Conditions, and what breaches themThe last column of every row
The storage column on the specification sheet is the last field in every row, and it is the field that decides which bay a line can go in. It is written as a condition and not as a preference, so it can be met or breached and nothing in between.
This page sets out how each of the five conditions is checked, what counts as a breach, and what is written down when one is found. The planner further down dates a batch against the residual life a buyer has asked for.
The bay, drawn, with the five checks pinned on it
| Pin | Condition | Checked by | A breach looks like |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stack height | Reading the crush limit printed on the outer | Cases bowed in the middle of a stack, or a tube line found with split seams |
| 2 | Segregation | Walking the level against the bay card | An aerosol or lacquer pallet standing in general racking |
| 3 | Off the floor | Looking under the lowest beam | A carton stood on the slab, which wicks and loses the flute |
| 4 | Flammables cage | Checking the cage is signed, closed and clear of heat | The cage used as overflow for anything that will fit in it |
| 5 | Ambient range | Reading the bay thermometer on the round | A reading outside the range in the row, taken next to the door |
Pin 5 is read next to the roller door rather than in the middle of the floor, because the door is where the range is lost. A bay that holds at the centre on a frosty morning can sit several degrees lower a metre inside an uninsulated shutter, and a line whose row says it must not freeze is a line that cannot stand in that metre.
What temperature actually does to each format
| Ref | Format | Outside the range |
|---|---|---|
| W1 | Water-based emulsion in a bottle | Separates once frozen and does not come back together, so the unit is unfit however it looks when it thaws |
| W2 | Stick | Softens and takes the shape of whatever it was packed against |
| W3 | Aerosol can | Is a pressure vessel, which is why the row gives it a ceiling and the cage keeps it off heat |
| W4 | Corrugated outer | Loses stiffness as it takes up damp, and the stack above it loses its support |
| W5 | Printed carton | Cockles, so a unit that is perfectly sound is no longer presentable on a facing |
W5 is the one that surprises people. A breach does not have to spoil the goods to cost the line its facing: a cockled carton on the front of a bay is pulled by the first filler who sees it, and a pallet of them is a pallet that can only be sold where the outer is never opened in front of a shopper.
Dating a batch against a residual-life figure
Storage and dating are the same question asked twice. A condition kept for two years is what makes the stated shelf life mean anything, and the stated shelf life is what turns a date of manufacture into the two dates a stockroom works to: the durability date, and the last day the batch may leave the bay and still arrive with the life the buyer asked for.
A batch that falls the wrong side of that second date is not scrap. It is stock with a shorter window, held in the short-dated bay with its date on the bay card, and offered where a shorter residual figure has been stated. Keeping it in the main racking is what turns it into scrap, because it gets picked against an order it cannot satisfy and comes back.
What is written down when a condition is breached
| Field | Entry | |
|---|---|---|
| B1 | When it was found | Date and the round it was found on, not the date it was written up |
| B2 | What was affected | Line reference and batch, and the quantity at the level it was counted in |
| B3 | Which condition | The pin number from the table above, so the note matches the check |
| B4 | Where it went | Withdrawal bay, short-dated bay, or back into racking with a reason |
| B5 | What changed after | The bay, the stack height or the row itself, if the row asked for the impossible |
B5 is there because a condition that is breached repeatedly in the same bay is usually a specification problem rather than a discipline problem. If a row asks for a ceiling the only available bay cannot hold in August, the honest fix is to change the bay or stop accepting the line, and the note is where that becomes visible.