Even though there are many businesses that begin employees in the receiving area, they would be much better off to allot professionals to handle the put-away jobs. Experienced people who understand and know the products seldom mix items which are similar in appearance but are somewhat different and they really 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 a great chance to learn the products, paperwork and customers along with 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 once they are packed for delivery.
The next tip is to schedule the truck arrival, as you really do not want all trucks to arrive at the same time. By scheduling arrivals and being organized, you would eliminate pressure on receivers and shippers and also eliminate excessive waiting time in the yard. The more efficiently you can plan the arrival of your trucks, the less dock doors you would need to work that would save you money on utilities in the long run.
Work with different shifts for shipping and receiving. If you are able to, receive goods during one shift and separate your shipping to another shift. Organizing yourself in this manner may enable you to reduce the staging area needs by 50 percent. You may also be able to eliminate time-wasting bottlenecks in the warehouse. Furthermore, by separating your shipping and receiving, you can keep track of orders more effectively and would know which shift to look over if any discrepancies happen down the road.
If the unloading process is sped up, this will 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 under an hour, whilst around 20 to 30% of the grocery business performs at a similar standard. Make time to watch and time operations to be able to see precisely how your facility measures up overall.
Maintain your floors since any defects in the surface of the floor can cause a forklift operator to take a detour or slow down. The uneven floors could really reduce efficiency. Deteriorating floor section seams or uneven floors or potholes also result in wheel wear and vehicle damage. In some cases, floors which are really damaged can cause product damage and loads tipping.