Even though there are a lot of businesses who begin employees in the receiving area, they would be a lot better off to assign professionals to deal with the put-away tasks. Experienced people who know and understand the products rarely mix things which may seem the same but are somewhat different and they know how to stock shelves and bins correctly and thus, work much more effectively.
It is a good idea if you have new employees to start them out by filling orders. This provides them with a great opportunity to learn the products, paperwork and customers as well as any electronic inventory system that could take some getting used to. Furthermore, it is easy to check their efficiency by going over their work orders when they are packed for shipment.
As you do not want to have lots of trucks arriving at the same time, the next step is to plan truck arrival. By planning arrivals and being organized, you will eliminate excessive waiting time in the yard and also eliminate pressure on receivers and shippers. The more effectively you could plan the arrival of your trucks, the less dock doors you will have to operate which would really save you money on utilities in the long run.
Operate with different shifts for shipping and receiving. If you are able to, receive goods during one shift and separate your shipping to a different shift. Organizing yourself in this way may allow you to lessen the staging area requirements by 50%. You may also be able to eliminate time-wasting bottlenecks within the warehouse. Furthermore, by separating your shipping and receiving, you can keep track of orders more effectively and will know which shift to look over if any discrepancies happen down the road.
If the unloading process is sped up, this would really help you out because the unloaded truck could congest your yard. Based on studies, about 60% of mass merchants could unload trucks in under 60 minutes, whilst roughly 20 to 30 percent of the grocery business works at a similar standard. Take time to watch and time operations in order to see exactly how your facility measures up overall.
Maintain your floors since any defects in the floor's surface can cause a lift truck operator to slow down or take a detour. The uneven floors could greatly reduce efficiency. Deteriorating floor section seams or uneven floors or potholes also lead to wheel wear and vehicle damage. In some situations, floors that are really damaged could lead to loads tipping and product damage.