Logistic audit. assessment of the efficiency of warehouse logistics at the enterprise. Audit of the state of the warehouse and ensuring the safety of inventories using the example of OJSC Trade and Service Center Internal audit of a warehouse

How to audit a warehouse
Dmitry Perov, Head of the Department of Implementation and Maintenance of Logistic Systems, ANT Technologies, © LOGISTICS and Management www.logistpro.ru

The business has been successfully automated for a long time, ERP is installed in the company, and WMS is installed in the warehouse. A large amount of statistics has been accumulated in the databases of these systems. It takes a lot of work in order to understand where, when and who makes mistakes and whether these mistakes are caused by incorrect construction of the company's business processes.
A huge plus of this project is the deep interest and support of the top management of the company. In fact, this is the permission of full diagnostics and readiness for any procedure, not only therapeutic, but also surgical. You can change the physical and information processes, staff motivation scheme, etc.

At the first meeting, the strategic goal was determined: “In November 2008, the stock of goods in the warehouse should be such that it would be possible to refuse to rent additional warehouse space from third-party organizations and not resort to their help throughout 2009. At the same time, the company's turnover should not decrease. " Funding for reengineering - from the funds saved as a result of the refusal to rent additional space, liquidation of inventory balances, as well as by improving the operating performance of the warehouse.

Diagnostic algorithm

Step 1. Analyze

We started, as usual, with an ABC analysis. It was carried out in the simplest way: up to 80% of the goods - group A; 80–96% - group B, the rest - group C. In one report, indicators were summarized by three parameters: in pieces, in sales volume and profit. Most of the products belong to one category for all options: AAA, BBB, CCC. It turned out that the main turnover comes from 24% of the goods.

Then the excess inventory was estimated. We added the stock for each item of category C if it exceeds the annual sale of this product. It turned out about 400 tons. At first glance, there is not so much for a warehouse with 8000 pallet spaces, but on the other hand, due to such a low turnover, the question arises - are these positions needed at all? Together with the leadership, we decided that such positions should be got rid of. Based on the ABC analysis, it is difficult to judge which particular positions should be disposed of, since there are goods that are sold in small quantities, but consistently. To abandon them means to lose, albeit a small, part of the income.

Step 2. Determine the sales curve

An XYZ analysis is usually used to identify stability and instability. In theory, everything is simple: stability is determined using the coefficient of variation, calculated by the formula (the higher the coefficient of variation, the more unstable the object is):

Ni = 1 (xi - x–) 2
n = n ґ 100%,
NS-

where xi is the parameter value for the evaluated object for the i-th period;

x is the average value of the parameter for the evaluated object of analysis;

n is the number of periods.

After calculating the coefficient of variation, the products are divided into groups, for example, as follows:

group X - objects, the coefficient of variation for which does not exceed 10% (stable group of goods);

group Y - objects, the coefficient of variation for which is 10–25% (group of goods of medium stability);

group Z - objects, the coefficient of variation for which exceeds 25% (unstable group of goods).

We tried to make a straightforward calculation - we got that all products belong to category Z, which was expected. This calculation option is only suitable for a business in which seasonality is either low or not manifested in all products. The calculation then identifies seasonal items. In our case, the seasonality is such that some of the time the product is not sold at all, and this applies to almost every position. As an example, the graph shows the sales of one of the products in the last 33 months. Cycles are visible to the naked eye. Every 12 months the pattern repeats itself, for example, from 5 to 8, from 17 to 20 and from 29 to 32 months, there are practically no sales. There is a linear trend line on the chart showing that sales are growing from year to year.

Step 3. Determine the curve of a non-random process

Thus, it can be assumed that there are two processes. One is not random, it is determined by two factors: a trend showing how the average sales value of a given product is growing, and the seasonality coefficient, by which the trend value must be multiplied. The second process is random (model), it causes deviation of real sales from the non-random process we calculated. A non-random process superimposed on the fact of sales for the same product is shown in the orange curve graph. Failures are predicted quite well, but there is a problem with sales peaks, the methods of dealing with which need to be thought out. For illustration purposes, a product for which the curves are close was not specially selected.

Step 4. Calculate the difference between the model and the fact

The random process is equal to the difference between the model and the fact. The graph shows the curve of a random process (the modulus of the difference between the model and the fact). It is this deviation that we will take into account in our coefficient of variation. In the above formula, the difference in the numerator is our modulus, and the x in the denominator will be the average not of the fact, but of the value of the model. Thus, we have removed the non-random process from the coefficient of variation. For the example taken, the coefficient of variation will be 1.27 (127%).

Step 5. Determine the actual sales

Perhaps there is a model for this product that is more close to reality, but we are interested in practical aspects, therefore, for our purposes, we consider this model to be adequate. To be more confident, we made the following calculation for several dozen products: we took actual sales without the last three months, performed a model calculation and predicted three months in advance. It turned out quite similar to reality. In order not to be mistaken with the level of stocks at the peaks, we applied the following technique: we multiplied our model by 1 + the coefficient of variation. As you can see in the graph, the actual curve almost always lies between the two curves of our model.

Step 6. Analyzing excess stocks

Let's see why the excess stock is being created. We already have an answer to this question - our model can give it. Imagine that we have no stock at point zero on the time axis, and we forecast a sale in the first month along the orange dashed curve, taking into account the random component. To do this, we need to buy the amount that should be sold in the first month. But in reality we will not sell this amount, but what the actual sales curve shows. Next month we will buy as much as necessary to supplement the stock to our forecast. If the remaining stock is greater, we do not buy anything. On the chart, purchases are shown as an orange line, and stock at the end of the month is shown in blue. As you can see, in the months when there are no sales, there are leftovers in the warehouse. This is due to the fact that the decline in sales is sharp, and there is a peak in front of it. Stocking up to ensure the peak, we create those very excess stocks. The linear trend of the residuals in this model has a decreasing character, but it is different for different products. And it's also our ideal residue model. In fact, the orange dashed curve was intuitively predicted and the actual stocks are even larger than the model.

Step 7. Measures to combat excess stock

To combat excess stock, you need to order smaller quantities of each item. It is not so easy. Today the purchasing department uses ERP sales history and intuition. The result of such work of buyers and initiated our project. It is necessary to build a new procurement model and create a convenient software tool on its basis. The sales model built in this article will be used by us in the future to calculate the coefficient of variation and take it into account in the XYZ analysis and draw up a sales plan. We have already made the technical assignment for ABC-XYZ analysis, and programmers are making an implementation on it in ERP. Calculating 4000 products in Excel is not an easy task, so in a wonderful spreadsheet processor we only simulate approaches to our problems. We will calculate data for real work in ERP. The hard-to-sell part of the CZ category product will be identified, a moratorium on the purchase of this product and measures to get rid of it will be announced.

The purchase of goods in large quantities on a monthly basis creates excess stocks in case of sales downturns

The logic diagram of the software tools will be discussed by us in the next article. Then we will build a purchasing model. Next, we will design reengineering tools and activities, regulations and motivation and apply all this in practice. We do not know what will turn out in the end, but we are sure that we will lead the project towards the goal we have formulated and in November the warehouse will be free of summer goods.

Warehouse audit will help you assess the efficiency of the warehouse system, its components and many logistics processes. Find possible ways to optimize workflows and reduce the area by fold.

The GIKOM company will audit your warehouse and give a list of recommendations for improving the work.

Required data for audit:

Warehouse logistics questionnaire - as it is and forecast for 3-5 years (or% growth)
Warehouse layout with dimensions
The list of restrictions - the maximum number of receipts to the warehouse, the maximum productivity of each line, the maximum and minimum volume and weight of one SKU, etc.
Photos of the current warehouse - outside and inside

Warehouse audit technology:

Analysis of current intra-warehouse logistics
Analysis of warehouse processes
Warehouse management system audit
Determination of the structure of cargo flows
Audit of the effectiveness of storage of products on racks
Analysis of the topology of the location of equipment in the warehouse and production
Identification of "bottlenecks" - "growth points", the optimization of which will increase the amount of goods received and shipped, storage capacity, depending on the tasks of your warehouse and production.

Logistic audit is considered as a mandatory step prior to the implementation of the WMS - system. The results of surveys and recommendations of specialists help to find the best solution for storing goods, optimizing the performance of warehouse operations, loading and the number of personnel, etc. In other words, a logistic audit helps to understand what needs to be done in the warehouse in order to bring it in order before automation.

Audit of the state of the warehouse and ensuring the safety of inventories on the example of OJSC "Trade and Service Center"

Checking the state of the warehouse and the safety of the refinery is one of the most important audit procedures. For a comprehensive study of this area of the organization's activities, the auditor examines warehouses, storerooms, workshops and other places of storage of industrial stocks, checking the conditions of their storage, the state of fire safety, the equipment of warehouses with the necessary equipment, equipment, instruments and the correctness of their operation, the state of security of the warehouse. The unsatisfactory organization of the warehouse economy testifies to the low level of internal control over the safety of the refinery.

During the survey, special attention is paid to checking the organization of the material responsibility of employees associated with the acceptance, storage and release of material assets. One of the conditions for ensuring the safety of material assets is the development and delivery of financially responsible persons of standards or job descriptions, which define the duties and rights of employees, their work schedule, the procedure for accepting and issuing valuables, documenting them, keeping records in warehouses in physical meters, timing providing reports to the accounting department, etc.

When inspecting the storage places of inventories, according to the documents available to materially responsible persons, they check whether they timely draw up the acceptance and release of valuables and make entries in books or warehouse accounting cards. Unaccounted for surplus materials and finished products can be created by:

Substitution of raw materials in the manufacture of finished products;

Calculation of suppliers of raw materials and materials in weight, moisture, lowering their grade;

Body kit, calculation, measurement of buyers when they release finished products;

Unreasonable execution of acts for the loss of materials during their transportation or during their storage in warehouses.

Unaccounted for surplus materials are usually stored separately. To identify them, you should use warehouse accounting data. If there are unaccounted for surpluses, then the consumption of certain types of values for certain periods, as a rule, exceeds their arrival. Such cost overruns are covered by the subsequent receipt and posting of materials of similar names. Surplus is withdrawn at the expense of subsequent receipts or drawn up in bulk documents before checking their actual availability during inventory.

Inspection of the state of the warehouse and ensuring the safety of material assets, in combination with subsequent documentary verification, make it possible to draw reasonable conclusions about the safety of the refinery and develop preventive measures.

Stocks can be stored in several warehouses, and in this case it is advisable to carry out their inventory simultaneously in order to exclude the possibility of transferring values from one warehouse to another. If for some reason this cannot be done, then the auditor needs to track the internal movement of stocks between departments (warehouses) from the moment the inventory starts at the first warehouse until its completion at the last warehouse.

When conducting an inventory, the auditor may have difficulties in obtaining evidence of reserves, caused by the peculiarities of the technological process. This may sometimes require expert advice.

It may also be difficult to obtain evidence related to the determination of the quantity of reserves, which are due to:

a) the use of sampling. As a rule, within the framework of one check, it is impossible to check all stocks using the continuous method, however, if there is an obvious discrepancy between stock records and their actual availability, it is necessary to check all inventory items;

b) the specifics of the control procedures - it is necessary to make sure that there was no repeated counting and accidentally or intentionally unaccounted for values. Control reconciliations provide an opportunity to ensure that the counting of values has been carried out correctly.

c) the nature of the inventory values (for example, an inventory of timber stocks at pulp and paper mills, rolled metal products, etc.). In such cases, the auditor can use valuation techniques, when a portion of the inventory is counted and measured, and then the results of the audit are extrapolated to their total quantity. The representativeness of the extrapolation results can be checked by comparing them with the data of accounting and warehouse accounting.

The presence of some types of stocks cannot be checked for availability by simple recalculation, for example, in continuous production - chemical or steel. In this case, the auditor will have to rely on internal control procedures, as well as, with the client's permission, engage experts to take inventory of such material assets.

Sometimes, for a number of reasons, taking an inventory is not possible. For example, when, at the time of the conclusion of the audit contract, the client had already completed the inventory at the end of the year, and he refuses to re-conduct it, or when the inventory is quite expensive. In this case, the auditor can apply mathematical methods that, with a certain probability, make it possible to estimate the amount of reserves. It may happen that the client does not want to carry out a complete inventory, but at the request of the auditor, he will carry out an inventory of part of the inventory.

Ensuring the safety of material assets largely depends on the selection and placement of financially responsible persons. Such positions should not be accepted by persons who had a criminal record for embezzlement, embezzlement and did not justify confidence in their previous jobs.

There are also such violations as: the removal of material values with the same passes twice; export of material values with passes signed by a person who does not have the right to do so; export of material values according to oral permits and notes, etc.

In the process of an audit of the state of warehouse accounting at OJSC "TSC", warehouses, storerooms, workshops and other places of storage of industrial stocks at the enterprise were examined, the conditions of their storage, the state of fire safety of the warehouse, the equipment of warehouses with equipment, machinery, devices and the correctness of their operation were checked. , the state of protection of warehouse premises. Also, for the audit, an audit test was drawn up to check the state of the warehouse and the safety of the refinery (Table 3.1.)

When inspecting the places of storage of inventories according to the documents available to materially responsible persons, it was revealed that the registration of acceptance and release of material assets, as well as entries in books and warehouse accounting cards, are made in a timely manner.

Inventories at the enterprise are stored in several warehouses, and in this case, their inventory is carried out simultaneously in order to exclude the possibility of transferring values from one warehouse to another.

Table 3.1 - Audit test of checking the state of storage facilities and safety of the refinery N.N. Khakhonova Fundamentals of accounting and auditing. Rostov n / a: PHOENIX, 2005 .-- 89 p.

		Note

1. Is the protection of the territory of the enterprise carried out
2. Are the premises equipped with fire and burglar alarms?
3. Whether contracts of material responsibility have been concluded:
Correctness of registration
The applied system of liability:
a) individual
b) collective
c) system of pledges
4. Do the positions of the MOL correspond to the approved List of positions and jobs replaced and performed by employees with whom the enterprise can conclude written agreements on full liability
5. Have the materially responsible persons created the conditions to ensure the safety of the mineral resources:
Closed storage facilities
Availability of cabinets, safes
Availability of the necessary containers for storing valuables
Possibility of access to the MPZ only MOL
6. Equipping the storage places of the MPZ with the necessary measuring instruments
7. Is there control over the procedure for the export of valuables from the enterprise and the issuance of powers of attorney for their receipt?

The Company provides constant control over the safety of existing inventory. An important method of such control is an inventory, which allows you to control both the safety of the Company's property and the correctness of accounting.

When taking inventory of material values, they check the availability of inventories for a certain date by recalculating, weighing, determining their volume and comparing the actual data obtained with accounting data.

In the Company, it is carried out both partial, when they check the availability of valuables in individual storage places, and complete, when all values in the enterprise as a whole are covered by the check. Mandatory full inventory is carried out annually before the preparation of the annual report within the time frame established by the instructions for conducting the inventory. In addition to the annual inventory, the company checks the presence of balances in kind throughout the year.

To carry out the inventory, a special commission is created at OJSC "TSC". The results of the check are drawn up by an inventory list and the corresponding act. The head of the enterprise personally examines the inventory materials and makes appropriate decisions based on its results. The surplus revealed during the inventory is received. In this case, an accounting entry is made:

Debit 10 "Materials" Credit 91 "Other income and expenses"

Lack of inventories, as well as losses from damage to values, are debit to account 94 "Shortages and losses from damage to values" from the credit of the corresponding material accounts. If the deficiencies are revealed by revisions in the current year, but they relate to previous years, then the corresponding amounts are credited to account 94 from the credit of account 98 "Deferred income". Missing products of the current year are written off at the planned cost. Subsequently, after the decision is made to write off losses and shortages, they are written off from the credit of account 94 in the prescribed manner. In conclusion, we note that, as such, there were no shortcomings in the state of warehouse accounting. Warehouse accounting is maintained in accordance with the established rules.

Already in Russia, the time has come when it is relatively inexpensive to hire a competent specialist from the market of consulting services and receive detailed advice from him regarding the "well-being" of your warehouse. Let's say you found the right "specialist" with all the necessary qualities (although this is not easy), and sent it to your warehouse. What will he be able to see in your warehouse with his scientist and “clean” look? There are a lot of interesting things if he knows when and where to look and with whom and how to talk ...

When a person comes to the doctor, the doctor first checks his pulse, pressure, temperature, and according to the state of these and some other easily measurable indicators, he judges how healthy the entire human body is, whether it is necessary to continue to investigate it, or it is possible to immediately make a final diagnosis and start treatment immediately.

So is the warehouse. If you want to know how effective the entire business is, it is more logical to start with an audit in the warehouse, and then a lot will immediately become clear and understandable.

You may ask: why exactly the warehouse acts as this indicator - why, for example, not purchase or delivery or sales with finance, because they are also important links in the supply chain?

My answer is: to understand the complex, you must first turn it into a simple one. Arrange on the shelves, as they say, "separate flies from cutlets", and so on ...

"Cutlets - separately ..."

How do you do this, you ask? How to simplify, for example, a complex and cumbersome system of accounting and control of commodity and financial flows, or how to evaluate the effectiveness of an IT system of a large holding company, or how to find out how effectively your money invested in the modernization of any systems and technologies is being used, and how, finally, to find out when the promised profit from this upgrade will appear?

I answer: there are two ways. You can invent some even more complex system in order to use it to try to evaluate the above systems and, as a result, possibly complicate everything even more, or you can just carefully look at some indicators lying on the surface, for example, in a warehouse, and use them to make the necessary conclusions.

What are the important indicators in stock?

Over the years of my practice, being engaged in the audit of supply chains at a variety of enterprises, with a wide variety of warehouse technologies and the degree of equipment with various, modern and not so, methods of analyzing inventory management systems, for a preliminary analysis of the state of stocks, I always first of all went to the warehouse and approximately in within one working day, he already knew almost unmistakably how efficiently the company was managing inventory.

By and large, after all, a warehouse is a kind of indicator by which one can judge the efficiency of a business without error, just like, for example, by the pulse of a person ...

In the process of further in-depth and comprehensive study of data from the corporate information system (corporate information system) and conversations with heads of departments and company management, I almost never found any good reason to change my opinion about the state of stocks that I had after visiting the warehouse.

What else, besides the state of stocks, can you learn from stock indicators?

As a result of a warehouse survey, you can find out how effectively money is spent on its maintenance, reconstruction or construction.

You can also find out how efficiently warehouse space, shelving and lifting equipment are used.

You can also find out how efficiently the wage fund is spent, how productively the personnel work, how effective their motivation is, what is the production culture in the warehouse, how it affects the quality of the operations performed. And a lot more interesting and useful things can be learned from a professionally conducted audit.

Another conversation is that not everyone and does not always want to know the truth about their warehouse, but this is another topic not related to warehouse technologies, although no less important in this context.

I will not reveal all my secrets here, I will just give one example to illustrate how useful a simple visit to the warehouse by a logistics and SCM specialist can be.

Well structured chaos

Imagine a warehouse of a distribution company with an area of approximately 3000 m2, with a height of 10 meters to the bottom edge of the beam, with 4 tiers of shelving, floor at elevation +1.2000, bulk, with docks, with shipping / receiving areas, a ready-made area, a storage area and an area marriage. Everything is as it should be, just a dream, not a warehouse!

The warehouse, by the way, is real. The owner ordered its design and construction according to a template project taken from a beautiful picture on the Internet.

I did an audit of this warehouse in 2011.

Entering the warehouse, at 9:00 am I saw on the site in front of the docks a congestion of cars for loading, with a carrying capacity of 1.5 to 10 tons, and on the territory - several heavy trucks (arrivals).

Cars for loading were filled with a forklift, which removed pallets with goods from open docks, put them in front of the cars, and then loaders and storekeepers manually loaded and placed goods in vans. Why for these operations a warehouse with docks is not clear.

Since the docks were thus occupied, the "trucks" that came to unload the parcels stood and waited for the end of the loading of the flow.

In a warehouse, for example, it is possible, for example, to evaluate the efficiency of using warehouse stocks practically without error ...

When I entered the warehouse, I saw a shipping area occupied by pallets of goods to be shipped, used as an area for ready orders.

All other processes during the dispatch of the expense were not performed due to lack of personnel and space to perform operations.

While in the storage area, I examined the base bins and saw that the goods in the base bins were not laid out in such a way that it would be convenient to assemble them, but were scattered about (as if they had been assembled for the last time).

In the picking area there was a product that had not been taken for a long time (it was evident that it lay for a long time, on an even layer of dust on the boxes), and goods in randomly torn boxes (piece), including those scattered in the aisles between the shelves.

The goods were stacked by a reach truck and an electric forklift, which could move the goods no higher than the third tier due to the fact that the aisles were blocked, the equipment was idle (at one time, they “saved” on lifting equipment).

The last tiers of the shelving were 90% empty. The third tiers were filled by 50 percent, the second tiers were overfilled - there was practically no stock of empty cells in them.

From communication with the stacker, after he removed several pallets for me, I came to the conclusion that the rotation of the goods is unsatisfactory.

Based on the amount of dust on pallets with goods from the fourth and third tiers, it was clear that this product stood motionless for more than a month, and some positions for much longer (it turned out that some positions had stood since the start of the warehouse). The goods are either not marked at all, or marked incorrectly (the delivery date, batch number, product code are not indicated).

After talking with the head of the warehouse, I found out that the warehouse is carried out without "blank prints", when counting the goods are not removed from the upper tiers (what is written in large marker on the boxes).

Having watched a little later the operation of receiving the parcels, I saw what I expected to see: most of the goods that arrived at the parish were not arranged as it should be according to the FIFO principle (or otherwise), it was simply set aside (in the aisles ), because there was a shortage of all the goods that arrived and this goods had to be shipped at the next shipment.

Thus, with the naked eye, one could see that only about 1/3 of the total volume of goods is actually turned around in this warehouse, and the rest of the goods simply takes up the remaining space with practically no movement.

No ABC analysis of the warehouse could have shown the problem more clearly than it was visible at this time in the warehouse.

It was located along with the rest, it was collected and written off once a week.

The warehouse staff changed constantly, "curve", there was no team as such, people worked from inventory to inventory and changed every 3 months.

With all of this, the business leader hired highly paid inventory managers who never went to the warehouse at all, but at the same time provided him with many different smart tables and calculations regarding the state of stock in his warehouse ... and, oddly enough, he believed them.

Improve the efficiency of your business across the entire supply chain! And do not be afraid to look into the warehouse once again to see what is really happening there, and to talk to the warehouse staff! ...

In addition to this, the business leader had to make decisions within the framework of strict distribution agreements, where strict conditions were provided for the selection of inflated volumes of goods at a pleasant percentage of bonuses.

The condition for receiving these bonuses was that the supplier could at any time, without any approvals, ship a consignment of goods that several times exceeded the usual rates of receipts. As a result, the goods were displayed in the aisles, and all warehouse processes were significantly slowed down, or even stopped altogether.

Ultimately, the company incurred some indirect costs, which were more difficult and more frustrating to calculate than the direct benefits from bonuses associated with additional bonuses to the business leader and some of his subordinates, but these losses, even on the surface, were significantly higher than the income from bonuses.

After conducting an audit of the warehouse, procurement and delivery, the head of the business of this company received a full alignment of the existing problems by priority, and he gradually began to purposefully eliminate them.

Thus, an audit of the warehouse must be done. Do not lead to the point that, as in the example above, you have to freeze 2/3 of stocks in illiquid stock, following the lead of your counterparties.

It is clear that there are fewer staff with high salaries in the warehouse who are able to lobby the interests of the warehouse before the company's management, but you still don’t need to make a “cesspool” out of the warehouse and include there the “shoals” of all other divisions. All the same, in the long run, it will only aggravate the overall situation.

But even if everything is not as bad in your warehouse as in the example I described, you still don't have to stop there.

Instead of an epilogue

After all, even the most modern and intelligent planning and accounting and control systems will be of no use if they analyze data that is not related to live and really current processes in the warehouse.

Yuri Kolmachikhin, an expert in logistics and SCM, for the magazine "Consultant"

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The history of the development of such a category as audit is considered by many authors in different ways. The corresponding definition, translated from Latin, is interpreted as "hearing" and is used in practice to define verification. Thus, it is customary to understand an audit as an audit carried out by an independent expert aimed at a specific activity or phenomenon. That is why a distinction is made between technical, operational, environmental, and logistic audits, which are discussed in this article. What is meant by the presented category? How is it different from others? What are the types of logistics audit? You can find answers to these and other equally important questions while reading our article.

Concept and organization of logistic audit

Today, along with the concepts of financial, accounting, technical and other types of audit, an important position is taken by a logistic audit. First of all, its action is aimed at reducing logistics costs and increasing the efficiency of the economic activity of the enterprise as a whole.

A logistic audit should be understood as a comprehensive check of the efficiency of the logistics subsystems. The role of a logistics audit in choosing a logistics strategy is to identify “problem areas”. So, in the process of the procedure, a tree of connections between them is formed, which are of a cause-and-effect nature. In addition, large-scale economic calculations are made in relation to sales, space utilization and inventory management. The organization of a logistic audit and the stages of its conduct relate directly to the following types of inspections:

Audit of procurement, that is, material and technical supply.
Planning audit according to the "sales - production - purchases" scheme.
Audit of logistics costs for warehousing, packaging, storage and movement of commercial products.
Audit of the distribution of commercial products in accordance with the supply chain.

Logistics audit results

In addition to the organizational issue, the theoretical foundations of the logistic audit system also include the result of the procedure in the form of a report containing the following information:

Assessment of the actual state in relation to the logistics system of the enterprise.
A list of technical, informational, organizational and technological recommendations for improving all logistics subsystems.
Assessing the need for certain changes.
Preliminary (potential) return on investment.

The results, which are announced after carrying out such a procedure as an audit of logistics systems, usually speak from the relevance of certain projects related to the following points:

Development of a strategy in terms of the logistics component of the structure.
Reengineering (design) of a system or a logistics subsystem. A striking example of the latter is the design of a warehouse complex.
Formation of a system related to the regulation of logistics business processes.

Logistic audit and its main principle

The key principle of logistic audit is the evolving movement from general to specific. In other words, the procedure begins with a validation of the performance objectives of the global focus structure and ends with causes of missed opportunities, poor productivity, and ineffectiveness. After working out the general issues, the logistics audit of the enterprise involves a detailed study of the logistics functional areas in the company.

So, in accordance with the above principle, the study of the current strategies of the enterprise is carried out, which can fully affect the organization in terms of the movement of flows of material nature. For this, in any case, it is necessary to analyze the corporate mission, as well as the production, marketing and procurement strategy of the company. The final step of the logistic systems audit is the formation of a database. So, it can be used to assess the performance of these systems in an enterprise.

To implement the procedure considered in the article, a team is created that includes representatives of the logistics service and other functional divisions of the company (accounting and finance, sales and marketing, procurement and production, information service, and so on). It is important to add that, for example, a logistic audit of an enterprise's transport system is carried out in the presence of outside experts. In addition, students of specialized higher educational institutions are often involved in the implementation of the procedure. This move is undoubtedly expedient, because novice specialists, one way or another, need a practical basis to achieve their professional goals.

Stages of drawing up branches of logistics audit

Modern scientists distinguish between several stages of a logistic audit, including preliminary, main and, accordingly, final. To begin with, it would be advisable to consider the preliminary stage of the logistics audit.

So, during the first two or three days, specialists study the functional areas of production, supply, sale and marketing of commercial products. Then, during the week, logistic experts process the research results, as well as prepare a list of logistic functions, which, one way or another, are subject to thorough verification. The final line of the logistics audit at this stage contains the formulation of questions for questionnaires and interviews, as well as the compilation of a list of indicators, in accordance with which the assessment of logistics functions will be made.

The main stage of the logistics audit

To begin with, it should be noted that the main stage of such a large-scale procedure is classified into internal and external audit. This chapter examines the audit of logistics costs on the example of an industrial enterprise and its main stage. The starting point for internal audit is considered to be an interview with the head of the enterprise. After that, the logistic audit is carried out in accordance with the following areas:

The first direction involves a survey of employees of the company's functional divisions on issues that, in one way or another, are related to logistics (sales, warehouses, transport).
The second direction involves working with a sample of enterprise documentation.
The third direction speaks about the collection of information in accordance with supply contracts for the implementation of statistical analysis of sales and purchases of commercial products.

In the process of an internal logistic audit, a system of indicators is used, which are classified into the following groups:

The first group contains indicators of servicing external and internal consumers, as well as an assessment of the quality characteristics of the service, which must include the ability to fundamentally change the features of orders in accordance with customer requests, the time of order execution, as well as stability in relation to a given time.
The second group includes indicators that are directly related to the cost of funds for the implementation of logistics operations and procedures. In the process of cost analysis, the cost-benefit ratio is assessed. This refers to the benefits that clients receive from the adoption and further implementation of certain decisions in the company.
The third group includes several indicators of the use of its own fleet of vehicles (rolling stock) or storage facilities, including the coefficient of utilization of the vehicle's carrying capacity, the coefficient of utilization of the storage volume, and so on.

External audit

As it turned out, the main stage of the procedure considered in the article contains such types of logistic audit as internal and external. In this chapter, it will be advisable to familiarize yourself with the latter. It is important to note that it makes sense to set the starting point for an external audit only when the internal audit procedure is guaranteed to be passed. So, at this stage, a study of the expectations and requirements of the clientele is carried out in order to determine the optimal performance of the enterprise; consideration of the techniques used by competitors; assessment of the level of customer service material flow and so on.

It should be noted that an external logistic audit is carried out in the form of sending specially prepared questionnaires or selective interviews directly with representatives of the serviced companies, as well as buyers from different locations in geographic terms or with different volumes of purchases. It is important to add that standard questionnaires must be adapted absolutely for each structure being checked. In addition, as a rule, not only the heads of the company or its individual divisions are interviewed, but also specific employees in accordance with their field of activity.

Thus, based on the results of an external audit, it is possible to formulate specific recommendations for the structure and indicate the changes that need to be made in the logistics system that is current at the time of the audit.

The final stage

After the main stage of the logistics audit is completed, it is necessary to prepare the following analytical reports:

The first report, developed in accordance with the analysis of the stock nomenclature, contains information about the assortment of raw materials and commercial products, stocks by groups, categories or positions, an assessment of the turnover of items by the nomenclature.
The second report contains an analysis of cash flows in the company, as well as outside it. For example, a detailed description of the cash flow through the warehouse in general and the volume of cash flows in accordance with each logistics operation separately. It is important to note that it is also important to indicate the amount of cash flow on the line segments between the warehouse areas. The results obtained are used to determine the number of loaders and intra-warehouse vehicles.
The third report is devoted to equipping the enterprise with resources. So, the relevant information includes the classification and characteristics of handling equipment. The main purpose of the description is nothing more than an assessment of the material and technical base that is relevant to the enterprise.

Generalization of information

As it turned out, a logistic audit is carried out in order to identify shortcomings in the logistic system of the structure. After identifying “bottlenecks (areas with increased risk), one way or another, the logistics experts develop recommendations to correct the identified problems. Of course, these recommendations are subsequently used to improve the level of service to existing customers, find new ones, and also to improve cash flow management.

Example of a logistics audit

In this chapter, it will be advisable to consider the logistic audit procedure using a specific example. Warehouse audit is nothing more than a search for methods to improve warehouse performance within the express research of warehouse processes and resources. The above event can be carried out both one-time and on an ongoing basis. As noted above, a logistics audit is mainly aimed at identifying shortcomings in the organization of the warehouse, as well as in its work. In addition, in this case, it is appropriate to create certain proposals to eliminate the deficiencies found. A particular task of the procedure considered in the article is often the justification that the warehouse needs to be automated.

Often, a logistic audit is considered a mandatory step prior to the implementation of a WMS system. So, the results of research and the corresponding recommendations of logistics experts allow us to find the most optimal options for storing marketable products, as well as optimize the implementation of warehouse operations, the number of employees, loading, and so on. In other words, a logistic audit, one way or another, contributes to the awareness of what needs to be done in the warehouse to bring it into absolute order before automation.

Logistics audit in practice

A warehouse logistic audit includes the following operations:

Infrastructure analysis.
Analysis of the technical process.
Analysis of current documents.
Analysis of computer and information systems.
Development of proposals and recommendations to improve the situation.
Calculation in terms of a feasibility study for the implementation of a WMS system.

In the process of performing a logistic audit of a warehouse, the following tools are used:

Interviewing company employees.
Monitoring the working process in the warehouse.
Analysis of up-to-date documentation, including work instructions, flow charts, layouts, and so on.

The results of the logistic audit at the warehouse are the following points:

List of topical problems for the enterprise.
Recommendations for solving existing problems.
Justification of the need to implement an automated system.

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