Marking rolls, pallets and cartons so every unit can be counted

What decides the speed of a count is usually not the person counting but what is written on the thing being counted. A roll with a readable label is passed in a few seconds; an unlabelled roll must be opened and measured. If three different shades are mixed on a pallet, the pallet has to be emptied. This article explains what should be written where, so that rolls, pallets and cartons are ready to be counted.

Product code and unit number are different things

A label answers two separate questions:

• What is this? Product code, name, lot, colour or shade. A hundred rolls of the same fabric share one code.
• Which one is it? The number of one physical unit: roll number, pallet number, carton sequence. Each of the hundred rolls carries a different number.

With a product code alone, a count is nothing more than a total of pieces. With a unit number as well, each unit can be matched to its line in the record, which shows which one is missing.

What to write

Minimum content by product group:

• Fabric roll: product code, lot, colour code, roll number, metres and kg, date;
• Ceramic pallet: product code, lot, shade and calibre, number of cartons, m², pallet number;
• Furniture carton: model, fabric or colour code, set code, carton sequence (for example 2/4);
• Box of trims and small parts: product code, quantity in the box, rack or location code.

An illustrative roll label might read: KMS-214 · Poplin blue · P-17 · Roll T-000123 · 150 m · 24.8 kg net · received 12.03. That single line carries everything the counter needs.

The label should give the counter the information without looking at any other document. The product code must be written exactly as it is in the records; an abbreviated name or one translated into another language makes it harder to match the count sheet.

Position, durability and barcode

• The label always goes in the same place on every unit (on the face of the roll, for example), so the counter does not have to hunt for it.
• The pallet label goes on two side faces; if one face is against the wall it cannot be read.
• In a dusty or damp environment choose a durable material; a label that fades or tears off is the same as no label.
• Unit numbers are issued in sequence and never repeat (T-000123, for instance). The same number on two units makes a count look as if "the same roll was counted twice".
• Plain text is always included so that a person can read it. The barcode goes beside it; even without a scanner the number can be written on the count sheet.

Split pallets and relabelling

When cartons are taken from a pallet and sold, the pallet label becomes wrong. The rule has to be simple: the old label of the split unit is struck through and a new one showing the remaining quantity is put on. If an old and a new label stay side by side, the count may read them as two different pallets. The same rule applies to an opened carton and a cut roll. If the old label is struck through with a date and signature, you can also trace who made the change and when.

Labelling before the count

The counting cost of unlabelled units can be seen in advance. An illustrative case: a warehouse of 600 rolls where 90 have no label. If measuring each takes 3 minutes on average, 90 × 3 = 270 minutes, or 4.5 hours for one person. If these rolls are measured and labelled once before the count, most of that cost disappears from every later count.

For labelled rolls reading time is far shorter; say 20 seconds in this illustration. 510 labelled rolls × 20 seconds = 170 minutes, plus 270 minutes for the 90 unlabelled ones, comes to 440 minutes (about 7.3 hours). If every roll were labelled, 600 × 20 seconds = 200 minutes would be enough, so labelling alone saves 4 hours. Do not leave labelling to count day.

In short

A label speeds up the count and shows which unit is missing. In its labels, barcodes and records service StockSystem reduces mixed or duplicate items found during the count to a single code and applies barcodes and labels where needed.