Inbound Damages Process Report
Client: Global leading logistics and storage facility
Brief: Study to determine facility specific processes, pain points and remedies for documenting inbound damages with the intention to transition to a mobile application powered by AI algorithm.
Inbound Damages Research Report
Project: Inbound Damages Research
Research Goals:
Understand Inbound damages processes across facilities
Identify gaps in process
Probe on participant’s overall satisfaction with process as well as any pain points
Gain feedback/expectations on Sunnyvale application
Report qualitative & quantitative feedback
Methodology:
60 minute virtual interviews over Microsoft Teams
Warm Up: 5 minutes
Deep Dive: 25 minutes
Artifact Feedback: 25 minutes
Wrap Up: 5 minutes
Participant Profile:
4 total participants
Inventory control managers, supervisors and technicians
High level understanding of each facility’s unique process and pain points
Overall Findings:
Experience with inbound damages process ranging from 3 months to 15 years
Participants utilized their Inbound Damages Process almost every day with a range of 14-350 cases weekly depending on the age of the process
Half the users have a SWI in place for inbound damages, the other half follow instructions by word of mouth
All participants considered their current process to be effective as long as it was followed accordingly- all participants admitted that steps were often skipped accidentally
“We could use more reliability as far as capturing. Damages can get slid under the bus because people don’t want to do it or they think “I’m not going to break this pallet down because it looks ok”
“The first step (identifying damages) often gets skipped but we’re pretty good at following through with the rest of the process if its identified”Three out of four participants confirmed they have catchweights. All three followed the same process for catchweights as their inbound damaged process. Only one out of three participants weighed pallets, the majority depended on the customer’s product information
“We have a SWI specifically for catchweights but we follow the inbound damages process instead. It's’ easier”The entire inbound damages process takes on average 23 minutes, with the exception of one facility that reported it can take up to 2 hours
“We don’t throw anything away and unloading a truck can take over an hour so damaged cases are just sitting everywhere until we can scan them in and get word back from the customer”Biggest challenges participants faced included:
-No set standards for what constitutes as damaged
-No way to remind workers if steps are skipped
-No SWIs for half of the users
-Input time of damages due to having to wait for a truck to be unloaded before they scan in damaged cases
“Not having a set of standards in place is annoying. What they accept today might be different tomorrow and it slows down the process for us”
“Damages aren’t based on our standards and they’re by word of mouth so it’s inconsistent”Common requests from participants included a process that is more simple in terms of customer standards and time efficient in terms of scanning in damages
Process Followed:
All users utilize the following process with some gaps and altered steps
Visual Inspection of pallet: place pallet on dock pallet, walk 360 degrees around each and visually inspect each pallet for damage (1-2 minutes)
Documentation of damage: Take photo of inbound receiving report to verify which load we are taking photos of, put pallet back on trailer in original spot and take photos of damages cases (repeat process for all damages found on the same load) (2-5 minutes)
Segregate damage and process: Remove damages found on pallet, segregate damage to its own pallet, separate by lot, date code and product, document damaged product number and case count on receiving report (15 minutes)
Prominent gaps:
Half the users (NC & PA) always took photos of damages during the reporting process, the other half only took photos per customer’s request (GA & Olathe)
Most the users relied on Lineage equipment to capture damages, others (GA) used “whatever was available” (oftentimes smartphones) which often got lost in translating through reports
One out of four users captured and reported damages as they were found (NC). The majority waits until the truck is fully unloaded before scanning in and reporting them.
Olathe stores damaged cases in an inventory control room due to long wait times to process damages after truck is unloaded
Application Findings (3 participants tested):
Two out of three participants felt the application was “a little overwhelming” and “highly technical” compared to what they currently utilize (PA & GA)
“There’s too much going on. It might take a lot of effort to transition into”
Two out of three participants felt the application’s process was very different from their current process (lingo, required information to input, order of steps) (PA, GA)
“Reference ID…I don’t know what that is. Scan Debug sounds like a virus”
Two out of three users felt the app would benefit from allowing users to scan multiple damaged cases at once instead of going back to the home screen for each one. (NC & PA)
All users were concerned about the application’s inability to take and upload photos of damages cases
“This is great, it’s user friendly. I think everything is self explanatory. One thing that concerns me is the inability to add photos- that would end up costing us. Customers like to see damages or we end up liable”
Another user mentioned: “Scanning in with the app would be nice if it automatically put you to inbound damages so the product doesn’t get committed before the system realizes its damaged. Everything we do is DC or DE- it would be nice for us to scan it and have it instantly go on a “damage hold”All users were hypothetically open to utilizing the shown application in the future
“I’m open to trying anything as long as it’ll benefit the business”
Recommendations:
Ensure a consistent SWI is followed by each facility (all users who utilized one felt it was crucial to the success of the inbound damages process vs facilities without them felt their performance was lacking)
Implement an alert system or reminder to ensure users aren’t skipping steps
Request photo/written descriptions of customer standards to save time, space and overall frustration
Implement a continuous scan feature for cases to save time, improve usability and overall intuitiveness of the app
Implement the option to upload photos into the mobile application to attach to the report and send off to customers.
