Listen instead on your Monday Morning Drive:

I’m puzzled by how many business owners and operations managers view order scrubbing as a challenge.

When I ask them about their current process, their responses often leave me scratching my head. This simple task has become a universal headache — but we can streamline it for better efficiency.

The Myth of the Many-Eyed Monster

It’s time to scrub a new order. What does that process look like in your company?

If you’re like many of the businesses I consult, you might have as many as five people involved — department heads, project managers, senior production managers — all putting their stamp of approval on the order.

At first glance, this sounds great. After all, the more smart people looking at something, the less likely we are to make mistakes, right?

Wrong. The opposite often happens.

When several talented people review an order, they trust the others will catch any errors. The result? Three people might look at an order, and none of them actually prevent mistakes because they assume someone else has already done so.

Rethinking the Scrubbing Process

Many view scrubbing as a high-level process requiring extensive expertise. But it’s not as complex as owners often make it out.

Order scrubbing is like proofreading. A proofreader doesn’t assess whether your story or theory is correct. Instead, they focus on grammar, punctuation, and overall coherence.

That’s exactly how to approach order scrubbing.

When I scrub an order, I’m not deciding whether two screens or four is the better solution for a show. That’s not my call. My job is to ensure we’re sending the right equipment to fulfill the approach we’ve committed to for this job.

Bridging the Air Gaps

One key aspect of effective order scrubbing is identifying what I call “air gaps.” These are the spaces between systems where connections might be missing.

For instance, how does the sound system in the lobby connect to the one in the ballroom for announcements? I don’t need to know the exact technological solution, but I do need to flag these gaps and know who to ask about bridging them.

This approach becomes even easier with predefined systems and kits. All you need to do is identify where one system ends and another begins, ensuring no details fall through the cracks.

Simplifying the Process: Packages, Systems, and Kits

To truly streamline order scrubbing, we need to start at the beginning: the order creation process. This is where the disconnect between sales and operations often creates complexity.

The solution? A clear hierarchy of packages, systems, and kits:

1. Packages: The terminology salespeople use to describe offerings to customers
2. Systems: How we package kits for consistent reuse
3. Kits: Checklists of items within systems

This hierarchy bridges the gap between customer-facing language and show crew terminology, simplifying the scrubbing process.

The Feedback Loop: Your Secret Weapon

Many owners forget that scrubbing isn’t the final step.

Once I’ve reviewed an order and determined what we’re sending, I pass it along to the show crew: project managers, department leads, and anyone responsible for the outcome.

This step allows the experts in each area to confirm that the equipment meets the customer’s needs and expectations. They’re not looking at the entire scrubbed order, just their specific purview. This targeted feedback for the scrubber can lead to future improvements in systems, kits, or the scrubber’s own process.

Without this feedback loop, the whole system falls apart. It’s the key to continuous improvement and efficiency.

Addressing the “Too Much Gear” Concern

I often hear concerns that this system will result in sending out more equipment than necessary. “We’ll need bigger trucks!” owners exclaim. “We’ll have to send so much gear!”

You might send a bit more gear than before, but it won’t be a ridiculous amount. The point of creating systems is to design them for your specific work, not all scenarios.

You can absolutely design systems sensitive to weight and volume. And here’s a hard truth: if you suddenly need a bigger truck to send the right gear, you weren’t sending the right size truck in the first place.

The Real Impact: Time and Money Savings

You might be thinking, “Okay, this could help me scrub orders a bit better, but do I really need to revamp my entire order writing process?”

My challenge to you is this: Audit your time. Take a hard look at how long it takes you to:

1. Write a quote and get it reviewed
2. Take a confirmed order and prep it
3. Fix mistakes found during the order scrubbing and prep process

These are the problems we’re solving. A company with well-defined packages, systems, and kits and a simplified order scrubbing process writes orders in one-tenth the time and preps orders in half the time compared to its competitors.

The Bottom Line

The time savings here are enormous, and you’ll see improvements in consistency, too. This translates directly to more money made, happier field staff, and more satisfied customers.

Order scrubbing doesn’t have to be the complex, time-consuming process many owners make it out to be. By rethinking our approach, implementing clear systems, and focusing on targeted feedback, we can turn this dreaded task into a streamlined, efficient part of our operations.

Ready to revolutionize your order scrubbing process? It’s easier than you think — and the payoff is worth the effort.