Several businesses may prefer to use new workers in the shipping and receiving area, although they may be better served to assign professionals to handle these demanding jobs. Qualified people who really understand and know the products seldom mix things which are similar in appearance but are quite different and they know how to properly stock shelves and bins and hence, work more effectively.
It is a good 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 as well as any electronic inventory system that might take some getting used to. Furthermore, it is easy to check their effectiveness by going over their work orders once they are packed for delivery.
The next tip is to schedule the truck arrival, since you truly do not want all trucks to come at the same time. By being organized and scheduling arrivals, you will eliminate excessive 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 have to operate that would save you money on utilities in the long run.
Work with different shifts for shipping and receiving. If you can, receive goods in one shift and separate your shipping to another shift. Organizing yourself in this manner could allow you to lessen the staging area requirements by 50%. You might also be able to eliminate time-wasting bottlenecks in the warehouse. Also, by separating your shipping and receiving, you can keep track of orders more effectively and will know which shift to look over if any discrepancies happen down the road.
Speed up the unloading process. This would tremendously help you out as the longer a truck sits at your door for loading or unloading, the more congested your yard could become. Based on research, around 60% of mass merchants are capable of unloading trucks in under an hour, while approximately 20 to 30 percent of the grocery business performs at a similar standard. Make time to observe and time operations in order to see precisely how your facility measures up overall.
Floor maintenance is important since floor defects can cause lift truck operators to slow down or take detours. This may result in a reduction of efficiency. Deteriorating floor section seams or uneven floors or potholes also cause wheel wear and vehicle damage. In some situations, floors which are really damaged could result in product damage and loads tipping.