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A ruled shoulder: one heavy rule over three lighter ones CLEAN SWEEP SUPPLY LTD

Cleaning consumables, janitorial equipment and a scheduled building clean · 71–75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ

The standing order sheet · Picking and handover

How an order is picked, checked and handed over

An order is picked off the sheet in the order a round is walked, checked against the lines it was written from, and handed over against a count that both sides can read.

Picking, in the order the round is walked

The sheet is picked in group order, which is the order the round is walked: washroom, floors, surfaces, waste. Picking in sheet order rather than in shelf order costs a few more steps in the stockroom and saves the round being re-sorted at the building, where there is no bench to sort it on.

  1. Read the line, then find the shelf. Not the other way round. A pick that starts from the shelf finds what is there rather than what was ordered, and the two are not always the same thing.
  2. Take whole packs where the line allows. A whole pack is countable at the door by somebody who was not at the pick, which a loose handful is not.
  3. Break an outer only where the round needs part of it. The remainder goes back to the shelf marked with what is left, so the next count does not read it as full.
  4. Hang the equipment against its note. Frame, buckets and cloth set go on by unit number, read off the unit rather than copied from the last note.

Checking before it leaves

The check before a consignment leaves is the same check that is made when it lands, done by a different person. Two independent counts of the same thing are worth more than one careful one, because the ways a count goes wrong are usually particular to the person making it.

The count is made against the written line, in the pack the line names. A count made in a different pack to the one ordered is the commonest way a delivery goes short while everybody involved is doing their job properly.

Seals are looked at here rather than at the door, where there is more to do and less light. A drum with a broken cap seal does not go on the vehicle.

Handover at the door

Handover is a reading-back, not a signature. The packs are counted whole in front of whoever is receiving them, the sizes are read off the packs against what the building has fitted, and the equipment numbers are read back against the note. All four of those are written on the same row as the line they belong to.

  • Counts Whole packs, counted in the pack the line names, against the line as written on the sheet.
  • Sizes Sleeve against dispenser, sack against bin, head against frame. Read off the pack, because the pack is where the size is stated.
  • Condition Seals intact and nothing damaged. What goes back on the vehicle is written on the row it came from.
  • Numbers Equipment read back by unit number against the note, with condition beside the number.

What goes back goes back the same day, on the same row, with the reason written against it. A shortage recorded at the door is corrected on the next cycle for that line, and the correction is visible on the sheet rather than handled as a separate conversation.

The four checks that close a handover are set out on the standing order sheet. Orders and enquiries are taken by email at orders@cleansweepsupply.store.