Sheet 02 · goods in

Receiving: the bench, the hold pen and the discrepancy line

A case is only as good as the count that let it in. This sheet runs from a vehicle arriving on the bay to a location being written against a case code, and every shortage missed here becomes a short pick later.

The line that closes in · 02

Booking-in record · one line

Slotbooked, vehicle as booked
Pallets offcounted on the bay
Case figurenote, order record and bench agree
Conditionwrap sound, no shifted tier
Locationwritten back against the case code

Clear to pick

Receiving is four jobs in a fixed order and they are not run in parallel: unload, count, decide, put away. The next pallet is not lifted off until the one on the floor has a figure written against it.

The line that stays open out · 02

Discrepancy line · one line

Openedtime written at the bench
Kindshort, over, damaged or mislabelled
Countedthe figure found, not the figure due
Standinghold pen, inside the tape
Locationnone, and none until it closes

Not clear to pick

Despatch reads one thing off this sheet: whether a case code is clear to pick. A code with an open line is not clear, whatever the stock figure says, and the pick face carries no stock for it until the line closes.

One bench, two outcomes, no third

03

Three figures at the bench

Every inbound pallet is counted on the bay before it is broken down, and three figures are put side by side. Where the three agree the pallet is booked in; where any one disagrees the pallet goes to the hold pen by the left-hand door and a line is opened.

The three figures, where each comes from and what it is afterwards worth
The figure	Where it comes from	What despatch gets from it
Delivery note01	Printed by the supplier and travelling with the vehicle.	Nothing on its own. It is the claim, not the count.
Order record02	Held in the office from the day the order was placed.	The figure a shortage is carried against if one is agreed.
Bench count03	Counted by hand on the bench, pallet on the floor.	The figure the pick list is built from, so a short location is a real problem and not a bookkeeping one.
Inner count04	Read off the case marking, never inferred from the range.	A case holding a different inner count is a specification query, not a counting error, and is written as one.

Cases are counted, not weighed. A pallet counted on the bay is a pallet that never has to be counted again.

04

Four discrepancy lines

A discrepancy line names the fault and the action in the same entry. Four kinds are used and they are never merged into one another.

IN 04

The four kinds

Short: Fewer cases than the note. Counted figure recorded, note signed short, pallet held.
Over: More cases than the note. Surplus segregated in the pen, not put away.
Damaged: Crushed corner, wet board, popped tape or a shifted tier. Each case set aside whole.
Mislabelled: Case marking disagrees with the contents or the inner count. Pallet held entire, not case by case.

Written at the bench, with the time, as the fault is found.

OUT 04

The three closes

Confirmed: The supplier confirms the figure and the pallet is booked in as counted.
Carried: The pallet is booked in short and the shortage carried on the order record.
Refused: The pallet is staged for collection, wrap and all, and leaves as it arrived.
Never: Quietly adjusted so the paperwork balances.

Until one of the first three is written, the code stays unpickable.

The hold pen is a taped floor area, not a shelf, so held stock cannot be mistaken for pick stock by anyone walking past. A pallet in the pen keeps its own cut wrap folded under it, because the state the goods arrived in is part of the evidence.

05

The booking-in record

One record per vehicle, written as the work happens rather than at the end of the day. The four jobs run in this order and the record is written across them, not after them.

Unload

Slot reference, and the vehicle that turned up against the one booked.
Count

Pallets off, condition of each, case code and counted case figure.
Decide

Booked in, or a discrepancy line with the time it was opened.
Put away

The location written back against the case code.

01 → 02 · what is written

The fields are fixed and they are written in the order the jobs happen, so a half-finished record reads as a half-finished vehicle rather than as a mistake. Nothing is filled in from memory at the end of a shift.

03 → 04 · what is read

The location field is the one despatch uses. A case code with no location against it has not been put away, however plainly it is standing in the unit, and it will not appear on a pick list. This is deliberate: a picker should never be sent to find something by looking for it.

Records are kept as described on the records sheet. How a received case is then specified, racked and rotated is on the cases and pallets sheet and the racking sheet.