IndustriesLogistics & Warehousing
An outbound delay rarely stays in one system. Its history shouldn’t either.
Dispatch hears about it, the WMS logs an exception, the next shift works around it, and facilities fixes a door. AOI connects those records across shifts and systems, so a delay that keeps starting in the same place reads as one problem. It works alongside your WMS and TMS.
What came before the exception
Day 1 · 17:40Shift handoff
Door 14 backed up again at end of shift. Staging lane full, pallets in the aisle.
Day 1 · 18:25Dispatch message
Route 22 still loading at Door 14. Pushing departure 40 minutes.
What the WMS records
WMS · EXC-30918
ClosedWave W-1822 · Door 14
Ship confirm late
- Opened
- Day 1 · 18:30
- Closed
- Day 1 · 21:05
14 days later
What came after it closed
Day 15 · 18:20Dispatch message
Route 22 late out of 14 again. Driver says the plate wouldn’t sit flat.
Day 15 · 18:35WMS · EXC-31377
OpenedWave W-1822: ship confirm late, Door 14.
“A WMS exception can tell you an order shipped late. The traffic around it usually tells you which door, what was in the way, and whether the same thing happened two weeks ago.”
Where an outbound problem gets written down
A late trailer is recorded by the people it affected, in the place each of them works. None of those records is wrong. None of them is the whole thing.
| Source | Who writes it | What it tends to hold |
|---|---|---|
| Shift handoffs | Outgoing shift lead | What shipped, what is staged, and what is backing up. |
| Dispatch messages | Dispatchers and drivers | Pushed departures, detention, and what the driver saw. |
| Supervisor notes | Area supervisors | Workarounds: doors swapped, loads moved, labor shifted. |
| WMS exceptions | The WMS | Late ship confirms and short picks, at the order level. |
| Maintenance notes | Facilities and MHE technicians | What was serviced on a door, a leveler, or a lift. |
| Carrier email | Carriers and transportation | Appointment changes, no-shows, and refused loads. |
- Shift handoffs
- Outgoing shift lead
- What shipped, what is staged, and what is backing up.
- Dispatch messages
- Dispatchers and drivers
- Pushed departures, detention, and what the driver saw.
- Supervisor notes
- Area supervisors
- Workarounds: doors swapped, loads moved, labor shifted.
- WMS exceptions
- The WMS
- Late ship confirms and short picks, at the order level.
- Maintenance notes
- Facilities and MHE technicians
- What was serviced on a door, a leveler, or a lift.
- Carrier email
- Carriers and transportation
- Appointment changes, no-shows, and refused loads.
Your WMS and TMS stay the systems of record. AOI adds the history around them. It replaces neither.
The WMS logged two late orders. The floor was talking about one door.
Eight records in five places over fifteen days, with ordinary dispatch traffic in between. Taken one at a time, each is a single late load that was dealt with.
Outbound · Door 14
Illustrative example. Not customer data.
Day 1
17:40Shift handoff · Days to nights01
Door 14 backed up again at end of shift. Staging lane full, pallets in the aisle.
18:25Dispatch message · Dispatch channel02
Route 22 still loading at Door 14. Pushing departure 40 minutes.
18:30WMS · EXC-30918
Opened03Wave W-1822: ship confirm late, Door 14.
21:05WMS · EXC-30918
Closed04Trailer departed. Exception closed.
Day 2
07:10Supervisor note · Outbound05
Leveler on 14 sticking again. Lifted the lip by hand twice. Moved two loads to Door 12.
10:15Maintenance note · Facilities06
Door 14 leveler: greased the lip hinge, cycled it ten times, running.
Day 5
+3 days
11:30Carrier email · Transportation
Re: Friday pickup
Confirming the Friday pickup window moves to 14:00.
Day 9
+4 days
18:50Dispatch message · Dispatch channel
Route 9 out of Door 12 two hours late. Carrier no-show, rebooked for the morning.
Day 15
+6 days
18:20Dispatch message · Dispatch channel07
Route 22 late out of 14 again. Driver says the plate wouldn’t sit flat.
18:35WMS · EXC-31377
Opened08Wave W-1822: ship confirm late, Door 14.
Day 9 is a late departure too, but from Door 12, and the reason is written down: a carrier no-show. A delay on its own is not enough to connect two records.
Door 14, as one history
The eight records grouped by what they describe rather than where they were filed: one door, two episodes, and two WMS exceptions that were each closed as a separate order.
AOI / Histories / H-0418
IllustrativeOutbound · Door 14
Recurring outbound delay at Door 14
Status
Backed up
D1 17:40
Exception opened
D1 18:30
Exception closed
D1 21:05
Leveler serviced
D2 10:15
Late again
D15 18:20
Episode 1 · Days 1 and 2
Staging backed up behind Door 14, Route 22 left 40 minutes late, and the exception closed once the trailer departed. The next morning a supervisor reported the leveler sticking and facilities serviced it.
13 days after the leveler was serviced
Episode 2 · Day 15
Route 22 late out of the same door, a second WMS exception on the same wave, and a detail from the driver: the plate would not sit flat.
How the AOI demo works · Illustrative
The same two stages, at an outbound door.
The interactive AOI demo works in two stages: first it turns each record into a structured event, then it connects related events into one history. Here are the same two stages applied to Door 14 above.
01Structured events
One record, structured
As written
Day 2 · 07:10Supervisor note · Outbound05
Leveler on 14 sticking again. Lifted the lip by hand twice. Moved two loads to Door 12.
Door 14 dock leveler sticking again. Two loads moved to Door 12.
- Workaround
- Entity
- Door 14
- Area
- Outbound
- Date
- Day 2 · 07:10
- Source
- Supervisor note
- Explicitly stated“Lifted the lip by hand twice. Moved two loads to Door 12.”
- InferredNot the first time: the note says “again”.
- UncertainWhat is making the leveler stick.
Source kept · Supervisor note · Day 2 · 07:10
02Operational memory
Related events, one history
Entity history
Outbound · Door 14
- Recurring
- 8 events
- 2 episodes
- 5 sources
Episode 1 · Days 1 and 26 events
- 01Shift handoff
- 02Dispatch message
- 03WMS exception
- 04WMS exception
- 05Supervisor note
- 06Maintenance note
Quiet 13 days, then activity resumed
Episode 2 · Day 152 events
- 07Dispatch message
- 08WMS exception
Linked by entity and timing · each event keeps its source
Logistics demo · In development
A synthetic distribution center, in development.
We are building a synthetic warehouse and dispatch environment for this page: handoffs, WMS exceptions, and dispatch traffic you can follow from the first record to a door’s history. Until it is ready, the main AOI demo shows the same mechanics in a synthetic lab setting.
All demo information is synthetic.
What the records state, and what they don’t.
- Explicitly stated
Outbound loading at Door 14 ran late in both episodes.
Recorded twice by dispatch and twice by the WMS.
- Inferred
Day 15 is the same problem as Day 1, not a new one.
Same door, same wave, same route, and a leveler complaint on both occasions.
- Uncertain
Whether the staging backlog causes the delay or follows from it.
Both are written down. Nothing in the records says which came first.
AOI shows the pattern and the records behind it. Which way round it runs is still a question for the floor.
Where do your outbound delays keep starting?
We’re looking for a small number of warehouse and distribution teams to test AOI against real handoff, dispatch, and exception history.