Fishbone Friday: Product Damage in the Warehouse

Product damage in the warehouse, let’s talk about it.

Welcome supply chain leaders, to the first edition of Fishbone Friday! Fishbone Friday will be weekly deep-dive into the issues that are keeping YOU up at night and causing unnecessary waste in your distribution operations. For this deep-dive, we’ll be utilizing a fishbone diagram, also known as an Ishikawa cause-and-effect diagram. This diagram is a popular and proven method of root-cause analysis, typically focusing on six categories within a business or, in your case, a distribution center: people, equipment, process, environment, management, and, last but certainly not least, tools.

Fishbone diagrams are great brainstorming tools when trying to isolate the root cause of a recurring problem. For an operator, busy dealing with the typical day-to-day, it’s easy to apply superficial fixes to problems as they arise; however, these superficial fixes usually do little to solve the root cause of the problems, allowing them to surface again and again.

To all of our readers, we will not only be offering our own root cause analysis of each problem we discuss, but we will also provide you with a downloadable PDF templates so that you and your team can have your own brainstorming sessions!

Let’s begin with our first topic: Product damage within large multi-SKU retail order environments. This is a growing issue due to the ever increasing complexity of the average retail distribution environment, causing unnecessary product waste, safety concerns, reduced customer service level and an increase in overall shipping costs.

Sign up for our newsletter – on the right of your screen for desktop and on the bottom if you’re viewing from a mobile device – to receive your own fishbone brainstorming template, along with some additional helpful resources.

Also, check out how you can address product damage, and reduce waste in other areas of your operation, with the SKUStream Fulfillment Optimization System.