Grading Damage: A Three-Level Scale for Damaged Cartons

"Some damage" helps nobody. A supplier who reads it will ask how much, a carrier will ask where, and you will end up writing a second report to explain the first. A grading scale gives every damaged carton a level that anyone can apply and anyone can check, and it turns a heap of broken cartons into one table. Three levels are enough. More levels only create arguments about where the boundaries lie.

The three levels

• Grade 1, cosmetic. Scuffs, small dents, a torn wrap or label. The carton is closed, keeps its shape, and the contents show no sign of being affected.
• Grade 2, structural. The carton is deformed, a corner is crushed, a side is split, the tape has burst or the flaps are open. The contents are exposed or may be affected, but the goods may still be usable.
• Grade 3, severe. The carton is crushed or soaked through, and the contents are broken, leaking or clearly unusable.

Where you can, give each level a measurable threshold, for example "a dent deeper than 2 cm, or any split in the board, is at least grade 2". The figure is only an illustration; what matters is that the threshold is written down. Agree the thresholds with the supplier in advance if you can, and print them in the report in any case.

The grade of the carton is not the grade of the goods

A carton can be grade 3 and its contents perfectly sound, because the inner packs took the blow. A carton can be grade 1 and the contents broken, which is concealed damage. So grade the carton from the outside, and open a sample from each grade to record the condition of the contents separately: intact, affected or unusable. Do not carry a conclusion from the outside to the inside without opening.

How to apply it on the dock

1. At the start, photograph one reference carton for each grade, and put these three photographs at the top of the album.
2. Grade every carton as it comes off the pallet, and record it by pallet.
3. Let one person do all the grading. One consistent eye beats three different ones.
4. When in doubt, take the higher grade and write "borderline".
5. Photograph every grade 3 and grade 2 carton individually, with a wide, a medium and a close frame. Grade 1 can be photographed in groups.
6. Count by grade, per pallet and in total.

From counts to one table

At the end, the sheet should reduce to a table with one line per pallet: the pallet number, then the number of cartons at grade 1, grade 2 and grade 3, then the total.

A conditional example. A shipment of 600 cartons shows 28 damaged cartons, which is 4.7 percent: 18 at grade 1, 7 at grade 2 and 3 at grade 3. You open 6 of the grade 1 cartons, all 7 of the grade 2 cartons and all 3 of the grade 3 cartons. The contents turn out as follows:

• Grade 1: 6 opened, 0 with the contents affected; 12 left unopened.
• Grade 2: 7 opened, 3 with the contents affected.
• Grade 3: 3 opened, all 3 with unusable contents.

The summary reads: "28 cartons graded (4.7% of 600): grade 1, 18; grade 2, 7; grade 3, 3. Contents confirmed affected or unusable in 6 cartons; 12 grade 1 cartons unopened, not verified." The supplier can see at once that most of the cartons are only marked, and that the real loss is 6 cartons, not 28.

Common mistakes

• A scale with five or six levels, which nobody applies the same way twice.
• Changing the thresholds in the middle of the work.
• Grading from memory after the pallets have been moved.
• Mixing the grade of the carton with the condition of the contents.
• Leaving out the grade 1 cartons from the count because "it is nothing".

In short

A scale replaces adjectives with numbers that two people would reach separately. CargoChek checks the condition of the cartons, applies a grading scale agreed with you and puts the counts by grade into the quantity table, together with the photographs.