Quality Management Issues of Shipping and Receiving
Quality Management Issues of Shipping and Receiving
GM588 Managing Quality, Michelle Gardner
October 16, 2011
Introduction
Professional Flooring Supply (PFS) is a wholesale distributor of flooring installation supplies and sundries. PFS currently has 15 branches located in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah and Idaho. Each of these locations serves as a distribution point for resale customers as well as a retail store front for flooring installers. PFS was founded in 1977 with a location in Houston and in Fort Worth Texas. The company remained fairly small until 2005 when they began expanding rapidly. PFS in the past has always used a hub and spoke model when it come to distribution of inventory. The majority of the inventory will be shipped into the Central Distribution Center (CDC) and once a week the other branches will drive their delivery trucks to CDC to swap inventory. This inventory is used for stock items as well as special orders for customers. This system worked quite well until PFS grew past the geographical limits to make this possible. This has led to a number of issues that are occurring in the shipping and receiving department. This area of the company is vital because it insures that our customers are getting the materials they need in a timely basis. This has to be the main focus of a supplies distribution company. Some of the areas where issues are occurring are: items not shipped to customers on time, inventory not received and located in a timely manner, incorrect inventory quantities resulting in lost sales.
Problem
The first area of concern is when customers are not receiving there ordered purchases on time. Our customers have jobs they are trying to complete and base the completion of these jobs on when we can deliver materials to them. If there is a snag on our part in the delivery of those goods then this in turn causes our customers to look bad to their customers. These problems can occur in a number of
GM588 Managing Quality, Michelle Gardner
October 16, 2011
Introduction
Professional Flooring Supply (PFS) is a wholesale distributor of flooring installation supplies and sundries. PFS currently has 15 branches located in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah and Idaho. Each of these locations serves as a distribution point for resale customers as well as a retail store front for flooring installers. PFS was founded in 1977 with a location in Houston and in Fort Worth Texas. The company remained fairly small until 2005 when they began expanding rapidly. PFS in the past has always used a hub and spoke model when it come to distribution of inventory. The majority of the inventory will be shipped into the Central Distribution Center (CDC) and once a week the other branches will drive their delivery trucks to CDC to swap inventory. This inventory is used for stock items as well as special orders for customers. This system worked quite well until PFS grew past the geographical limits to make this possible. This has led to a number of issues that are occurring in the shipping and receiving department. This area of the company is vital because it insures that our customers are getting the materials they need in a timely basis. This has to be the main focus of a supplies distribution company. Some of the areas where issues are occurring are: items not shipped to customers on time, inventory not received and located in a timely manner, incorrect inventory quantities resulting in lost sales.
Problem
The first area of concern is when customers are not receiving there ordered purchases on time. Our customers have jobs they are trying to complete and base the completion of these jobs on when we can deliver materials to them. If there is a snag on our part in the delivery of those goods then this in turn causes our customers to look bad to their customers. These problems can occur in a number of
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