'[He was] trying to count thousands of boxes before the deadline': Factory CFO changes inventory schedule, factory stops shipping orders while employees are overwhelmed with the task

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Dec 7, 2023 3:00 PM EST

Who knew a factory could have so many moving parts? Apparently the factory's own CFO was not informed of how his own company worked. Yikes. 

One of those CFO's employees told the story of the time all of the employees were impacted by changes their manager made. They all worked at a food packing plant, and though u/batkevn doesn't specify which product they made, their job was ordering jars and other packaging for the food. They share that their job was pretty straightforward… until the CFO decided to go changing things. 

This is common with managers who aren't sure how to lead. They decide to try new things, and their word is final. So what if the employees push back? This boss only had time to do what he felt was the best decision, and he certainly paid the price. His employees were the ones stuck cleaning up his mess. I'm sure all of the overtime was terrible for morale (and the OP even notes that a bunch of people called out of work or took their vacations in the aftermath). 

Scroll down to read through the story and comments. After that, these people shared their ultimate moments of cringe that are still haunting them decades later, like the kid who was so excited to dress up for Halloween at school, just to realize they had gotten the date wrong and were the only one dressed up. 

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  • 01
    CFO changes the cycle count policy. Chaos ensues. LOC I used to work for a major food packing company. There is a good chance you have one of their products in your cupboards or fridge. This particular MC was not performed by myself, but I had a front row seat and even felt some of the pain from the result.
    via u/batkevn
  • 02
    My job was purchasing for production, which was all of the ingredients to make the product. Another purchaser was in charge of packaging (jars, mostly) along with labels and shipping boxes. Then there was the warehouse who are responsible for everything that enters or leaves the facility. These three positions are the only ones required to do cycle counts (Debbie in accounting isn't counting reams of paper and boxes of
    via u/batkevn
  • 03
    paperclips) which were generated by by accounting and sent to us two days before they are due. We all fell under the CFO and because we all dealt with items that generated profits/loss, we had to do weekly, monthly, and annual cycle counts. Mine were fairly easy: 6 items per week, 15 per month, and everything annually. I'm fairly sure it was similar for packaging as well. And for mine, most of my stuff was fresh ingredients, so it would already be in production so I had nothing to count.
    via u/batkevn
  • 04
    The warehouse, on the other hand, had a much more simplified schedule: nothing weekly or monthly, 3 items per quarter, and half of the inventory annually. They would also get their inventory lists 2-3 weeks before the due date. This was all intentional because the amount that they had to count was insane and it would be lucky if they had two people at a time to count. One single item could take a week on its own because of the sheer volume and the fact that product was coming and going constantl
    via u/batkevn
  • 05
    CFO explains that they have noticed a loss trend occurring, so they wanted us to increase our cycle counts. For me and packaging, everything basically doubled: weekly and monthly doubled, we now had a semi-annual half inventory count, and annually remained the same. It sucked, but was manageable. Then the warehouse was politely ordered to sit on a rusty knife. Still no weekly counts, but now had monthly with 5 items, quarterly doubled, added semi-annually with 10 items, and annual was bumped up
    via u/batkevn
  • 06
    CFO: Any questions? Ty, trying to gather his thoughts: This is, umm... A lot. CFO: I'm aware it is an increase, but this is the best way to get the data we need to figure out where the losses are occurring and take action.
    via u/batkevn
  • 07
    Ty: Are you going to hire anybody else for the warehouse to help? CFO: We do not have any plans to. Ty: Can we get a scanner or something? This is going to take a significant amount of time to complete and will cause issues.
    via u/batkevn
  • 08
    CFO: Let's go by this new plan, and we will reevaluate in a few months. Ty had a defeated look and just said, "Okay." My next couple of counts took me a little longer, but nothing I couldn't handle. Then came the week of our first monthly with the new rules, and I was missing a pretty significant amount of a couple of items and found they should have been delivered that week,
    via u/batkevn
  • 09
    confirmed by the company I ordered from. I went to talk to Ty and found him deep in the warehouse (where he shouldn't need to be as he mostly scheduled trucking to distributors) and on a pile of product trying to count thousands of boxes before the deadline. He was sweating like crazy and after I explained my issue he explained they were behind on incoming packages and it could be there. I told him I'd take a look and if I found them I'll input it into the system and get him what he needs. I fou
    via u/batkevn
  • 10
    shown got a lot bigger, but the CFO said to stay the course. The warehouse had accumulated a significant amount of overtime and now outgoing shipments were being delayed. The semi-annual arrived and we nearly had to shut down the whole plant because the warehouse wasn't getting anything out, but production never slowed, so we were running out of space to store anything. They pulled almost everybody from their office to help with the count, so almost nothing else was getting done. Me and the pack
    via u/batkevn
  • 11
    the previous month. The day after the counts were due, a few people called in sick and many scheduled vacation around when they knew the annual was going to happen. A slow and painful death was preferable. Pretty much everybody in the plant was off complaining to every manager they could.
    via u/batkevn
  • 12
    Within a week the CFO instructed the warehouse that they were going back to their previous schedule and requirements (me and packaging kept the new rules, which, whatever) and life returned to normal. I don't know what the full damage was or how things were going forward because I walked out one day in another MC story, but I hope the warehouse is happy.
    via u/batkevn
  • 13
    Electrical-Image4513 While it's true that your analytics are only as good as your data accuracy, your productivity is also only as good as the tools and resources the business provides within the budget they have. It's not a win-win but glad some of the folks doing the heavy lifting didn't end up with the brunt of the pain!
    via u/Electrical-Image4513
  • 14
    OutrageousYak5868 This probably also cost the company well over double of what they were losing in the first place, what with paying so many people overtime plus so many areas falling behind. (I'm thinking closer to 10x the amount, but am being conservative here.) Sometimes the juice isn't worth the squeeze.
    via u/OutrageousYak5868
  • 15
    OP, if you have any idea on how much it cost, especially in relation to what the lost or missing stock cost, please let me know, and update the story for us numbers nerds.
    via u/OutrageousYak5868
  • 16
    Effective-Ladder9459 At my previous job, I was hired as as Inventory/QC. No one had ever done a single cycle count in the entirety of the organization. It took me 9.5 months to do it. Never again.
    via u/Effective-Ladder9459
  • 17
    Cybermals I hope someday to hear the MC of why you walked out. ↑ 17 Reply Share batkevn OP It is a really long story, but I'll try to get it out in the next day or two and let you know. I think I started writing it up a while back, so I'm going to search for that first.
    via u/Cybermals

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CFO chaos malicious compliance packing malicious-compliance-reddit food warehouse malicious compliance reddit
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