Operations review / distribution team

How supplies reach a location and become prints.

A proposed way to follow paper, media and frames from request to delivery, then estimate what remains as the kiosk prints.

This is not a warehouse-management programme. Most supplies go directly to a venue. Storage exists only for the cases where TheArtisan or a partner temporarily holds stock.

One shared stock pool per location.

Kiosks use supplies. Locations hold supplies. A warehouse is only another possible place that can hold them.

Meeting goal: identify where this picture differs from the way distribution actually works.

01 / 07

How supplies move.

The normal flow is intentionally simple. A request can be split into several deliveries, and a delivery can be confirmed in more than one pass.

A location needs stock

Someone raises a replenishment request for exact supplies and quantities.

Distribution arranges it

One request may become one or several supplier or internal deliveries.

Goods travel

Tracking, supplier reference, expected date, cost and documents stay with the delivery.

The venue checks arrival

They confirm what was accepted and separately report what was damaged or missing.

Accepted stock enters

Only confirmed accepted quantities increase the location's stock estimate.

Prints consume it

Each recorded physical print subtracts its known paper and frame recipe.

Normal route / direct delivery

Supplier to location.

Local supplier or distributor

Venue confirms arrival

Location stock increases

Occasional route / internal movement

Storage to location.

Artisan or partner storage

Location accepts it

02 / 07

Who does what.

The database does not decide the organisation. It records what each person or system has already decided or observed.

Distribution team

Reviews or creates replenishment requests
Chooses supplier or internal source
Creates deliveries and expected quantities
Adds tracking, costs and delivery documents
Follows exceptions and outstanding quantities

Venue or local operator

Confirms what physically arrived
Can confirm a delivery in several passes
Reports damaged and missing quantities
Performs an occasional count when needed
Flags a number that looks implausible

Kiosk and support software

Records each physical print
Uses the recipe selected for that printer setup
Subtracts expected media and frame quantities
Records jams or loading waste separately
Never changes billing from a stock estimate

03 / 07

What each print uses.

The recipe is configurable per printer setup. These three cards show today's known patterns, not permanent limits.

Standard portrait

4x6

compatible media unit

standard 4x6 frame

A single portrait consumes one 4x6 print-equivalent and one physical frame.

Combi-frame portrait

4x6

compatible media unit

combi frame

The print is still exactly 4x6. The combi frame only changes how portrait or landscape orientation can be presented.

Large group output

6x8

4x6-equivalent media units

large 6x8 frame

The physical printer may be the same, but the output consumes twice the media and requires a larger frame.

Media compatibility

One-way flexibility.

4x6-only media

Can supply a 4x6 output. It cannot supply a 6x8 output.

6x8-capable media

Can supply both 6x8 and 4x6 outputs. The selected recipe records which physical item is used.

04 / 07

What the stock number means.

The result is an operational estimate. It becomes more accurate whenever someone confirms a delivery, records waste or accepts a physical reconciliation.

The calculation

Current estimated stock

accepted deliveries - recorded print recipes - known waste + accepted corrections

The history is append-only. A correction adds an exact reversing entry instead of silently rewriting an old fact.

Confirmed receipt

What the location says it accepted into usable stock.

Physical print

The exact expected recipe for that print format and printer setup.

Write-off

Jam, loading waste, damage found after acceptance or supplies lost.

Reconciliation

A human accepts a difference after a real count or credible printer reading.

Billing truth

Which prints are billable comes from recorded prints and transactions. Stock never decides what a venue owes.

Supply estimate

Stock answers a different question: how much usable material should remain, and when should distribution investigate or replenish it.

05 / 07

A location example.

This example uses one compatible media item. Frames would be calculated separately in exactly the same way.

Supplier ships two boxes entered as 800 print-equivalents each.

1,600 sent

Venue accepts 1,580. It reports 10 damaged and 10 missing for supplier follow-up.

1,580 in stock

The kiosk records 400 standard 4x6 portraits.

-400 media

The kiosk records 100 large 6x8 group outputs.

-200 media

Support records four media units lost to loading and jams.

-4 waste

Expected remaining media

Before the next physical count

976

The damaged and missing claim is evidence for the supplier dispute. It does not enter stock because the venue never accepted those units.

06 / 07

Questions for the distribution team.

Click a box when the proposed behaviour matches reality. Leave it open when the answer is unclear or different.

Who starts replenishment?

Venue request, Artisan forecast, distributor suggestion, or more than one of these?

Who confirms arrival?

Which person is trusted to say what was accepted, damaged or missing?

Can arrival be confirmed in stages?

For example, several boxes arrive on different days or one person checks later.

Which unit is natural?

Do people think in boxes, media sets, printable units, frames, or a mixture?

When is storage used?

Which real situations require Artisan or partner storage instead of direct delivery?

Can locations exchange stock?

If yes, who authorises it and who confirms dispatch and arrival?

What evidence matters?

Tracking, invoice, packing slip, delivery photo, signature or something else?

How are supplier problems handled?

Do final damaged and missing totals suffice, or is every claim change needed?

When do we physically count?

Monthly, at closing, on delivery, only when the estimate looks wrong, or never?

What should trigger action?

A fixed minimum, weeks of cover, unusual consumption, failed delivery or a manual alert?

Useful outcome

Leave the meeting with the normal route confirmed, every exception named, the responsible person identified, and the units that people naturally use written down.

07 / 07

The database underneath.

Nine tables preserve the operational facts. The split exists only where the real world contains several lines or repeated events.

stock_items

What can be stocked

Exact media and frame products, units, compatibility and default package conversion.

stock_sites

Where stock belongs

One pool per location, plus occasional Artisan or partner storage.

replenishment_requests + lines

What a location asks for

A request and its individual supply lines, including the package quantities entered by a person.

deliveries + lines

What is being shipped

Supplier or internal source, destination, tracking, documents, quantities and latest damaged or missing claim.

consumption_profiles + lines

What a print should use

Reusable recipes linking a physical output to exact media and frame quantities.

stock_events

Why the number changed

Receipts, print consumption, transfers, waste, adjustments and exact reversals. This append-only history is the stock truth.

Deliberately not included

No racks, shelves, bins, picking waves, reservations, complex ownership or warehouse routing. The operation does not currently need them.

Protected by design

Retries cannot duplicate stock, old events cannot be edited, recipe quantities are exact, and later configuration changes cannot rewrite historical meaning.