Even if there are many businesses who begin workers in the receiving area, they would be much better off to assign pro's to handle the put-away jobs. Qualified individuals who truly understand and know the products rarely mix items which are similar in appearance but are somewhat different and they know how to stock bins and shelves properly and therefore, work much more efficiently.
It is a great idea if you have new staff to start them out by filling orders. This provides them with a terrific opportunity to know the products, paperwork and customers along with any electronic inventory system that could take some getting used to. Additionally, it is very easy to check their effectiveness by going over their work orders as soon as they are packed for delivery.
The next suggestion is to schedule the truck arrival, as you truly do not want all trucks to arrive at the same time. By being organized and scheduling arrivals, you will eliminate too much waiting time in the yard and also eliminate pressure on shippers and receivers. The more efficiently you can plan the arrival of your trucks, the less dock doors you will need to operate which will really save you a lot of money on utilities in the long run.
Work with different shifts for shipping and receiving. If you can, receive goods during one shift and separate your shipping to a different shift. Organizing yourself in this way could allow you to reduce the staging area requirements by 50%. You might also be able to get rid of time-wasting bottlenecks in the warehouse. In addition, by separating your shipping and receiving, you would know which shift to look over if any discrepancies happen down the road and could keep track of orders more effectively.
Speed up the process of unloading. This will tremendously help you out since the longer a truck sits at your door for loading or unloading, the more congested your yard could become. Based on research, around 60% of mass merchants can unload trucks in under 60 minutes, while roughly 20 to 30% of the grocery business performs at a similar standard. Make time to observe and time operations to be able to see how your facility measures up overall.
Floor maintenance is key as floor defects can cause forklift operators to slow down or take detours. This may lead to a reduction of productivity. Uneven floors or deteriorating floor section seams or potholes also result in vehicle damage and wheel wear. In some cases, floors that are really damaged can cause loads tipping and product damage.