Sample chain-of-custody drills that teams actually use

Custody sounds formal, but on the ground it is about who touched what, when, and with which label. We run timed tabletop drills where roles rotate so merchandisers feel analyst pressure and analysts feel hallway noise.

In practice, the drill exposes fuzzy handoffs: a runner signing without reading batch notes, or a lead assuming cold bags were checked when they were not. We stop the clock, rewrite the step, and run it again.

The narrative we give partners is blunt: this is not blame-seeking. It is rehearsal. Retail floors punish ambiguity faster than classrooms.

We leave behind sanitized examples—no client names—that teams can replay internally when SKUs change mid-quarter.