Korean managers and local warehouse staff: one-page working rules

Instructions change shape as they travel. A manager from Seoul says something in Korean, a translator turns it into English or Russian, a local supervisor passes it on in Russian or Uzbek to the storekeepers, and by the time it reaches the shelf a detail has dropped out or the meaning has shifted. Nobody has been careless. Each handover simply loses a little. For a count, where thirty people must do the same thing in the same way, a one-page set of rules keeps the message stable.

Why spoken instructions drift

• Several languages, such as Korean, English, Russian and Uzbek, sit in one chain, and a word-for-word translation of a technical term is understood differently by different people.
• Assumptions go unwritten. "Count carefully" means something different to each person.
• In a team of mixed languages and backgrounds, a nod can mean "I heard you" and not "I understood and can do it".
• Instructions arrive from several directions: chat, phone calls and conversations in the corridor.

What goes on the page

Print it on one sheet that can be read in two minutes.

1. The purpose in one sentence: "We check what stands on every shelf so that the books and the shelves agree."
2. Dates, working hours, break times, who is responsible for which zone, and where the devices are charged.
3. The routine in five steps, each with a photograph: scan the location, scan the item, check the name, enter the quantity, confirm.
4. Do and do-not examples shown with photographs: "A mixed bin is counted separately and marked", "An unknown code is set aside, not guessed."
5. What to do when unsure: stop, mark it and contact the named person (name and phone number or Telegram).
6. Who decides what: replacing a label, moving goods, stopping shipments, approving exceptions.
7. Five terms in each working language: location, item, quantity, cut-off, recount.

Write it, then test it

Write the first draft in the language of the person who owns the rules, and have someone who knows the warehouse translate it. Then ask a different person who has not seen the original to translate it back, and compare. The differences show where the wording is ambiguous. Finally give two storekeepers the sheet and one shelf, explain nothing and watch. It is the page that gets corrected, not the people. Where a storekeeper gets stuck, adding one more photograph usually works better than adding one more line of explanation.

"Count carefully" becomes far clearer as "scan every piece and never estimate by eye". Taking rule 4 as an example, place next to it a photograph of the device screen showing "unregistered code" and write below it: "When you see this screen: 1) put the box aside, 2) write down the location, 3) tell the zone supervisor."

What the manager can do

• Tell each zone supervisor what they may decide for themselves during the day.
• Hold a ten-minute briefing at the start of each shift, with the same page in hand.
• Replace "Is that clear?" with "Show me what you would do with a mixed bin."
• Give each instruction once, in writing, through a single channel, and do not change it separately in chat.
• Send instructions down through the local supervisor, and do not give separate instructions to floor staff. When there are two channels, the content splits.
• Answer a reported problem on the same day, and say thank you.
• Spend five minutes at the end of the day listing what was unclear and how the page was changed (version number).

Summary

A good rule sheet is not long. A page with photographs, a named contact and a note on what to do when unsure is enough. Smart Inventory agrees the method and ground rules with your local contact before work starts. One person who knows the warehouse is enough to guide the team, and since our team does the counting itself, the load on your local staff is kept to a minimum.