The warehouse lead who refused my inventory count, five years later I get it

Back in 2018 I was doing a cycle count at a distribution hub outside Nashville and this lead, Dale, told me to stop counting the fast movers because his guys already knew the numbers by feel. I argued that the system said 214 units but he just laughed and said the system was off by at least a dozen since Tuesday's rush. He was right, we found 202 after a full recount, and it made me wonder if we over-rely on software over the people who touch the stock daily. So which side are you on, do you trust the data or the crew who works it eight hours a day?

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casey_torres6022d ago

Dale's gut had value, but calling it a full recount when you found 202 versus the 214 in the system is still a 12 unit miss. That's not a small gap on fast movers, that's a whole box or two walking out or getting misplaced. The crew knows the rhythms, sure, but their "by feel" count was still wrong by over 5%. What you really proved is that both sides were off, and the truth landed somewhere in the middle. The system gave a bad starting point, but Dale's guess wasn't the answer either. The real lesson is that nobody should be the final word without a physical check, even if that guy has twenty years on the floor.