Even if there are many businesses that start workers in the receiving area, they would be a lot better off to assign pro's to handle the put-away jobs. Qualified people who know and understand the products seldom mix things which are similar in appearance but are somewhat different and they know how to correctly stock shelves and bins and hence, work a lot more effectively.
It is a great idea if you have new employees to start them out by filling orders. This provides them with a great opportunity to know the products, paperwork and clients along with any electronic inventory system that might take some getting used to. In addition, it is easy to check their effectiveness by going over their work orders as soon as they are packed for shipment.
Because you do not want to have many trucks arriving at the same time, the next step is to schedule truck arrival. By being organized and planning arrivals, you will eliminate too much waiting time in the yard and also eliminate pressure on shippers and receivers. The more efficiently you can plan the arrival of your trucks, the less dock doors you will need to operate which will save you money on utilities in the long run.
Operate with different shifts for shipping and receiving. If you are able to, receive products during one shift and separate your shipping to a different shift. Organizing yourself in this way may enable you to reduce the staging area requirements by 50%. You might also be able to get rid of time-wasting bottlenecks in the warehouse. As well, by separating your shipping and receiving, you would know which shift to look over if any discrepancies occur down the road and can keep track of orders more efficiently.
Speed up the unloading process. This would tremendously help you out since the longer a truck sits at your door for loading or unloading, the more congested your yard can become. According to studies, approximately 60 percent of mass merchants are capable of unloading trucks in less than an hour, whilst approximately 20 to 30% of the grocery industry works at a similar standard. Make time to observe and time operations to be able to see how your facility measures up overall.
Maintain your floors since any defects in the floor's surface could cause a lift truck operator to take a detour or slow down. The uneven floors can greatly decrease productivity. Deteriorating floor section seams or uneven floors or potholes also lead to wheel wear and vehicle damage. In certain situations, floors which are really damaged can result in loads tipping and product damage.