Glossary
Short ship
A short ship is an order that leaves the building with less than it asked for. The good version records what was found, why, and what happens to the rest. The bad version is a number that quietly disagrees with the packing list.
What it is
A short ship is the moment the warehouse admits the shelf disagreed with the system, and ships anyway. The order asked for twelve, the picker found nine, and nine go out. What separates a well-run warehouse from a messy one is what gets written down in that moment.
Why it matters
Short ships are where inventory records go wrong silently. If the picker cannot record “found nine, three missing, bin empty”, one of two things happens: the order waits forever, or someone adjusts a number somewhere to make the task close. Both hide the fact. Recording the shortage with a reason turns it into a task for the counter and a truthful message for the customer.
A worked example
A pick task lists 12 units of a stainless water bottle in a pick face. The picker finds 9. They confirm 9, mark 3 short with the reason “bin empty”, and the task completes. The pack station packs 9. The order ships 9 with the shortage on its record. The empty bin goes to the cycle count list, and the count either finds the 3 somewhere else or writes them off with a reason and a name.
How DockingWare does it
DockingWare names shortages at allocation and keeps picking, packing and shipping on one ledger, so a shipped quantity is always a movement row and never an edited total. The pack bench verifies every line by exact scan before a box can close, so a lookalike cannot ship in place of the missing unit. A pick line that cannot be found is closed short from the floor with a reason, and the packing bench has the same close for a line missing from the tote or damaged in hand. The remainder goes back to available stock and the shortage stays named on the order.
Questions
- When does a short ship happen?
- At pick or at pack: the bin is empty, the unit is damaged, the last case is short a few pieces. The picker found less than the task expected and the order ships anyway with what there is.
- What should the record say?
- Quantity picked, quantity short, a reason, who, and when. Then what happens to the remainder: cancelled, backordered, or reallocated. A short ship without a reason is a discrepancy waiting for a cycle count.
- Does a short ship change inventory?
- The shipped units leave the ledger. The short units are a signal, not a movement: the system thought they were there and the floor says otherwise. That gap is what a cycle count resolves.