warehouseoperations
shoot for perfection
Aiming to deliver the perfect order?
It all starts with knowing what it is.
FOR MANY PEOPLE, IT’S NOT CHRISTMAS WITHOUT
watching “A Christmas Story,” a movie about a
nine-year-old boy named Ralphie who goes
to great lengths to make sure Santa brings
him a BB gun for Christmas. And not just any
BB gun. What Ralphie wants is a Red Ryder
Carbine-Action, 200-Shot Range Model BB gun
with a compass in the stock and a thing that tells
time (a sundial in the stock of the gun).
Ralphie’s story is likely to carry
some resonance for supply chain
professionals. In many ways, it
captures the essential challenges
of order fulfillment—understanding
the customer’s expectations, meeting
those expectations, and measuring customer satisfaction.
It’s clear from the start what it will take for the supplier (Santa) to satisfy his customer (Ralphie). Santa has to
make sure the order arrives complete—for example, he
can’t forget “the compass in the stock and a thing that tells
time.” He has to deliver it on Christmas morning. And he
has to see that the gun comes undamaged and with the
instructions (documentation) included.
In the language of order fulfillment, what Ralphie’s looking
for is the classic “perfect order”—one that arrives on time, complete, and damage free, with the correct documentation and invoice
(if applicable). Santa’s challenge is to make sure his execution of that
order is flawless.
Nothing less than perfection
But how can Santa tell if he’s performing to expectations? One way would be to calculate the order’s score on the Warehousing Education and Research Council’s
(WERC) Perfect Order Index (POI). To calculate a POI score, you simply multiply the
four key “perfect order” metrics together: percentage delivered on time × percentage
shipped complete × percentage shipped damage free × percentage shipped with correct documentation.
