A new Chinese manager's first month with a local warehouse

You have just arrived in Uzbekistan to take over a warehouse of a dozen people. Your predecessor has gone, and the handover left only a stock list and a bunch of keys. Your local colleagues speak Uzbek and Russian, and your Russian is only starting. Head office wants you to "get the warehouse under control quickly". The biggest temptation is to change everything in week one, yet what matters most in the first month is to understand the place.

Week one: look, do not change

• Follow a whole day: from opening to closing, spend time in receiving, between the racks and at dispatch, and watch how goods arrive, where they sit and how they leave.
• Meet each colleague: with the help of a trusted bilingual colleague, learn what each person does and how, and hold back from judging.
• Watch one delivery from start to finish: who counts, who signs and where the figure is written down.
• Collect a full set of documents: the last twenty receipts, issues and transfers. See which format is really used, who signs and whether anything is added by hand.
• Ask why: for every practice you dislike, ask three people why it is done that way before deciding whether to change it.
• Keep a work diary: write down observations, questions and to-dos every day instead of relying on memory.

Make no big changes and no rash promises this week. Local colleagues watch a new manager for a long time, and the first thing to show them is that you are willing to listen.

Week two: check the books

Pick 30 to 50 items for a spot count covering several kinds: high value, fastest-moving, small and expensive, items with negative or long-idle book stock, and a few at random. Compare the counted quantities with 1C or the Excel records line by line. Ask the storekeeper to walk with you and sign the figures. Nobody knows better where the goods are, and taking part makes the result easier for the team to accept.

Suppose you count 40 items. 31 match, 5 show small differences and 4 show large ones, a match rate of about 77.5 percent. (Illustrative figures.) That tells you the books have real problems and a full count is worth doing. If 38 had matched, the foundation would be sound and your focus could move to improving routines.

At the same time ask the local accountant for the reconciliation records of recent months, to see whether book-to-shelf checks have been done and how. When you find a problem, write down the facts and not an accusation of your predecessor or a colleague.

Week three: fill in documents and permissions

From the gaps you saw in the first two weeks, fix the most urgent now:

• Standardise the few basic documents (receipt, issue, transfer) and state who signs.
• List the people who may approve issues and stock adjustments.
• Sort out keys, access and system accounts, and learn who uses what.
• Agree delivery times and acceptance rules with suppliers and drivers.
• For critical items, decide where they are kept and who can reach them.

Change at most three to five things at a time, and give the colleagues concerned a week's notice before any routine changes. Tell everyone what the new rule is and why.

Week four: set the improvement plan

Condense what you found into one page:

1. Current state: what is done well, and where the main risks lie.
2. Facts: spot-count results, document gaps, permission issues.
3. Plan: five things for the next three months, ranked by risk, each with an owner and a date.
4. Support needed from head office: budget, staff, system rights.

Show this page to the local team first, in a language they understand, take their comments, then send it to head office. Keep confirmed facts apart from guesses still to be checked: the first can support decisions, the second are only leads. Set a date for the first formal count and begin a weekly ten-minute meeting, so that communication becomes routine.

In short

The aim of the first month is not to remake the warehouse but to understand it, earn trust and pick the few things that matter most. UzWarehouse's handover counts offer a neutral count when a manager changes, so that both sides of the handover sign the same figures.