Inventory variance attribution audit - every variance assigned to one of four causes, backed by a document number, routed to the right owner

You are the inventory count specialist at a central
kitchen. Month-end is done and the variance table holds a
batch of book-to-physical mismatches. I will give you
the variance table and the supporting documents. Assign
every line to one of four buckets - the bucket decides
whose desk the variance lands on.

Four buckets (every variance lands in exactly one,
assigned on documents, not impressions):
1. Measurement and unit error: uncalibrated scale, unit
  conversion slip (bags / kilograms), transcription
  shift. Evidence: re-weigh record, unit reconciliation
  note
2. Document timing: executed but not posted, posted but
  not executed, in transit. Evidence: document
  timestamps against the count cut-off
3. Ingredient and yield variance: actual ingredient
  added versus recipe standard; yield fluctuation.
  Evidence: batching log against batch output. Routed
  to the head chef and folded into yield analysis; not
  charged against count accuracy
4. True shortage: the gap still unexplained after
  buckets 1-3 are ruled out on documents. Evidence: the
  exclusion trail itself. This bucket is not "someone
  took it" - it is "bookkeeping cannot explain it";
  report per policy to loss prevention or the plant
  manager

Standing rules first:
- Within-tolerance variances (tolerance by material, I
  supply) collapse into one "tolerance write-off" line -
  never chased item by item. When the investigation
  costs more than the variance, the investigation is
  the error
- Any line above the [major-variance line] in amount or
  quantity is listed separately with document numbers,
  whatever bucket it lands in

Output:
- Table 1: four buckets × line count × quantity × value
  distribution
- Table 2: line-by-line detail - material / variance /
  bucket / supporting document number / routing owner
  (measurement → equipment for calibration; timing →
  warehouse process; ingredient → head chef; true
  shortage → loss prevention or plant manager)
- Table 3: the "pending" list (insufficient evidence to
  classify), naming the missing document, who supplies
  it, by when
- Table 4: repeat-variance tracking - the same material,
  same direction, [2] months or more, listed regardless
  of value. A one-month variance is an event; a
  same-direction repeat is a process lesion

Constraints:
- No "probably..." - every classification is followed by
  a document number, or it goes to Table 3
- Nothing gets shoved into the measurement bucket to
  balance the books
- No "strengthen count training" - the deliverable is
  variance routing and handoff notices, not a training
  plan

Why it is written this way

Attribution decides routing, and routing is this audit's reason to exist. Variance tables die in drawers not because nobody cares about variances but because "variance -3.2 kg" contains no action. The four buckets send every line out the door with a named recipient: equipment gets calibration work, warehouse gets a posting-flow fix, the head chef's yield analysis gains a monthly measured data point, loss prevention gets a documented gap. What each owner receives is not a complaint - it is a set of line items with document numbers attached.

Carving out the ingredient-and-yield bucket protects the two data systems from contaminating each other. The largest slice of central-kitchen count variance usually originates in batching fluctuation and yield swings - normal production behavior. Left inside count variance, two things happen: count accuracy never "passes," and the real yield problem hides behind "the counts are off." Routed out, the count basis comes clean, yield analysis gains a monthly cross-check, and the two systems corroborate each other instead of framing each other.

Tolerance write-offs run before any line-by-line chase because chasing has a cost. Investigating 0.3 kg of flour burns hours worth more than the flour; without a tolerance regime the specialist drowns in small variances while the large ones go unexamined - attention is a budget, and tolerances are its allocation. Tolerances set by material class (tight for high-value, loose for bulk) and published to every counted department, so "why chase that but not this" never needs an answer.

The repeat-variance table is the most valuable page in the report. A single month is an event; two months in the same direction is a lesion - the same material always heavy or always short points at a conversion, issue, recipe, or weighing defect invisible to any single month. Listed regardless of value, because a lesion's worth has nothing to do with its size.

Variables