https://blog.vnykmshr.com/writing/tags/api-design/Recent content in Api-Design on vnykmshrHugoenThu, 20 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://blog.vnykmshr.com/writing/the-dispatch-desk/Thu, 20 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000https://blog.vnykmshr.com/writing/the-dispatch-desk/<p>The warehouse is in the basement. Three-floor office, one floor down. Inventory on open metal shelves &ndash; row by column, every product a known address. I&rsquo;ve been to bigger warehouses. The kind where one end isn&rsquo;t visible from the other and you can&rsquo;t tell what&rsquo;s going on at a glance. This one isn&rsquo;t like that. You can stand at the door and see the whole operation.</p> <p>An order comes in upstairs. The printout arrives at the front desk, gets handed over as a pick list &ndash; reordered so a person can fetch the items in a single sequential pass through the aisles. The basket goes through quality check, then into the black box &ndash; three layers, bubble wrap, thermocol where it matters. A label with tracking comes off a printer and gets pasted on. The box moves to the dispatch desk. The courier comes by later in the day. Two or three days to the customer. Same-day if they&rsquo;re close.</p>