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Our warehouse manager quit without notice and we found his system was all in his head

This happened at our main distribution center in Phoenix about six months ago. He'd been there for 12 years and ran the whole picking and packing operation. When he left, we realized he had zero written procedures. The new guy took three weeks just to figure out the basic flow, and our shipping times went from 2 days to 5 days. We lost nearly $15,000 in late fees that month alone. Now we're scrambling to document every single step, from receiving to loading docks. How do you even start to rebuild processes when the only expert is gone?
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2 Comments
the_elizabeth
Actually, some operations run better without all the paperwork. A good manager who knows the system inside out can adapt on the fly, something a binder full of rules can never do. Writing everything down just slows people down and creates more problems than it solves. That new guy would have figured it out faster if he’d just been allowed to learn by doing instead of hunting for some perfect written procedure.
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drew_coleman7
Wait, you're saying the new guy should just... wing it?
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