How often do you utter a phrase like the following? "If only Receiving would enter these in the computer the way we enter them, we wouldn't have all these problems."
Perhaps nobody has ever showed Receiving (or at least not the current crew) how to enter them at all. How are they supposed to know that for some vendors Purchasing considers a case of 12 to actually be a quantity of 1 in the computer, but for other vendors a case of 12 represents a quantity of 12? Also, spending some time in Receiving would allow Purchasing professionals to see how things are handled when the deliveries are made. This could give you insight on how a vendor should package or send items for maximum handling efficiency in your facility.
Your own job will be easier if you don't have to handle problem calls either. Go spend a day in Accounting and find out exactly how an invoice is processed through the system. You'll learn how to label things on a purchase order so they will make sense to Accounting when those same phrases show up on invoices. Find out how to indicate that certain PO's (such as printing services) will have tolerance levels that Accounting should accept without checking with you first.
By the way, there are no shortcuts here. Simply writing these things down for other departments or having meetings won’t cut it. You need to go spend some time actually working side by side the other people as they do their jobs. Bonuses for the day you work in Receiving: you'll get to wear jeans and you can probably use the exercise!
» Switch Jobs for a Day - Part 1 from PurchaseRealm
How often has this idea come up at staff meeting? "What we should really do is have some people switch jobs for day from different departments, then they could see what we really go through all day!" This is often... [Read More]
Tracked on: February 27, 2006 8:10 PM | Permalink to Trackback