A call-off you cannot fill
A customer's buyer emails at 3pm asking for four pallets of their shipper cases tomorrow. Under the agreement you make a large run and hold the stock, and they call it off as needed. The spreadsheet says there are six pallets left. The warehouse finds three, because two went out last week on a despatch nobody entered, and one was damaged by a forklift and scrapped.
Now you need an urgent production run, which means disrupting the schedule, ordering board at short notice and explaining to the customer why their held stock was not what they thought.
Held stock is nobody's system
Make and hold stock belongs to an odd category. It is finished goods sitting in your warehouse, often already invoiced or partly invoiced, reserved for one customer, and released in small amounts over months. MIS systems handle it with varying success, so many plants fall back on a spreadsheet kept by customer service.
- Call-offs arrive by email, phone and the customer's purchase orders.
- Despatches are not always deducted from the spreadsheet.
- Damaged or quarantined pallets are not recorded.
- Stock is counted in pallets by some people and units by others.
- Nobody plans the next run until stock is almost gone.
When held stock is wrong
A missed call-off disrupts the customer's packing line, which is the most damaging thing a packaging supplier can do. Emergency runs cost more and push other customers' jobs back. Old stock sits for long periods and risks becoming obsolete when artwork changes, and the question of who pays for it becomes a dispute. And customer service spends much of the day answering "how much have we got left?"
Call-off stock control we build
- Each customer's held stock is recorded by product, pallet, quantity and warehouse location, with pallet labels scanned at put away.
- Call-offs come through one route: a customer portal, a dedicated email that is parsed into a call-off, or EDI for larger customers.
- Despatches deduct stock by scanned pallet, and part pallets are recorded properly.
- Damaged, quarantined or scrapped pallets are recorded with a reason, and the customer's available stock updates.
- A reorder level is set per product from the agreement and the customer's call-off rate, and the planner is warned in time to schedule the next run, including board lead time.
- Customers can see their own held stock and call-off history in the portal, and get a notice when stock falls below the agreed level.
- Stock that has not moved for a period you set is listed for review against the agreement.
| Moment | Now | With call-off control |
|---|---|---|
| Call-off arrives | Email to customer service | One route, recorded |
| Despatch | Spreadsheet updated, sometimes | Pallets scanned out |
| Pallet damaged | Not recorded | Removed with reason |
| Stock running low | Found at call-off | Planner warned in time |
| Customer asks what is left | Phone call | Portal view |
Held stock that is always right
Call-offs are filled because the stock is where the system says. The next run is planned with time to spare, not rushed. Customers answer their own questions about stock levels. And slow moving stock is raised while there is still time to talk about it, rather than when an artwork change makes it worthless.
Is make and hold causing you trouble?
- Held stock is tracked on a spreadsheet.
- You have been unable to fill a call-off you thought you could.
- Customers ring to ask how much stock is left.
- Emergency runs are needed because nobody saw stock falling.
- Obsolete held stock has become a dispute with a customer.