Some businesses might choose to utilize new workers in the shipping and receiving area, although they may be better served to assign pros to deal with these challenging jobs. Experienced individuals who really know and understand the products seldom mix things which are similar in appearance but are somewhat different and they know how to correctly stock bins and shelves and thus, work more efficiently.
The best suggestion for new employees is to start them out filling orders. This provides them with an excellent opportunity to know the products, paperwork and customers along with any electronic inventory system that may take some getting used to. Furthermore, it is easy to check their effectiveness by going over their work orders once they are packed for shipment.
Because you do not want to have a lot of trucks arriving at the same time, the next step is to plan truck arrival. 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 effectively you could plan the arrival of your trucks, the less dock doors you would need to work which will save you money on utilities in the long run.
If you are able to, operate different shifts for shipping and receiving. One method is to receive products during one shift and separate the shipped items to another shift. Organizing yourself in this manner may enable you to reduce the staging area needs by 50%. You may also be able to get rid of time-wasting bottlenecks within the warehouse. Additionally, 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 occur down the road.
Speed up the process of unloading. This will tremendously help you out since the longer a truck sits at your door for unloading or loading, the more congested your yard could become. Based on studies, roughly 60 percent of mass merchants are capable of unloading trucks in under 60 minutes, whereas about 20 to 30 percent of the grocery business works at a similar standard. Take 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 can cause a forklift operator to take a detour or slow down. The uneven floors could really reduce efficiency. Potholes or uneven floors or deteriorating floor section seams also result in vehicle damage and wheel wear. In some cases, really damaged floors could result in product damage and loads tipping.