Warehouse Fixes £400k Stock Error Problem by Treating Short Picks as Live Audits
A UK warehouse operation was losing nearly £400,000 annually in credits and lost orders due to persistent stock discrepancies between its inventory system and physical shelf contents. The system maintained a running balance calculated from scans rather than actual counts, meaning unscanned movements — such as damaged stock disposal or misplaced pallets — were never corrected until the annual stocktake. At the largest depot, one in seven locations held a quantity that differed from the system's recorded figure, with some empty locations generating daily short picks for over a month while replenishment never refilled them. The team redesigned their process so that a short pick now triggers an immediate location hold and a physical count within the hour, with continuous cycle counting prioritising high-risk and fast-moving locations. As a result, short picks have roughly halved and the annual stocktake has been reduced from three days to one.
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