Several businesses might choose to use new employees in the shipping and receiving area, though they might be better served to allocate professionals to handle these demanding tasks. Experienced people who understand and know the products rarely mix objects that might look the same but are somewhat different and they truly know how to correctly stock shelves and bins and thus, work a lot more efficiently.
The best suggestion for new staff is to start them out filling orders. This provides them with a terrific opportunity to know the products, customers and paperwork as well as any electronic inventory system that can take some getting used to. Additionally, it is easy to check their efficiency by going over their work orders as soon as they are packed for shipment.
The next tip 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 will eliminate pressure on receivers and shippers and also eliminate excessive waiting time in the yard. The more efficiently you could plan the arrival of your trucks, the fewer dock doors you will need to work which will really save you a lot of money on utilities in the long run.
Operate with different shifts for shipping and receiving. If you can, receive goods during one shift and separate your shipping to another shift. Organizing yourself in this manner may allow you to lessen the staging area requirements by 50%. You may also be able to eliminate time-wasting bottlenecks within the warehouse. Also, by separating your shipping and receiving, you would know which shift to look over if any discrepancies occur down the road and could keep track of orders more efficiently.
Speed up the unloading process. This will really 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 research, around 60 percent of mass merchants are capable of unloading trucks in less than 60 minutes, whereas around 20 to 30% of the grocery business performs at a similar standard. Make time to watch and time operations in order to see precisely 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 greatly reduce productivity. Uneven floors or deteriorating floor section seams or potholes also lead to wheel wear and vehicle damage. In some situations, really damaged floors could lead to loads tipping and product damage.