Another favorable result obtained through this system is that the shipping clerk retains an original copy of the order (the copy sent in by the salesman) and is enabled therefore to follow up all departments and hurry up any department which may be delinquent in the filling of a certain order. In planning work, it is always advisable to have one department act as a follow-up on some other department. In the grocery business, it is much more satisfactory for the shipping clerk to have a complete record of all the orders to be shipped that day, than to hand the original orders into the warehouse to be sent down to the shipping department after the order has been entirely filled, and then have the shipping clerk rushed _at the last minute_ to plan his loads and do all of the clerical work, such as making up bills of lading, etc.
The next improvement was necessitated by a desire on the part of those wholesale groceries which are located in cities having an efficient interurban electric car service to fill orders at different hours of the day. One western firm transcribed all of its orders on cylinder billing machines, giving the shipping clerk a full copy of the order, and each department a copy of the items which are to be filled from that department only. On the shipping clerk's copy, the notation _11 A.M._, is marked, also on all of the department order slips. This indicates that the order is to be shipped on the 11 o'clock car. Other stationery is printed with the _1 P.M._, _2 P.M._, _3 P.M._, _4 P.M._, _5 P.M._ to indicate the hours at which the orders are to be shipped. Many small retail merchants delay ordering until the last minute, and the wholesale house which can give the promptest service gets the business. The above plan advises the shipping department the time that the goods are to be delivered, and makes it responsible for results. All delays are noted, and a daily report made of the causes, which are promptly investigated and removed.
=Split Orders.= Some wholesale drug houses have their stock arranged on different floors, of which their salesmen are fully advised. If the salesman takes an order for goods which are held in stock on four different floors, he sends in the order on four sheets of paper with the items for each floor written on the respective sheets which indicate the respective floors. Different-colored sheets of paper are used for the various floors. This scheme puts more clerical work on the salesmen, but it enables the office to quickly hand each department its part of the order without the delay of transcribing the department slips on the typewriter at the office. In all order schemes where an order is split up and written on several sheets of paper in order that each department may fill the order without delay, the term _split orders_ is used. In all split-order schemes, the number of sheets in which the order has been divided is written on each sheet. For instance, if there are departmental order sheets for three different floors, the figure 3 is marked on each slip. In this way the biller, by counting the number of sheets attached to the complete order, will know that all of the split-order sheets have been returned to the office. Fig. 17 illustrates this system of orders. The three blank sheets at the top are departmental order sheets, and each contains _only a part_ of the whole order. This is accomplished by removing one departmental sheet at a time from the billing machine, but allowing the three top sheets to remain in the machine until the entire order is written.
