What a cargo stream map should show that a column of numbers will not

A column that says 140 pallets landed on Tuesday does not tell you that forty of them sat in a corridor behind the bonded cage until Thursday. Throughput is a boast. Dwell is a location.

When we map a stream, the live path is a hard line: gate, receiving stamp, hold, pick, dispatch. The dead pockets get a burnt wash — not because we enjoy theatre, but because a photocopy still shows them. Typical pockets in Georgian dry sheds: the damage island, the “temporary” cage that outlived the renovation, the mezzanine nobody staffs after two.

A map that only traces the intended path is a fire-escape drawing. Useful in a different meeting. For monitoring, the host must be willing to walk the ugly rooms. If they will not open the cage, we mark the door and write that the stream is incomplete. Incomplete is honest. A pretty intended path is not.