Working with local storekeepers: roles, communication and trust

Between a Chinese manager and a local storekeeper there is often a gap of language, working habits and expectations. Many "mistakes" are neither laziness nor bad intent. An instruction changes on its way: the manager says "move this batch", the storekeeper understands "to another zone", the goods end up in the wrong place and the records follow. The practices below are plain, and they work.

First learn how the warehouse really runs

In the first days, do not rush to change the rules. Spend a whole day at the receiving and dispatch doors. Storekeepers carry many unwritten rules: which supplier always arrives late, which goods are habitually kept together, which customer's goods are kept apart. Learn these first, then decide which to keep and which to adjust. Ask the storekeepers what slows them down. The answer is often small: a broken trolley, a label printer without labels, a form that has to be filled in three times. Fixing such things wins more cooperation than ten new rules.

Separate the roles, and write the routine on one page

Write on one sheet who receives, who signs for goods, who issues, who creates documents in 1C and who counts. Avoid one person doing the receiving, record-keeping, issuing and counting. When duties are separate, errors surface sooner, and the arrangement protects the storekeeper as well. Post the sheet where everyone can see it.

Then turn the daily routine into one-page procedures with photos: how a delivery is received, where goods go, how an issue is booked, what happens with a return. A ten-line procedure that everyone has seen is worth more than a thick manual nobody has opened. When a rule changes, explain it on the floor in a 15-minute talk, with the reason as well as the new rule.

Make communication work

• Keep instructions short and written, with pictures and numbers, in the language the storekeeper uses every day.
• After giving an instruction, ask the person to repeat it and say how they will do it, and correct any misunderstanding there and then.
• Do not take silence for agreement. Some people nod out of politeness even when an instruction is unclear. Ask open questions such as "What will you do first?" rather than "Is that clear?".
• Build a bilingual glossary of 30 to 50 terms together, covering the most common item names and warehouse words.
• Use an interpreter for important meetings. For daily instructions, work through a local supervisor or assistant so that messages are not passed through several people.
• Use a messenger group for photos of arrivals and damage, so that the day's events are recorded the same day.

Accountability without blame

When a difference appears, ask "what happened to this document afterwards?" rather than "who took it?". Present regular counts as routine, not as suspicion of any person. A storekeeper whose records are clear and match the stock deserves explicit recognition. Trust is built from details like these.

Suppose a pallet of fittings turns up in the wrong zone, and the right zone is short by 40 boxes in the books. Asking "who put this here?" makes people defensive, and the next mistake gets hidden. Asking "how did it get here, and which document moved it?" usually finds the answer in minutes: someone moved it by hand on a busy afternoon and raised no document. The fix is simple too: no movement without a slip, however small.

A ten-minute weekly meeting

Hold a short meeting every Monday and cover only three things: expected arrivals this week, planned issues this week and unresolved problems from last week. The local team learns the plan in advance and has a chance to raise difficulties.

Ask your local supervisor or assistant about the holidays and customs that affect working hours, and plan deliveries and counts around them instead of discovering them in the week of the count. Do the same in the other direction: tell the local team when head office will be on holiday and when it will be waiting for figures.

In short

UzWarehouse understands how Chinese-owned companies report to head office as well as how local warehouses receive, issue and document goods. During a count we ask warehouse colleagues to be present throughout, so that every side can sign the same result.