at half four and leaves at twenty to five. The paperwork is not ready. The parts go tomorrow, and the customer's receiving team logs them as late.
Why dispatch is a paperwork bottleneck
Every customer wants something slightly different. One wants the C of C signed by a named person, another wants their own label with a specific barcode, a third wants the cert pack as a single PDF emailed before the parts arrive. The details live in someone's memory or a sticky note on the monitor.
- Delivery notes and C of Cs are typed from the job and the PO.
- Customer specific requirements are not recorded against the customer.
- Labels are made in a word processor or a separate label program.
- Certificates from goods in and outside processing are found by hand.
- Part shipments against the same order line are tracked on paper.
The cost of slow or wrong paperwork
Missed collections and late deliveries on parts that were ready. Rejections at the customer's goods in for missing certificates, wrong revision on the C of C, or labels their scanner cannot read. Invoices held until the paperwork is corrected. A typing error on a C of C, the document where you state the parts conform, is a bad place to make one.
The dispatch process we build
- Each customer has a dispatch profile: C of C format and wording, who may sign it, label format and barcode, packaging notes, certificate requirements and where to email documents.
- When a job is marked ready to ship, the tool pulls the PO number, line, part number, revision, quantity, batch and material batch from the job record. Nothing is retyped.
- It checks the job against the customer's requirements: final inspection passed, material certificate present, outside processing certificates present, FAI done if required. Gaps block the dispatch and are listed.
- The delivery note, C of C and labels are produced together. The authorised person approves the C of C on screen.
- The cert pack is assembled into one PDF in the order the customer wants.
- When the carrier collects, the documents are emailed to the customer with the tracking reference, and part shipments are recorded against the order line.
| Document | Built from |
|---|---|
| Delivery note | Job, PO line and quantity shipped |
| Certificate of conformity | Job record plus the customer's wording |
| Customer labels | Customer label format and part data |
| Material certificates | Goods in record for the batches used |
| Process certificates | Outside processing returns |
What changes at the dispatch bench
Paperwork is ready when the parts are, because it is produced from records that already exist. Missing certificates are caught at the dispatch check, while there is still time to chase them, rather than at the customer's goods in. New staff can dispatch for any customer because the requirements are in the profile, not in someone's head.
Invoicing can follow straight after dispatch, with the delivery note number and quantities matching exactly.
When a customer queries a delivery months later, the full set of documents that went with it is stored against the job: which C of C was signed, by whom, with which certificates attached. That is quicker to produce than a reprint, and it shows exactly what the customer received.
Is dispatch paperwork slowing your deliveries?
- C of Cs are typed by hand.
- Parts miss collections waiting for paperwork.
- Customers have rejected deliveries for document errors.
- Customer label requirements live on a sticky note.
- Cert packs are assembled from several folders.