Eliminating Shipping Errors

I get a lot of comments & specific mail asking how Alice & I manage to keep orders virtually error free, so I thought I'd put together a quick overview here. Who knows, maybe it'll help someone else. When we first started shipping we were spending a great deal of time in checking & double-checking each order. Actually, we had 3 sheets for each order... a pull sheet, a double-check sheet & a packing sheet check list as each item of an order went into the package. We alternated going over the orders because we found that double-checking yourself would sometimes end up with you making the same error a second time... something like watching a whodunit for the second time & making the same plot errors as you made in the first viewing even though you had seen the ending once. The thing that has freed up time & helped us the most was something rigged up for an entirely different reason. We had quite a few new & used monitors left in stock when I retired & I was hesitant to sell them due to shipping issues, so I called the PO & asked about shipping them & if they were insurable. I was told to protect them well & to take pics of different stages of the packing as proof of prudent packaging in the event that something was broken in shipping. I asked about video taping the packaging as proof & was told that was an excellent idea & that I shouldn't have any trouble with a claim as long as it showed the packing was sufficient. Well... I had an old Sony camcorder that I used by hand for the first few shipped, but that was awkward & required both of us... sometimes even needing to enlist an unsuspecting third party. To make this easier I mounted the camcorder on the ceiling looking over the shipping table. This worked much better. Somehow, I got carried away & hooked up an old Packard Bell PC that had a TV card & a nice video capture program... just a toy after the monitors were all shipped. The grandchildren watching themselves on the screen & wanting snapshots which I moved to this PC via floppy disk after capturing & printed out for them :-) Then one day I decided to just run the setup during the day while getting packages ready & in just watching the tape... a boring event...I noticed that it was easy to get the parts put in a wrong package since they were sitting side by side on the shipping table separated by supermarket conveyor belt dividers. That was enough for me to change over to using bins & keeping them far enough apart to prevent this. I said to Alice that this would be a good way to check things if it wasn't such a boring job that consumed so much time. She, being the smart one of the duo, said you can always run it everyday & when someone reports a mistake just look at the tape of that day to see if you can see what happened. Hmmmm... good idea! Well... I rigged it up on an AC adaptor & put a VCR in line, so that I didn't have to deal with loading the camcorder. Then I got a case of blank RCA video tapes when they were having a give-away sale & started popping one in at the start of every day to see if this would be beneficial. I was about to give up after 30 days & not needing to even check one out, when I got a missing complaint. Yea! I looked up the day the order was packaged & pulled the tape. It wasn't as easy as I thought to get to the right order as I had to keep fast forwarding to each one trying to match up goods & had some close ones where I'd have to view the whole packaging before discovering it wasn't the right order, but persistence does pay off & I found the right one. As I was watching it I knew positively that it was the right order because I found the missing part & plugged yet another shipping error possibility. We had a tall slender trash can beside the shipping table, but lower than the table & positioned so that half of the opening was under the table. What happened was that another part being dragged as it was picked up to place in the shipping box had brushed up against the AWOL part & shoved it just enough to drop right into the trash can totally unseen, or unheard, since all the peel off adhesive covers are thrown in there :-( [Note: To eliminate this I put a chute in the table that extended above the surface, so that you have to physically pick up a piece of trash to toss it into the can now under the table.] The tapes were instrumental in finding & eliminating any faults we had in handling the shipping... and neither of us wanted to be caught on the tape making an error, another plus... and in a couple instances found parts on the receiving end after viewing the tape for the exact location in the package. It is seldom needed anymore & still boring to view, but I got lucky in having a daughter who likes to find things on the tape :-) I have changed it around several more times over the years & have it where it is basic & simple now. A JVC camcorder lowered off the ceiling to just over the packaging table... I tried PC cams, security cameras & other methods, but the camcorder seems to be the clearest & easiest for us to use. The TV/VCR combo allows me to look over Alice's shoulder during the packaging operation as it is being taped... another handy convenience :-) The zoom allows us to get up close on items that have been combined into a single bag, such as placing a G07 HOT inside the G07 cap kit bag. With the camcorder pointing straight down it can zoom in close enough to read the fine print on a coin. The JVC has a remote control which comes in real handy when using the zoom. As you see above, the remote is sealed in a plastic bag. I do this with all remotes & usually when the device it controls is totally worn out the remote is still as new when removed from the plastic. While this helped to clean up any shipping errors caused by environmental influences, the good old double-check system still has to be implemented to take care of those human errors. Fortunately, or unfortunately, we've had 5 total mistakes this year between us... with one having more than the other... not mentioning any names :-() Being a perfectionist makes me a little uneasy with that many mistakes, but I'm learning to live with it. Did I say just a quick synopsis at the beginning of this?? As usual, many hours of rambling over nothing! I'm getting too old :-( I just hope one person will glean some small tip from these ramblings. Happy Gaming..... PostScript: It's not my fault! If you don't want to know the answer, don't ask me :-)