A warehouse for the customer: what 'quality' means

The warehouse report says: "99 percent of orders were dispatched the same day". The customer rings that same day: "I was sent the wrong item". Both are right, because they measure different things. The warehouse counts "I dispatched it" as quality; the customer counts "I received it and it is all correct". The customer judges quality with their own eyes, so measurement should start from their side.

Four measures through the customer's eyes

When accepting an order the customer looks at four things:

1. Completeness: did all the lines arrive, in full quantity?
2. Accuracy: was it exactly the item requested, the right model, colour and batch?
3. Timeliness: did it arrive on the promised day (or in the promised time window)?
4. Condition and documents: are the goods undamaged, the packaging clean, the invoice and delivery note correct?

If any one fails, the customer regards the order as bad. The indicator that combines all four is the share of perfect orders, the product of the four factors.

An example, with illustrative figures. Completeness 98 percent, accuracy 97, timeliness 96, condition and documents 99. Taken separately, each looks excellent. But 0.98 × 0.97 × 0.96 × 0.99 is about 0.903: 90.3 percent of orders are perfect, which means one in every ten has a problem. At 600 orders a day that is about 58 problem orders. So do not look at the separate indicators but at the overall result.

The method is simple: in the week's list of orders mark as "problem" any order where at least one of the four conditions failed. Perfect share = (total − problem) / total. Counting at order level is more accurate than multiplying four percentages, because one order can carry several errors at once.

The gap between internal and external measures

In many warehouses measurement ends at the door: "picked", "dispatched". For the customer the count starts at "received". The difference looks like this:

• the warehouse says "dispatched on time", while the customer counts a delivery delay as the warehouse's quality too;
• the warehouse says "no picking errors", while the customer got the wrong model because the packaging carries a different label;
• the warehouse says "complete", while the customer sees a different price on the invoice.

The simplest way: take the measurement from the point where the customer receives the order, using data on returns, complaints and the delivery service.

Priorities also change with the type of customer. For a shop or distributor, completeness, documents and an exact delivery window matter. For a Telegram shop or an online buyer, speed, the state of the packaging and exactly the item ordered matter. Instead of one general "quality" goal, write a goal that suits each customer group.

Speed of response to a complaint is part of quality too. A customer may forgive a mistake but will not forgive indifference. Set response times, for example: confirm receipt of the complaint the same day, and give a solution within three working days: replacement, a follow-up delivery or a refund.

The complaint: the cheapest audit

Record every complaint in one place: date, order, item code, shift, type of complaint. Once a week make a list by type: usually three or four causes produce most of the complaints.

An example, hypothetical. 40 complaints a month: 14 wrong item, 11 short delivery, 8 damaged, 5 late, 2 document errors. The first two types account for 25 complaints, about 63 percent. If you look into the wrong items, most come from two similar-looking products stored side by side. The remedy: move them to separate locations and add a distinguishing mark to the label. Removing the cause costs far less than looking for someone to blame.

Building quality in from the start

Inspection finds an error; order prevents it. Practical steps:

• extra scanning or a second check for items with frequent errors;
• a comparison with the order at the packing point, with a photo if needed;
• a realistic dispatch time: promise what the warehouse can deliver in 95 percent of cases;
• a separate agreement with the delivery service, and allowance for its delays.

Conclusion

For the customer quality means an order that arrives complete, correct, on time and intact, however good the internal indicators look. The OmborExpert specialists can help calculate the share of perfect orders, find the causes of complaints and draw up a corrective plan.