How We Solved a Major Inventory Error: A Work-Study Department Case Study

Situation: During a recent inventory check by our work-study department, the five managers noticed a significant increase in errors for the current month. After investigating the issue, it was discovered that incorrect amounts were being collected by employees, which resulted in larger errors.

Task: After the inventory check, I analyzed the situation and realized that the introduction of three new products this month might have caused the error due to lack of proper training for the employees. I immediately shared this problem with the managers and together we came up with the following action plan:

• Conduct an employee training session to emphasize the importance of matching prices with products, followed by a one-week assessment period to evaluate their accounting skills.
• Create a manager rotation schedule during peak traffic times to ensure supervision during those periods.
• Implement a shadowing system where employees who fail to remember product prices must shadow a colleague for two hours for three days as punishment.
• Plan a staff dinner to improve team cohesion, and I asked for employee input to determine the location and time.

Through the implementation of these four solutions, our error rate returned to normal levels by the second month. We realized the importance of training employees and I summarized the content of the training session for future use. We also agreed to limit the introduction of new products to a maximum of two per month to avoid overwhelming employees.