{
  "id": 10883369,
  "title": "Our System Said the Stock Was on the Shelf and the Shelf Was Empty",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/30/our-system-said-the-stock-was-on-the-shelf-and-the-shelf-was-empty",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-09-30T07:06:34.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dev.to",
    "slug": "dev-to",
    "url": "https://dev.to/serguey_shinder_4ab9b87b1/our-system-said-the-stock-was-on-the-shelf-and-the-shelf-was-empty-1pmo"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The warehouse system kept track of what items should be in each location at every depot. When a picker found a location empty, they pressed a \"short\" button on their handheld device. This caused the order to proceed without that item, resulting in a credit note for the customer. In the previous year, short picks caused the company to lose around £400,000 in credits and orders. Previously, these short picks were seen as a discipline issue within the warehouse.\n\nHowever, the data showed that short picks did not alter the stock levels the system held for that location. The button merely indicated that the picker found nothing, and the system continued to believe the stock was present. As a result, multiple pickers were sent to the same empty location repeatedly, causing inefficiencies.\n\nFurther investigation revealed that certain locations experienced a short pick every day for over a month. Despite replenishment efforts, the system did not replenish these locations because it believed they were fully stocked. The displayed quantity was not a real-time count but rather the last count plus any receipts scanned, minus any picks scanned. Unscanned movements, such as damaged cases thrown away, pallets moved to clear aisles, or mispicks that received the wrong product, created discrepancies that were not corrected until the annual stock take.\n\nAt the company's largest depot, one out of every seven locations held a different quantity than the system indicated. Consequently, the handling of short picks has changed. Now, when a short pick is detected, the location is put on hold, a counter is sent to investigate, and the stock is adjusted to the actual count. Locations are now monitored continuously, with a cycle that prioritizes areas with frequent short picks and fast-moving products, instead of conducting a single audit at the beginning of the year. Each adjustment made is accompanied by a reason code, which is reviewed weekly with depot managers. This proactive approach led to the discovery that most discrepancies stemmed from two habits during goods-in processes.\n\nAs a result of these changes, short picks have been roughly halved. The annual stock take, previously taking three days, is now planned to be completed in just one day. The system maintains a running balance and displays it as if it had been physically counted. Pickers, replenishment staff, and buyers were all relying on inaccurate arithmetic, unaware that somebody had double-checked the figures.",
  "summary": "Our warehouse system knows, for every location in every depot, what is supposed to be there. When a picker arrives at a location and finds it empty, the handheld offers a button marked short. The picker presses it and the order line goes out without that item. The customer gets a credit note. Last year short picks cost us a little under four hundred thousand pounds in credits and lost orders, and…",
  "key_points": [
    "Short picks caused £400,000 in credits and orders loss last year.",
    "System believed stock was present despite empty locations.",
    "Changes reduced short picks by roughly half and shortened stock take."
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}