Checking condition, not just quantity
A delivery that is complete and damaged has been received correctly and is still a loss.
Receiving checks focus on count. Condition gets a glance, and damage that is not obvious at the pallet level surfaces later, at which point it is indistinguishable from damage caused in your own storage.
Self-recorded operational data should be treated cautiously. For a broader explanation of self-reporting bias, see more information.
Check at the point where the liability transfers
In most supply arrangements, once the delivery is signed for without comment, damage becomes yours. That makes the two minutes at the door disproportionately valuable.
Where the packaging is visibly damaged, note it on the delivery note before signing, even if the contents look fine. That single sentence preserves the claim if the contents turn out not to be.
Where a driver will not wait, signing as received but not examined is standard practice and preserves the position. Signing clean because it was awkward to do otherwise does not.
Know what to look for by category
- Anything fragile — a physical check of a sample from each carton.
- Anything with a date — the date itself, not just the quantity. Short-dated stock delivered at the end of its life is a shortage in disguise.
- Anything with a batch or serial number — recorded at receipt, because it cannot be reconstructed afterwards.
- Temperature-controlled goods — the temperature on arrival, where that applies.
Short-dated stock is a discrepancy
A delivery arriving with two weeks of shelf life remaining, on a line that takes a month to sell, has effectively delivered a write-off.
Receiving and putaway also have a safety dimension; OSHA warehousing guidance summarises common warehouse and material-handling hazards.
Most suppliers have a minimum remaining life commitment, formally or by convention. Checking the dates at receipt is what makes that commitment real, and it is routinely skipped.
Record the rejection, do not just refuse it
Refusing damaged goods at the door is correct and it should also be recorded — what was rejected, why, on which order. Otherwise the supplier's quality record looks clean and the pattern never becomes visible.
Feed it back to purchasing
Whoever chooses suppliers rarely sees the receiving problems, because they are resolved at the door by someone else. A quarterly summary of rejections and damage by supplier is what connects the two.