Even if there are lots of businesses who start workers in the receiving area, they would be much better off to assign professionals to handle the put-away jobs. Qualified individuals who know and understand the products rarely mix items that might look the same but are somewhat different and they truly know how to properly stock shelves and bins and thus, work more efficiently.
The best tip for new employees is to start them out filling orders. This provides them with an excellent opportunity to know the products, paperwork and customers as well as any electronic inventory system that can 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 shipment.
The next suggestion is to schedule the truck arrival, because you truly 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 can schedule the arrival of your trucks, the fewer dock doors you would need to operate that would save you money on utilities in the long run.
If you are able to, work different shifts for shipping and receiving. One method is to receive products in one shift and separate the shipped items to another shift. Organizing yourself in this manner could enable you to lessen the staging area requirements by 50%. You might also be able to get rid of time-wasting bottlenecks within the warehouse. Furthermore, by separating your shipping and receiving, you could keep track of orders more efficiently and would know which shift to look over if any discrepancies happen down the road.
If the process of unloading is sped up, this would tremendously help you out since the unloaded truck could congest your yard. Based on studies, roughly 60 percent of mass merchants are capable of unloading trucks in under 60 minutes, whereas around 20 to 30 percent of the grocery business performs at a similar standard. Make time to watch and time operations in order to see precisely how your facility measures up overall.
Maintain your floors because any defects in the floor's surface can cause a lift truck operator to take a detour or slow down. The uneven floors can greatly reduce efficiency. Deteriorating floor section seams or uneven floors or potholes also cause wheel wear and vehicle damage. In some situations, floors that are really damaged can lead to loads tipping and product damage.