ImagesMagUK_February_2022

www.images-magazine.com FEBRUARY 2022 images 71 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT This issue can become exaggerated if there is any delay in getting the orders into the system, or when the receiving team doesn’t know that the order is in the system and they can process it. That uncertainty doesn’t move the ship date. It only compresses the amount of time that you have to process the order. Here’s what to do: Have an area for the NIS orders. Sometimes it may be empty, sometimes it is full. Do not be tempted to use that empty area for anything other than NIS orders. Create a shared Google Doc that your customer service, sales, and receiving teams can all access simultaneously. Go to this link for a template you can use: imagesmag.uk/UFOtemplate. I like Google Docs as they can be updated live with information, and they are saved automatically. Get your teams to check this spreadsheet several times a day. This is both to update the spreadsheet with information, and to be cognisant of what is going on. If the purchase order is entered into the system and an order is created, then the spreadsheet is updated with that info so the receiving team can process the goods for the order. You can hide or filter all rows that have been processed (do not delete) to show only unprocessed work. Make a new worksheet for each year. Once the order is in the system, then the inventory can be received properly, following the department’s procedures. If you need help creating a better receiving department workflow, read my article here: imagesmag.uk/ upgradeyourreceivingdept. The goal is to reduce the time delay in processing the backlog of inventory that should be allocated for jobs. Often production is waiting for inventory, when in fact it has been sitting in your shop for over a week because nobody has touched it yet. A better workflow and more stringent communication are how this critical production date challenge is resolved. Inventory – partial shipments Another critical production date challenge facing almost every shop is the issue with partially received orders. Pre-Covid, the garments would come in usually one or two shipments at the most. Now, because of supply chain and freight problems, it is not uncommon for the inventory for orders to arrive in four or five shipments from two or more apparel distributors. Whether your shop is a retail-facing business, contract, or a mixture, you are dealing with this challenge right now. Receiving teams are now having to spend more time processing work than ever before. Instead of ‘touching’ the inventory once or twice per order, it is not uncommon for your team to increase the work needed to properly count and receive the goods for an order by four or five times. This means delays. Which could be backing up your production. Here’s what to do: For starters, add more team members to the department. As they say, many hands make light work. Assess the daily workload that your team is struggling with. How could one or more additional team members help with that? What could they be doing? And yes, again… this is why you need to raise your prices [see the ‘Raise your prices’, page 64, Images December 2021 issue]. Also, consider increasing the area of your partial inventory staging section. Because of the supply chain challenges, I’ll bet you have more partial orders than ever before. When it takes a few deliveries to get all of the inventory, you need to be able to keep what you have in one place, all together. It should be easily accessible instantly by your receiving team, so you want it right by their work area. Section off by rows, and use the last digit of the work order number to segregate the boxes. Print a label for each box to easily identify it, and use a fat marker and draw a big ‘P’ on the label to indicate that it is a partial. When all of the goods show up, reprint a clean label and paste it over the old one. Then move the fully received item to the production staging area. Inventory – goods not here If there is one thing that production needs more than anything, it is the inventory for the work. Without the garments, there isn’t anything they can print, embroider, or heat press on. You are essentially stuck and dead in the water. Here’s what to do: First, ascertain whether this is a true condition. That’s why having a great-working NIS or partial workflow that is highly accurate matters. There is nothing worse than ramping up the drama for an order and stating to the customer that you don’t have the Marshall Atkinson is a production and efficiency expert for the decorated apparel industry, and the owner of Atkinson Consulting and co-founder of Shirt Lab, a sales and marketing education company, with Tom Rauen. He focuses on operational efficiency, continuous improvement, workflow strategy, business planning, employee motivation, management and sustainability. www.atkinsontshirt.com inventory, only to learn by the tracking number that the goods have been sitting on your floor for a week. I hear this complaint from shop owners constantly. If the goods truly are not in the building, then you need a few options. This can be divided into two lines of thought: partial orders and zero inventory orders. Let’s take a look. Partial orders – goods not here Let’s say there is an order for 500 shirts. All but 36 mediums are in the building. You have a few choices: ■ Wait until 100% of the inventory is in. Move the production date out. It really helps if you have the freight tracking information on the missing pieces. ■ Cancel the 36 mediums from the order. This will make what has been received change to 100% complete. You now may produce the order. Return or refuse the shipment of the 36 pieces when they arrive. ■ Split the order into two orders. One for 454 pieces and the other for 36 pieces. That is two separate scheduled production events. ■ Use 36 mediums of a similar style and colour that you have in inventory or can source faster than what you are waiting on. Many shops keep floor stock in popular colours and styles for this reason. Be proactive The best thing you can do is be proactively looking ahead on your orders and make decisions. One scenario is actually to make these decisions with your customer at the time of sale. “Inventory is weird right now, what should we do?” is a conversation I would be having with customers. Get instructions upfront, especially on critical orders. This will help you untie the knot later without the drama. And remember, have your customer service or sales team on top of this – not your production or receiving teams. Next issue, Marshall discusses how getting on top of art challenges, shop organisation, production effectiveness, and production scheduling can help you hit your production deadlines.