Speeding up a recount: golden rules

"Do the recount faster" sounds risky, because a fast count is often an inaccurate one. In truth the time is saved not in the counting itself but around it. A share of every hour goes not on counting goods but on walking, asking questions, waiting for answers and copying figures onto paper. The rules below cut exactly those "extra" minutes and leave accuracy alone.

Where the time goes

First measure your own. In one zone, time the work and split it into five parts: counting, walking and searching, questions and waiting, writing, corrections. For example, in a 60-minute zone there might be 30 minutes of counting, 12 of walking, 10 of questions and waiting, 5 of writing and 3 of corrections. These figures are illustrative; yours will differ. Do not be surprised if the counting itself takes only about half the time: the rest is work around it. To speed up, narrow that part first. Pick the biggest loss and start with that one rule alone: changing everything at once only confuses the team.

Count in blocks and write it down at once

Goods stacked evenly should be counted not piece by piece but by multiplying: the number in the front row times the depth, and if there are several tiers, times the height as well. Example: cooking oil in 1-litre bottles. The front row has 9 bottles and the depth is 4 rows: 9 × 4 = 36. At the side a started row holds 5 more, 41 in all. The method has one condition: check the depth once by looking into the back rows, then apply it to the whole shelf. Where goods lie in a jumble (mixed boxes, spilled stock) the block method does not work: gather the goods first, then count. Laying small items out in fives or tens also reduces mistakes. The block method has a risk too: if the back of a shelf is empty, multiplying gives phantom units, so check every third or fourth shelf by counting piece by piece.

See it once, write it down at once. Holding a number in your head and writing it down at another shelf is the easiest road to error. Write the figure next to the goods. If a position has a barcode, a scanner removes the time spent writing and the mistakes of retyping. Goods with no code are better written on a paper sheet: keying them into a scanner by hand takes longer.

The question log

One of the biggest losses is when a counter stops for every question while the coordinator runs around looking for them. Change the routine: when a question arises, the counter sticks a marker on the shelf, notes it briefly in the remarks column and carries on. Every 30 to 40 minutes the coordinator walks the zone and settles all the questions in one pass. The questions themselves become fewer if rules for typical cases are agreed beforehand: a damaged pack goes on the "defective" row, an opened box gets a row of its own, goods without a code go on a special list. Write these rules on one page and hang it in every zone.

Route, pair and hourly check

Fix a route inside the zone in advance, for example left to right and top to bottom, and let everyone follow it. If one person counts aloud while the other writes, work goes faster and with fewer mistakes, because two pairs of eyes are involved at once. Everything needed on the way (a pen, a spare sheet, a stepladder) should be with the counter.

The biggest gain comes from an hourly check. Each hour the coordinator compares progress with the plan: how many zones are finished, how many remain. Suppose eight zones must be done by 12:00. If by 10:00 only three are finished, the pair that has just finished goes straight to the lagging zone. Reassigning free hands in good time is usually the most effective speed-up there is.

What you must not sacrifice for speed

When people hurry, three things are cut first: recounting positions with differences, breaks and the check before a zone is closed. These are precisely what keep quality up. When planning, set aside separate time for the recount, otherwise it will be dropped with "we ran out of time". A break is no enemy of speed either: a tired person makes more mistakes, and finding a mistake costs more than counting.

Conclusion

A recount is sped up not by running but by cutting walking, waiting and rewriting. The Pereuchet team splits zones between pairs and works in parallel, uses scanners and always recounts a position with a difference, so speed is not bought at the price of accuracy.