FILLING ORDERS
In all large concerns the filling of orders—that is, the assembling of the goods—is done by the stock department. The subject is here discussed in connection with the shipping department for the reason that in many houses all orders are assembled under the direction of the shipping clerk; in others he is also the stock keeper or stores clerk.
This discussion refers more especially to the filling of orders in a jobbing house, or a manufacturing business which carries goods in stock. It does not refer to those manufacturing enterprises whose orders are for goods to be manufactured.
As a rule, all orders of a jobbing house should be filled the day they are received. If they cannot be filled complete, they should be filled as nearly as possible, and missing articles handled as explained later under the subject of Back Orders.
There is a great chance for time saving in most houses in filling orders. In many houses, too little consideration is given to the handling of goods in a manner that will save time in assembling orders. Lack of a logically planned system is responsible for much of the confused and confusing rush in the average shipping room, about the time that orders should be delivered to the transportation companies.
Here is a case in point which came under the observation of the writer. A certain jobbing house, handling drugs and druggists' sundries, occupied a five-story building. On each floor there was a stock room in charge of a stock man, who, with the aid of such helpers as he needed, kept the stock in proper shape, and assembled the goods required from his floor to fill orders.
In the drug business, the average order received from a retailer calls for a large number of articles—it is made up of small items. This is especially true of orders brought in by the traveling salesmen. As a consequence, the larger part of the orders received by this house called for goods from practically every floor.
The custom was to send orders first to the floor farthest from the shipping room—that is, to the fifth floor. The stock man assembled the goods required from his floor, placed them in a basket with the order, and sent them down to the fourth floor. Each order went from floor to floor and finally reached the shipping room—perhaps being held an hour on one floor for a single article because of other orders ahead.
A result of this method was that, in the morning, the stock men on the upper floors were rushed, while those on the lower floors had no orders to fill, except those calling for goods from one floor only. In the afternoon, the conditions were reversed. Then the men on the upper floors had nothing to do but put their stocks in shape; those on the lower floors were busy filling orders. These conditions were not particularly objectionable so far as the stock men were concerned, as they were profitably employed, when not filling orders, in caring for their stocks; but in the shipping room great confusion resulted. Goods required to fill the day's orders did not begin to come into the shipping room until late in the day, and then they came with a rush. Hurried packing resulted in mistakes, caused disputes, and lost good customers.
To overcome the difficulty, a new plan which worked admirably was perfected. A chart was prepared, along the lines of the one shown in Fig. 6. On this chart, a section was set aside for each floor, and in the first column the classes of goods stored on each floor were listed. In the next two columns a few of the articles in each class—enough to serve as a guide—were listed, and the last column showed the floor B, meaning the basement. On this chart, the location of any class of goods could be seen at a glance, and in case of doubt about the class to which an article belonged, reference to the catalogue issued by the firm gave the desired information.
A copy of the chart was given to the order clerk, who entered all orders on a billing typewriter. In entering the order all articles were grouped by floors, starting at the fifth floor. Below the list of articles from each floor a space was left, the first entry for the next floor being on the second line below.
Fig. 6. Floor Chart for the Classification of Stock
Two copies of the order were provided for the use of the shipping clerk. When the orders reached his desk, he cut one copy into parts, as represented by the floors from which goods were to come. After entering the order number on the margin of each, he sent these sections to the stock men. Each man assembled the goods required from his floor and sent them, with his section of the order blank, directly to the shipping room. Here they were checked against the shipping clerk's copy of the order, and, as soon as all sections had been filled, the order was ready for packing. This resulted in distributing the work more evenly, and kept the goods coming regularly to the shipping room.
Another method of accomplishing the same result is to make as many copies of the order as there are floors, the complete order being sent to each stock man, who fills only his part. An advantage of dividing the order sheet, as explained, is that the stock men have no knowledge of the names of customers. This prevents a stock man from taking a list of the firm's customers to another house—an occurrence which is not entirely unknown.
Back Orders. Most concerns find it impossible to fill all orders completely; there are occasional shortages in every house. In such cases, it is the usual custom to fill all orders as nearly as possible, and forward the items that are short as soon as they are in stock, or with a later shipment.
The possibility of these items being overlooked must be provided against, and this is done by entering all items that are short on a new order. This is known as a back order. The back order should be made in duplicate and should be printed on stock of some distinctive color that will not be confused with the regular order blanks. For convenience in filing, it should also be made the same size as the regular orders.
If the number of back orders is very large, a separate series of order numbers is used, but most concerns do not have a sufficient number of such orders to make this necessary. The more usual custom is to give the back order the same number as the original of which it is a part.
Of the two copies of the back order, one goes to the shipping clerk, while the other is kept in the office. The office copy is used to follow up the shipment of the order. It is necessary for the shipping clerk to know immediately when goods required to fill back orders are received. When a separate receiving clerk is employed, the back order is sometimes made in triplicate, one copy for the receiving clerk, who notifies the shipping clerk when the goods arrive.
Fig. 7. Back-Order Blank
When a back order is filled, the shipping clerk returns his copy to the office. Invoices are made in duplicate, one copy being filed as a sales sheet. The two copies of the order are filed with the corresponding copies of the original order. A most satisfactory plan is to file one copy numerically and one alphabetically, making a cross-index. A simple form of back-order blank is shown in Fig. 7.