Post by Eslia on Jun 14, 2023 20:05:00 GMT -5
Essi had been waiting for her new aerial hoop for hours now. She wanted to consider herself a patient person but the person that said they were going to pick up her order had just disappeared into the back. Yes she wanted her hoop but by this point she was worried the person could've fallen. She paced for a few more minutes before she cracked under pressure.
Opening the door to the back room she looked around before tentatively stepping inside. It looked, well it looked a mess. It looked like random things were thrown on random shelves and tables. Nothing seemed organized but who was she to question a business's methods. She called out as she nervously walked around.
"Hello? Sir? Are you in here? Is everything okay?"
Eslia turned the corner and nearly ran into the man who was rushing back. He looked a little sheepish and apologized.
"So sorry it's taking a while, I'm having trouble finding your order."
Sighing with relief that the person hadn't fallen victim to a fall accident Essi looked around her again. Nothing about the item's organization had changed the further back she had gone. Looking for the man she pointed to his clipboard.
"What information do you have there? Are items sorted by buyer?"
That was the only sorting method she could think that would cause this much assumed chaos. The man scrunched up his face that was laden with embarrassment.
"Um, this just has all the shelves I already checked. We don't really... sort."
Essi stood there dumbfounded as the man showed her his clipboard. They didn't sort anything? She found herself struggling to process the information. How were they ordering new supplies or materials? How were they even shipping orders? How could they properly give time estimates for their products to be finished? Trying to figure out the best way to go about this she scrunched her nose. Essi's aim wasn't to shame anyone but she couldn't leave them in this state.
"Are you the owner?"
The man quickly shook his head and explained it was his father's shop though he took over most of the processes recently as his father was getting older. However the back had always been a bit, messy. She nodded along and when he was done she took the clip board ripping away the old paper so a crisp clean one was up top.
"I'll tell you what. This is going to take a while.. I'll help you organize this place, and set a system in place so it doesn't go back to this. I only ask you to pay me what I would've gotten at my gig. I'm going to have to cancel cause I don't have all my equipment anyway. If it takes more than one day I'll take payment in the way of provided meals."
Smiling brightly she began by going out front and closing up shop. The man hadn't answered but he figured it couldn't be much worse than it already was. Together they separated out all of their products. Essi found in this metal workshop they made a foundation product they then offered different styles, colors, and accessories. After talking extensively with Chuck, the man, Essi settled on a really simple sku system. The hope was that if Chuck's dad came back to work when he was feeling well he'd only need to look at signs and have a key card to find any product in the shop. Materials for product making would remain the same so they didn't have to fight muscle memory when producing.
The sku started with a letter S/M/L for a small medium or large. Then was followed by the first 3 letters of the base name for the product. Like Hoo for hoop or Hin for hinge, if two products started with the same 3 letters like bracket and bracelet the three letters would have a corresponding number so they wouldn't get confused. After that it was just one letter of ole Roy G. Biv to identify color. If any additional customization was done the end of the sku was a 0.
Now they had a way to keep track of their overall inventory on paper they applied it to the shelving units. Each unit was a different base product for ease of storage solution usage tote/box size etc. Y axis shelves were marked S/M/L and and X axis shelves were lined with bins labeled with skus going in alphabetical order according to product name and secondary organization within bins were by color. Sku's ending in 0 and their own dedicated bins within their respective units, also organized by color. One half of the back was for back stock and the other was for sold items. Though the same organization was applied the only difference was each purchased item had a marked tag of what order number it was. Different color highlighter on the tag indicated if it was already paid for or if it was going to be paid upon pickup.
All in all the work took a little less than 3 days. They made little changes to the paper inventory as needed and made organizational changes with the shelves as needed for space and logistics. The day everything was finished Essi was sent on her way with a lifetime warranty on her hoop and as many leftovers as she could carry. She'd never come up with any system like it before but she felt pride in what she had done even more so seeing how happy Chuck and his family were.
Opening the door to the back room she looked around before tentatively stepping inside. It looked, well it looked a mess. It looked like random things were thrown on random shelves and tables. Nothing seemed organized but who was she to question a business's methods. She called out as she nervously walked around.
"Hello? Sir? Are you in here? Is everything okay?"
Eslia turned the corner and nearly ran into the man who was rushing back. He looked a little sheepish and apologized.
"So sorry it's taking a while, I'm having trouble finding your order."
Sighing with relief that the person hadn't fallen victim to a fall accident Essi looked around her again. Nothing about the item's organization had changed the further back she had gone. Looking for the man she pointed to his clipboard.
"What information do you have there? Are items sorted by buyer?"
That was the only sorting method she could think that would cause this much assumed chaos. The man scrunched up his face that was laden with embarrassment.
"Um, this just has all the shelves I already checked. We don't really... sort."
Essi stood there dumbfounded as the man showed her his clipboard. They didn't sort anything? She found herself struggling to process the information. How were they ordering new supplies or materials? How were they even shipping orders? How could they properly give time estimates for their products to be finished? Trying to figure out the best way to go about this she scrunched her nose. Essi's aim wasn't to shame anyone but she couldn't leave them in this state.
"Are you the owner?"
The man quickly shook his head and explained it was his father's shop though he took over most of the processes recently as his father was getting older. However the back had always been a bit, messy. She nodded along and when he was done she took the clip board ripping away the old paper so a crisp clean one was up top.
"I'll tell you what. This is going to take a while.. I'll help you organize this place, and set a system in place so it doesn't go back to this. I only ask you to pay me what I would've gotten at my gig. I'm going to have to cancel cause I don't have all my equipment anyway. If it takes more than one day I'll take payment in the way of provided meals."
Smiling brightly she began by going out front and closing up shop. The man hadn't answered but he figured it couldn't be much worse than it already was. Together they separated out all of their products. Essi found in this metal workshop they made a foundation product they then offered different styles, colors, and accessories. After talking extensively with Chuck, the man, Essi settled on a really simple sku system. The hope was that if Chuck's dad came back to work when he was feeling well he'd only need to look at signs and have a key card to find any product in the shop. Materials for product making would remain the same so they didn't have to fight muscle memory when producing.
The sku started with a letter S/M/L for a small medium or large. Then was followed by the first 3 letters of the base name for the product. Like Hoo for hoop or Hin for hinge, if two products started with the same 3 letters like bracket and bracelet the three letters would have a corresponding number so they wouldn't get confused. After that it was just one letter of ole Roy G. Biv to identify color. If any additional customization was done the end of the sku was a 0.
Now they had a way to keep track of their overall inventory on paper they applied it to the shelving units. Each unit was a different base product for ease of storage solution usage tote/box size etc. Y axis shelves were marked S/M/L and and X axis shelves were lined with bins labeled with skus going in alphabetical order according to product name and secondary organization within bins were by color. Sku's ending in 0 and their own dedicated bins within their respective units, also organized by color. One half of the back was for back stock and the other was for sold items. Though the same organization was applied the only difference was each purchased item had a marked tag of what order number it was. Different color highlighter on the tag indicated if it was already paid for or if it was going to be paid upon pickup.
All in all the work took a little less than 3 days. They made little changes to the paper inventory as needed and made organizational changes with the shelves as needed for space and logistics. The day everything was finished Essi was sent on her way with a lifetime warranty on her hoop and as many leftovers as she could carry. She'd never come up with any system like it before but she felt pride in what she had done even more so seeing how happy Chuck and his family were.
