Internal Operating Manual · v10.0
The GFS Playbook
How we communicate, decide, and ship.
Operating Principles
We work like a small kitchen that ships nationally.
Global Food Solutions is a 131,000 square foot facility on Heartland Boulevard with the operating cadence of a tight, fast kitchen. Decisions land in hours, not days. Pallets move in waves. Every line item ties to a contract, a bid, and a delivery window. The team is small enough that everyone knows the dock floor and large enough to feed K-12 districts, USDA programs, hospitals, and shelters at pallet scale.
This playbook is the operating manual. It covers how we write, meet, decide, escalate, and close out work. Read it once. Reference it when in doubt. Edit it when reality changes.
Core Operating Principles
01
SPEED
Decisions same-day. If you need a week, you need a different question.
02
OWNERSHIP
Raise it, own it. The person who flags the problem drives it to close.
03
EVIDENCE
Show data, not opinions. If you cannot link the number, the claim does not stand.
04
PALETTE
Stay flat, stay technical. No hype, no decoration, no theater.
05
RESPECT
Customer, vendor, peer — in that order. Everyone leaves the call intact.
■ If a decision breaks one of these five, escalate to Mike before you ship.
Voice & Tone
Do — write like this
Plain English over jargon.Say what happened. Say what you need.
Verbs over adjectives.Lead with the action. Cut the colorful word.
Numbers always have a unit.1,247 cs. 68,400 lbs. $124,500. Never naked.
Errors say what broke and how to fix.State the failure, then the next step.
Subject lines lead with the action needed.[ACTION] tag, then the topic, then the deadline.
Don't — avoid this
No circle back or synergize.Buzzwords stall the work. Say what you mean.
No emojis in customer-facing copy.Internal Slack only. Never in email or quote.
No reply-all unless 4+ people need it.Default to the smallest necessary thread.
No oops.State the issue, the cause, and the fix. Apologize precisely.
No CAPS LOCK.Emphasis lives in the verb, not the keycap.
■ If a sentence could appear in a SaaS landing page, rewrite it.
Brand Lexicon
PalletUse "pallet" not "skid" in every channel.
CustomerUse "customer" not "client." We ship product, not engagements.
Cold ChainUse "cold chain" not "cold storage." It is a process, not a room.
USDA Brown BoxFormal name. Never abbreviate as "BB" externally.
Heartland BlvdRefer to the facility by street, not "the building" or "HQ."
WaveA picking batch. Not "run," not "round," not "pull."
ReeferReserved for refrigerated trailers. Not a freezer, not a cooler.
HubThe corporate dashboard. Capitalize when referring to it as a system.
LotEvery receive carries a lot. Use the full lot number, never a nickname.
BidA formal RFP response. Quotes are not bids. Bids are not quotes.
■ If a word is not in this list, default to plain English. When in doubt, ask.
Email Standards
Rules. Subject line carries the action and the deadline. Opening line states the ask. Body is three short paragraphs or fewer. Numbers carry units. Sign with name, role, and direct phone. No taglines, no animated GIFs, no auto-quotes.
SAMPLE
Subject: [ACTION] Re: Bid 5875 NYC DOE — Decision needed by 5pm
Mike,
NYC DOE bid 5875 closes Friday 5pm. We need a go / no-go on the cheese block line before 5pm today so pricing can finalize.
Margin at current cost: 14.2%. Floor is 11%. CME trailing week is up 3.4%.
Volume: 12 pallets per week. Term: 12 months.
Reply Y/N. Full bid packet in Dropbox.
— First Last
Pricing, GFS
631.555.0100
■ If the recipient cannot answer your subject line in 10 seconds, rewrite the subject line.
Meeting Standards
01AGENDASent 24 hours ahead. No agenda, no meeting.
02ATTENDOnly required people. Optional invites get the notes.
03NOTESCaptured during the meeting. Posted within one hour.
04ACTIONSEvery action has an owner and a date. No date, no action.
■ A meeting without a written outcome is a missed shift. Reschedule before you continue.
Decision Framework
01RAISEDIssue identified, written down, owner named.
02EVIDENCEData pulled from NetSuite, Hub, or vendor records.
03OPTIONSTwo or three options compared with cost, risk, and timing.
04DECIDEDMike or a VP signs off. Decision recorded with rationale.
05LOGGEDLogged in Hub. Linked to bid, customer, or vendor record.
Escalation rule. If a decision is needed in under four hours, call Mike directly. Do not email. Do not text. Call.
■ Decisions live in Hub, not in email threads. Email is for delivery, not memory.
Cold Chain Rules
Pre-cool. Reefer pre-cool 30 minutes before loading. Log start and end temp.
Lot trace. Lot trace every pallet at receive. No exceptions for "rush" loads.
Temp log. Temperature log photo at every dock-to-truck transfer. File to lot record.
Failed temp. Failed temp equals quarantine and immediate notification to QA. Do not move the pallet.
Damage claims. Customer-facing damage claims filed within 48 hours of delivery. Photos required.
No exceptions. Ever. The cold chain is the product.
■ A broken cold chain ends the contract. Treat every transfer as the one being audited.
Communication Channels
Phone Call
Urgent < 4 hours
Anything time-critical, dock-floor, or customer-facing same-day. If it cannot wait, call.
Email
Default documented
External, deliverables, approvals, anything you need to find again in 90 days.
Slack
Internal quick chat
Coordination, status pings, links. Not for decisions. Not for customer threads.
NetSuite Note
Transactional record
Permanent record on a transaction. Comments, not messages. Lives forever on the record.
Text / SMS
After-hours only
Emergencies outside business hours. Confirm with a follow-up email next morning.
Michael's Phone
Everything else
When the path is unclear, call Mike. The fastest unblocker in the building.
■ Pick the channel that matches the half-life of the message.
Customer Response Standards
First Response
< 4h
Quote Turnaround
< 24h
Bid Submission
< 48h
Issue Resolution
< 24h
■ If you cannot meet a window, write the customer before the window closes. Silence is the failure.
Bid Standards
T-21 days
RECEIVED
Bid logged in Hub. Lead assigned. Specs reviewed.
T-14 days
REVIEWED
Item match against catalog. Gaps escalated.
T-10 days
PRICED
Costs pulled. Margin set. Floor confirmed.
T-7 days
REVIEWED BY MIKE
Mike signs off on pricing and exposure.
T-3 days
SUBMITTED
Bid uploaded. Confirmation captured.
T-0
DEADLINE
Response deadline closes. No late submits.
T+?
AWARD OR DECLINE
Outcome logged. Lessons captured.
■ A bid is a contract once awarded. Price every line as if it ships tomorrow.
Net 30 & Credit Terms
Net 30Default terms for established customers. Invoice date plus 30.
Late fee1.5% per month on past-due balances. Stated on every invoice.
ACH preferredACH is the preferred remit method. Checks accepted, cards by exception.
COD on first orderFirst order from any new customer ships COD until the credit app clears.
Credit app requiredRequired for any account expected to exceed $10,000 in 12 months.
Hold authorityAccounting can put any account on credit hold. Release requires Mike.
■ Terms protect the cold chain. A pallet shipped on broken terms is a pallet shipped at risk.
Quality Holds & QA Protocol
01FLAGGEDAny anomaly at receive, pick, or load triggers a flag.
02QUARANTINEDLot moved to hold zone. Tag printed. NetSuite status updated.
03INVESTIGATEDQA reviews documents, vendor record, and physical sample.
04RELEASED OR DESTROYEDOutcome logged. Vendor notified if cause is upstream.
Lot 6022 — supplier label mismatch. Released after relabel. Q4 2024.
Lot 6188 — temperature excursion in transit. Held 72 hours, released to non-USDA channel. Q1 2025.
Lot 6241 — foreign material flagged at QA inspection. Destroyed. Vendor credit issued. Q2 2025.
Lot 6390 — pallet wrap breach. Re-stretched and released. Q3 2025.
Lot 6502 — documentation gap at receive. Released after vendor COA received. Q1 2026.
■ A hold is not a delay. It is the system working as designed.
Bid Win / Loss Review
2024 Q4Win rate 68%. Baseline quarter before pricing pipeline rebuild.
2025 Q1Win rate 71%. First quarter on the new bid intake flow.
2025 Q2Win rate 74%. Margin floor enforced on every line.
2025 Q3Win rate 72%. Two large losses on aggressive school-district bids.
2025 Q4Win rate 76%. USDA brown box conversion lifted the mix.
2026 Q1Win rate 78%. Pricing pipeline and CME trailing-week tracking in production.
■ Every loss gets a written debrief. Every win gets a renewal plan inside 30 days.
NetSuite Discipline
Comments not messagesAlways use NetSuite comments. Messages get lost. Comments stay on the record.
PO brand fieldPO brand equals the department field. Do not invent custom fields.
Searchable namingCustomer and vendor names match the legal entity. No nicknames in the record.
Lot trace every receiveEvery receive records a lot. Receives without a lot are kicked back to the dock.
Close out same-dayTransactions are closed the same business day. No open POs past 24 hours.
Approval workflows are realApproval workflows exist for a reason. Do not route around them.
■ NetSuite is the system of record. If it is not in NetSuite, it did not happen.
Documentation Standards
File nameskebab-case-only.pdf. No spaces. No capitals. No special characters.
Date formatYYYY-MM-DD in file names. May 22, 2026 in body text.
Versionv1, v2, v3 as a suffix. No "final," no "FINAL-FINAL," no "v2-mike-edits."
DropboxDropbox is the source of truth for documents and working files.
NetSuiteNetSuite is the source of truth for transactions, customers, and vendors.
HubHub is the index. Decisions and dashboards link back to Dropbox or NetSuite.
■ Two sources of truth equal zero sources of truth. Pick the right home and stay there.
AI & Tooling
Claude
CodeXBar widget
Primary AI co-pilot. Pricing, bids, dashboards, deep research. Lives in the desktop widget.
CursorBar
Broker portals
Cursor-driven workflow for broker portal automation and structured form fills.
CodexBar
Desktop AI
Codex CLI for adversarial review, audit, and rescue runs alongside Claude.
NetSuite AI Agents
Inside NetSuite
SuiteAttach, Chartstone, SuiteQL agents. Embedded directly in the ERP surface.
■ AI accelerates the work. It does not replace the decision. The decision stays with the human.
Things We Don't Do
Operational nos
We don't outsource the dock floor.Loading and receiving stay with our team. The dock is the brand.
We don't use stock photography.Every image shows real product, real pallets, real Heartland.
We don't sign anything we can't deliver.If the spec is wrong, fix it before the signature, not after.
We don't compete on price alone.We compete on reliability, traceability, and on-time delivery.
We don't ghost a vendor.If the answer is no, the vendor hears it the same week.
We don't ship on Friday after 3pm.Weekend delivery risk is not worth the line item.
■ The list is short on purpose. If you find yourself adding to it weekly, something else is off.
Quick Reference
■ The Playbook tells you how. The other pages tell you what and where.