Even if there are lots of businesses who begin employees in the receiving area, they would be a lot better off to assign pro's to deal with the put-away tasks. Experienced people who know and understand the products seldom mix items which are similar in appearance but are quite different and they know how to correctly stock bins and shelves and hence, work a lot more efficiently.
The best suggestion for new employees is to start them out filling orders. This provides them with a great opportunity to know the products, paperwork and clients along with any electronic inventory system that can take some getting used to. Furthermore, it is very easy to check their efficiency by going over their work orders when they are packed for shipment.
The next suggestion is to schedule the truck arrival, since you really do not want all trucks to arrive at the same time. By being organized and planning arrivals, you would eliminate excessive waiting time in the yard and also eliminate pressure on shippers and receivers. The more effectively you could schedule the arrival of your trucks, the less dock doors you would need to operate that will really save you a lot of money on utilities in the long run.
If you are able to, work different shifts for shipping and receiving. One method is to receive goods during one shift and separate the shipped items to another shift. Organizing yourself in this way could enable you to lessen the staging area needs by 50 percent. You might also be able to get rid of time-wasting bottlenecks within the warehouse. Also, by separating your shipping and receiving, you would know which shift to look over if any discrepancies happen down the road and could keep track of orders more efficiently.
Speed up the unloading process. This will really help you out since the longer a truck sits at your door for unloading or loading, the more congested your yard can become. Based on research, roughly 60% of mass merchants are capable of unloading trucks in less than an hour, while roughly 20 to 30% of the grocery industry works at a similar standard. Take time to watch 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 really reduce productivity. Potholes or deteriorating floor section seams or uneven floors also result in vehicle damage and wheel wear. In certain situations, floors which are really damaged can lead to product damage and loads tipping.