Safety Stock...to hide poor inventory control

Hi All,

Background. We are a cold pressed organic juice copacker. We are supposed to be working towards brc then SQF.

We recently hired a new warehouse manager and I was training him at first according to regulation and everything... since once a person is trained and sees they do not have to actually do things right they don't. I trained him to find an answer for missing or extra inventory and to have control in my opinion regarding the warehouse.

However, management felt I was too focused on regulations instead of getting it done asap.

Brings me to now... I noticed he would play with the inventory numbers to make them work and I immediately researched(receiving, production, disposal, sent inventory documents) and called him out in a meeting.  Now we have a "safety stock" of say a few hundred lbs, has anyone experience anything like this?

Am i being overly dramatic but i feel there is no actual control on the inventory since a safety net was placed for mistakes.

If your "safety stock" is finished product ready to ship - care must be taken with use by dates and customer expectations as to made on dates and delivery dates.

If your "safety stock" is WIP- Work in progress and is going to be added into the next run - your management needs to understand they have just increased the potential recall size - all lots shipped of "safety stock" plus new run lot. In addition a risk analysis of potential shelf life issues needs to be done.

I am not clear what you mean by safety stock.