Several businesses might prefer to utilize new employees in the shipping and receiving area, although they might be better served to assign professionals to deal with these challenging jobs. Qualified people who know and understand the products seldom mix items which might look the same but are quite different and they know how to stock bins and shelves properly 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 an excellent opportunity to know the products, clients and paperwork as well as any electronic inventory system which can take some getting used to. Moreover, it is really easy to check their efficiency by going over their work orders as soon as they are packed for delivery.
The next suggestion is to plan the truck arrival, because you truly do not want all trucks to arrive at the same time. By being organized and planning arrivals, you would eliminate pressure on shippers and receivers and also eliminate excessive waiting time in the yard. The more efficiently you can plan the arrival of your trucks, the fewer dock doors you would have to operate which would truly save you a lot of money on utilities in the long run.
If you can, work different shifts for shipping and receiving. One method is to receive products during one shift and separate the shipped products to another shift. Organizing yourself in this way can allow you to reduce the staging area needs by 50 percent. You might also be able to eliminate time-wasting bottlenecks in the warehouse. Moreover, by separating your shipping and receiving, you could keep track of orders more efficiently and will know which shift to look over if any discrepancies happen down the road.
Speed up the unloading process. This will tremendously help you out as the longer a truck sits at your door for unloading or loading, the more congested your yard can become. Based on studies, around 60% of mass merchants can unload trucks in less than an hour, whilst roughly 20 to 30% of the grocery industry performs at a similar standard. Take time to observe and time operations in order to see how your facility measures up overall.
Floor maintenance is important as floor defects may cause lift truck operators to slow down or take detours. This can result in a reduction of efficiency. Deteriorating floor section seams or uneven floors or potholes also result in wheel wear and vehicle damage. In certain situations, floors that are really damaged can cause loads tipping and product damage.