Even if there are a lot of businesses who begin employees in the receiving area, they would be much better off to assign professionals to handle the put-away jobs. Experienced people who know and understand the products rarely mix objects which are similar in appearance but are somewhat different and they really know how to stock shelves and bins correctly and thus, work a lot more efficiently.
It is a good idea if you have new employees to start them out by filling orders. This provides them with an excellent chance to know the products, customers and paperwork along with any electronic inventory system which can take some getting used to. Furthermore, it is easy to check their efficiency by going over their work orders once they are packed for delivery.
Because you do not want to have many trucks arriving at the same time, the next step is to plan truck arrival. By being organized and planning arrivals, you will eliminate pressure on receivers and shippers and also eliminate too much waiting time in the yard. The more efficiently you can schedule the arrival of your trucks, the fewer dock doors you would have to operate which will save you a lot of money on utilities in the long run.
Work with different shifts for shipping and receiving. If you are able to, receive products in one shift and separate your shipping to a different shift. Organizing yourself in this way can enable you to lessen the staging area needs by 50 percent. You might also be able to get rid of time-wasting bottlenecks in the warehouse. What's more, by separating your shipping and receiving, you will know which shift to look over if any discrepancies happen down the road and can keep track of orders more efficiently.
Speed up the process of unloading. This would really help you out because the longer a truck sits at your door for loading or unloading, the more congested your yard could become. According to studies, approximately 60% of mass merchants are capable of unloading trucks in under 60 minutes, whilst around 20 to 30 percent of the grocery business performs at a similar standard. Make time to observe and time operations in order to see precisely how your facility measures up overall.
Floor maintenance is crucial since floor defects could cause forklift operators to slow down or take detours. This can result in a reduction of efficiency. Uneven floors or deteriorating floor section seams or potholes also result in wheel wear and vehicle damage. In certain cases, really damaged floors could result in product damage and loads tipping.