The causes and prevention measures for misshipment and misdelivery in internal logistics: Explanation of errors, timing, and scope of impact.

Misshipments and misdeliveries in internal logistics occur at various stages such as receipt, storage, picking, and pre-packaging inspection. Not only does this affect operational efficiency, but it also impacts trust from customers, making it a concern for many responsible individuals. This article aims to understand the causes and scope of misshipments and misdeliveries and introduce effective prevention measures. If you are seeking to reduce misshipments and misdeliveries or learn mechanisms to prevent their occurrence, we encourage relevant personnel to read on.

The Causes of Incorrect Shipments and Deliveries

The causes of incorrect shipments and deliveries stem from the lack of standardized procedures and a reliance on manual confirmation systems. Standardization of operations refers to designing tasks that can be efficiently, error-free, safely, and universally performed by anyone, without the need for individual discretion or interpretation.

A manual confirmation system relies on human judgment at various stages of operations, leading to errors such as incorrect items, quantity or count discrepancies, and shipping instruction mistakes. While human errors like incorrect shipments and deliveries cannot be entirely eliminated, it's crucial to implement measures to minimize their occurrence and mitigate associated risks when they do happen.

Failure to address these issues may result in diminished trust from customers and partners, inventory discrepancies, and other problems. Therefore, it's essential to proactively identify the timing and root causes of such errors. In the next section, we will delve into the scope of impact caused by incorrect shipments and deliveries.

The Scope of Impact Caused by Incorrect Shipments and Deliveries

What are the specific impacts caused by incorrect shipments and deliveries? Here, we introduce five specific areas of impact

Decrease in work efficiency

Apologies to the client, handling returns, reshipping the correct items, and verifying inventory discrepancies due to incorrect shipments are additional operations that occur apart from regular tasks. Being occupied with these responses may disrupt normal operations, and it's crucial to promptly identify the cause and implement preventive measures.

Increased logistics costs

The costs associated with handling errors, such as increased labor costs for handling returns and reshipping the correct items, as well as additional shipping expenses, can lead to an increase in overall logistics costs. In some cases, there may also be costs related to order cancellations. Frequent occurrences of shipping errors can have an impact on the overall business operations of a company. Moreover, reducing shipping errors can contribute to cost reduction, making it essential to implement measures to address and mitigate such issues.

The occurrence of inventory discrepancies

When incorrect shipments occur, discrepancies arise between the inventory data and the actual stock, leading to situations where products may be listed as available for order in the data but are actually out of stock. This not only results in stockouts but can also contribute to overstock situations. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate when and where the discrepancies occurred, and to adjust the inventory for the affected products and quantities accordingly. Additionally, managing the costs associated with these corrections and the risk of disposal can lead to various losses, underscoring the importance of considering safety stock to avoid stockouts.

Decrease in trust from business partners

The decrease in trust from buyers can lead to loss of sales opportunities. No matter how good the products being handled are, if there are frequent issues and the necessary items don't arrive when needed, many buyers would hesitate to engage in business. Losing trust with buyers not only affects business relationships but also risks tarnishing the image of one's own brand.

The leakage of personal information

Sending products to the wrong delivery address directly leads to the leakage of personal information. This is a serious issue, especially for e-commerce retailers, and can significantly impact their brand image.

Since real names, addresses, phone numbers, and other personal details may be exposed, there's a risk that users may suffer direct harm, leading to potential lawsuits and other major troubles for the company.

Given the numerous risks involved, it's crucial to investigate the timing and causes of such incidents proactively.

So, specifically, at what stages do incorrect shipments and misdeliveries occur?

The errors and timing that lead to incorrect shipments and misdeliveries

Mistaken items

The most common cause of misshipment is during the picking process, especially for items with a wide range of colors or sizes. Additionally, when product numbers or names are similar, mistakes are more likely to occur, necessitating thorough confirmation procedures.

Occurrence Pattern: Mistakenly picking items such as differences in color or size, or incorrect product numbers.
Timing of Occurrence: From receipt to storage, picking, and pre-packaging inspection.

Mistakes in quantity or unit count.

Pattern of occurrence: Delivering the wrong quantity of the received goods compared to the purchased quantity.
Timing of occurrence: Miscounting, incorrect units, pre-packaging inspection.

Shipping instruction error

When issuing shipping instructions based on order information, errors may occur, especially when manually inputting the order information.
Occurrence Pattern: Delivery to a different destination than intended
Timing of Occurrence: Incorrect placement of shipping labels, errors in handwritten invoices.

Countermeasures for Incorrect Shipments and Deliveries

As long as manual labor is involved, human errors such as incorrect shipments and deliveries cannot be completely eliminated. Therefore, efforts to deal with these occurrences and reduce associated risks are crucial. Here, we introduce some measures to address these issues.

Systematization and thorough adherence to manuals

It is important to thoroughly establish a state where human errors do not occur, or if they do, their impact is minimized. This entails rigorous adherence to procedures such as thorough inbound processes and location management, creation of operational manuals, and ensuring adequate workspace.

Minimizing human resources through system implementation

By implementing a system, the potential for human error is minimized to the greatest extent possible, and regardless of the skill level of employees, anyone can perform picking tasks without making mistakes.

To address the challenges of internal logistics errors in shipping and receiving, LOGITO offers solutions.

The main cause of shipping and receiving errors is the human confirmation process. Errors tend to occur frequently when decisions are made by humans. Neglecting these errors can lead to a loss of trust from customers or partners, leakage of personal information, discrepancies with inventory data, and the generation of unnecessary costs. It is essential to investigate the timing and causes of these errors preemptively. LOGITO offers tailored solutions to customers facing such challenges.

Below, 'The Biggest Challenges and Solutions in Internal Logistics at Factories' provides detailed solutions for various logistics issues. If you are interested in reducing shipping and receiving errors or understanding how to implement error-free processes, we encourage relevant personnel to review it.