Between the roll that comes in and the piece that goes out, metres went missing. Nobody knew where — and what you do not measure always ends up with the same name: human error.
The starting point
Stock, purchasing and sales support were handled by hand. The material loss existed and was known — it showed up at the end, as the gap between what should have come out and what did.
What did not exist was a location. With no count along the circuit, the available explanation was always the same: someone made a mistake. That is an explanation you cannot fix, because it points nowhere.
What was built
- Stock agentTracks what comes in, what is consumed and what goes out — not a monthly inventory, a number that exists at any moment.
- PurchasingOrders prepared from real consumption instead of the spec sheet estimate.
- Sales supportWhat there is, where it is and what is missing, available to whoever is talking to the customer.
- Counting along the circuitFrom the roll to the production order to the cut. The same material counted at each point it passes through.
The design decision that matters: the system does not decide. It counts at every step and flags when a number drifts from expected. Changing the spec sheet, switching supplier or stopping a cut stays with the people on the floor — now with a number in front of them.
What showed up once they counted
- Production orders consuming above planThe order pulls more metres than the spec says. Now visible while it happens, not at month end.
- Rolls with less metreage than the label declaresFrom one specific supplier. The gap between what was written and what was measured on arrival.
- Cuts that go wrongThey happen in any factory. The change is knowing how many, where, and how much material they take.
The second one was the surprise, and it is what makes this case different from the other two. The loss being blamed on the factory started before it: it came in through the door.
No amount of internal training would have found this. You only find it by measuring in and out inside the same system — which is why the counting is worth more than the automation itself.
Where it stands today
The loss stopped being "human error" and gained a cause, a location and a number. Each of the three origins is now a separate problem, with an owner and a decision that can be made.
At one of the measured points the identified deviation was 1.8%. Measurement is still running; we will update this case once there is a closed comparison.
What we still do not know
There is still no total of material recovered and no closed comparison against last year.
