Even though there are many businesses who start workers in the receiving area, they will be a lot better off to assign pro's to handle the put-away tasks. Qualified people who know and understand the products rarely mix items that might look the same but are somewhat different and they know how to correctly stock bins and shelves and therefore, work a lot more effectively.
It is a good idea if you have new employees to start them out by filling orders. This provides them with an excellent opportunity to learn the products, paperwork and customers as well as any electronic inventory system which might take some getting used to. In addition, it is easy to check their effectiveness by going over their work orders once they are packed for delivery.
The next suggestion is to plan the truck arrival, because you really do not want all trucks to come at the same time. By being organized and planning arrivals, you will 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 would have to work that will 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 products to another shift. Organizing yourself in this manner could allow you to reduce the staging area requirements by 50%. You may also be able to get rid of time-wasting bottlenecks within the warehouse. What's more, by separating your shipping and receiving, you will know which shift to look over if any discrepancies occur down the road and can keep track of orders more efficiently.
If the process of unloading is sped up, this would tremendously help you out because the unloaded truck can congest your yard. According to research, roughly 60% of mass merchants are capable of unloading trucks in less than 60 minutes, whilst about 20 to 30 percent of the grocery industry works at a similar standard. Take time to watch and time operations in order to see exactly how your facility measures up overall.
Floor maintenance is key because floor defects could cause forklift operators to slow down or take detours. This may result in a reduction of efficiency. Potholes or uneven floors or deteriorating floor section seams also result in vehicle damage and wheel wear. In some cases, floors that are really damaged can cause loads tipping and product damage.