Even if there are a lot of companies who begin workers in the receiving area, they will be a lot better off to allot professionals to deal with the put-away jobs. Experienced people who understand and know the products rarely mix things which might seem the same but are somewhat different and they truly know how to stock bins and shelves correctly and thus, 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 chance to learn the products, paperwork and clients as well as any electronic inventory system which can take some getting used to. In addition, it is easy to check their efficiency by going over their work orders as soon as they are packed for delivery.
The next suggestion is to plan the truck arrival, as you really do not want all trucks to come at the same time. By planning arrivals and being organized, you would eliminate too much waiting time in the yard and also eliminate pressure on receivers and shippers. The more efficiently you could plan the arrival of your trucks, the fewer dock doors you will have to operate which would really save you money on utilities in the long run.
If you can, operate different shifts for shipping and receiving. One method is to receive products in one shift and separate the shipped products to a different shift. Organizing yourself in this way may enable you to lessen the staging area needs by 50%. You might also be able to get rid of time-wasting bottlenecks in the warehouse. Also, by separating your shipping and receiving, you could keep track of orders more effectively and will know which shift to look over if any discrepancies occur down the road.
Speed up the unloading process. This will tremendously help you out as the longer a truck sits at your door for loading or unloading, the more congested your yard could become. Based on studies, around 60 percent of mass merchants could unload trucks in less than 60 minutes, whereas roughly 20 to 30% of the grocery business performs at a similar standard. Take time to watch and time operations in order to see how your facility measures up overall.
Floor maintenance is important since floor defects could cause forklift operators to take detours or slow down. This can result in a reduction of efficiency. Potholes or deteriorating floor section seams or uneven floors also cause vehicle damage and wheel wear. In certain cases, really damaged floors could result in loads tipping and product damage.