Even if there are many businesses that begin employees in the receiving area, they would be much better off to assign professionals to deal with the put-away jobs. Experienced individuals who truly know and understand the products seldom mix items that may seem the same but are somewhat different and they really know how to properly stock shelves and bins and thus, work more efficiently.
It is a great idea if you have new employees to start them out by filling orders. This provides them with an excellent chance to learn the products, paperwork and clients along with any electronic inventory system which might take some getting used to. Furthermore, it is easy to check their efficiency by going over their work orders when they are packed for delivery.
The next tip is to schedule the truck arrival, as you really do not want all trucks to come at the same time. By scheduling arrivals and being organized, you would eliminate excessive waiting time in the yard and also eliminate pressure on shippers and receivers. The more effectively you could plan the arrival of your trucks, the less dock doors you would need to work which would save you a lot of money on utilities in the long run.
If you can, operate different shifts for shipping and receiving. One method is to receive goods during one shift and separate the shipped items to another shift. Organizing yourself in this way could enable you to lessen the staging area requirements by 50%. You may also be able to eliminate time-wasting bottlenecks in the warehouse. What's more, by separating your shipping and receiving, you can keep track of orders more efficiently and will know which shift to look over if any discrepancies occur down the road.
Speed up the process of unloading. This would tremendously help you out as the longer a truck sits at your door for unloading or loading, the more congested your yard can become. Based on research, roughly 60% of mass merchants could unload trucks in less than an hour, while around 20 to 30% of the grocery industry performs at a similar standard. Take time to observe and time operations to be able to see how your facility measures up overall.
Floor maintenance is key as floor defects could cause forklift operators to take detours or slow down. This may lead to a reduction of productivity. Uneven floors or deteriorating floor section seams or potholes also lead to vehicle damage and wheel wear. In certain cases, really damaged floors can lead to product damage and loads tipping.