Where part of the order goes missing

When a bag was missing, the rule was clear.

The driver had to tell the Team Leader. The trolley had to stay inside its designated zone until the problem was solved. And chilled and frozen products had to be scanned inside their temperature-controlled zones.

That rule says something the report does not. A missing bag is often found at the ramp, during loading. In other words, long before the order reaches the customer.

In How we worked with damage I wrote that a percentage has no address. The same is true of Incomplete, with one important difference: here there is a moment when the problem can still be stopped.

What I have and what I do not

In practice, I understood Incomplete as an order that did not reach the customer complete. I do not know the official formula or the exact counting rules.

I have these figures on record. In April 2025, Incomplete was 1.18% against a 0.8% target. In a June 2025 report it was 0.63%, with 13 cases.

The figures are real, but on their own they do not prove which measures brought the change. I do not present that change as the result of my work.

I do not know exactly how an incomplete order was recorded: from a customer complaint, from the driver's report or from another check, and in which system. I do not know which problem happened most often. And I do not have a documented case where an investigation proved that an Incomplete first put down to the driver had started in the warehouse. We did run into problems with how loads were prepared and organised, but I will not invent an investigation or a conclusion.

What we found in the warehouse

Two problems I have confirmed: bags that were missing, and trolleys that were mixed or organised wrongly.

Neither of them starts at the customer's door. A missing bag went missing somewhere earlier: in preparation, on the trolley or during loading. A mixed trolley was organised badly before it reached the driver. But if nobody stops them, both end up on the same line of the report: an order that reached the customer incomplete.

An order can reach the customer incomplete, but the problem may have started long before the delivery.

Why the rule made sense

Each part of the rule, as I see it today, protects something.

Telling the Team Leader turns the shortage into a problem of the operation, not of the driver alone. The driver is the one who sees it. But finding the bag, or deciding what happens to the order, does not depend on the driver alone.

A trolley that stays in its zone keeps the trace. If the trolley starts moving while the bag is being looked for, things can get more mixed up than they were, and the question “where did it go missing?” gets harder.

And the rule for chilled and frozen shows that a standard does not only say what is done. It also says where. When a problem is solved in a hurry, the place is the first thing people forget.

Not just a number, not just the driver

We followed Incomplete as a KPI in the operational reports. Like any KPI, it can be read in two ways.

The first: a negative number to bring down, with a driver's name next to every case. That way is quick. But it leaves the question that matters most unanswered.

The second:

Incomplete should not be seen only as a negative number or a driver's mistake. It should help us understand where the product or the information went missing, and how we can stop it happening again.

This is the difference from damage. Damage, when it is found, has already happened. A missing bag, if it is found at the ramp, is still only a shortage. It has not yet become an incomplete order at the customer's door. So the most valuable check is not the one that counts the cases after they happen. It is the one that catches the shortage before departure.

The check before departure

If I were building it today, I would put a clear check in place before the van leaves. Five points:

1. Every bag can be identified and is linked to its order.
2. The number of bags matches what has to be loaded.
3. The trolley has been checked for mixed loads.
4. If a bag is missing, the process stops for that problem and the Team Leader is told.
5. Every shortage found before departure is recorded with its cause, when it is known.

These are measures I would recommend today, not changes I claim to have put in place myself.

The fifth point is the one most easily forgotten. A shortage that is found and fixed before departure never appears in the Incomplete report. That is good for the customer. But if it is not written down anywhere, the process learns nothing from it, and tomorrow the same shortage will be found again, by someone else, with a bit of luck.

Incomplete Control records each case with the stage of the process where it started and the reason, and shows where cases start most often. You can tick off the list below here and copy it for the shift.

At the customer's door, a missing bag is a complaint. At the ramp, it is still a question.

The best check is not the one that counts incomplete orders. It is the one that stops them before they leave.