Journal
When the courier book and the software name different crates
If the product says March left the building and the sleeve in the crate says February, believe the sleeve until you have opened it.
Software that tracks off-site media is only as true as the last person who typed a crate number. In Imereti we opened a March sleeve that held February, with a book signed in a tidy hand. Nobody had been dishonest. A new clerk had copied the previous week’s line.
The method is slow on purpose. Visit the office that signs the book. Visit the room where crates sit. Open a sample you are allowed to open. Write the sleeve, the book, and the product on one line. Where they disagree, draw ember and stop.
Do not “reconcile” by editing the software to match the book, or the book to match the software, until someone has seen the media. Relabelling without opening is how February keeps travelling in a March coat.
Archive and off-site mapping exists for this walk. A readiness review that never leaves the machine room will not catch it.