Several businesses may choose to use new employees in the shipping and receiving area, although they might be better served to allocate pros to handle these difficult tasks. Qualified individuals who really understand and know the products rarely mix things which are similar in appearance but are somewhat different and they know how to stock shelves and bins properly and thus, work more efficiently.
It is a great idea if you have new employees to start them out by filling orders. This provides them with an excellent opportunity to learn the products, paperwork and customers along with any electronic inventory system that 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.
Because you do not want to have a lot of trucks arriving at the same time, the next step is to schedule truck arrival. By scheduling arrivals and being organized, you would eliminate pressure on shippers and receivers and also eliminate too much waiting time in the yard. The more efficiently you could schedule the arrival of your trucks, the fewer dock doors you would have to operate which would truly 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 way could enable you to reduce the staging area requirements by 50 percent. You might also be able to get rid of time-wasting bottlenecks in the warehouse. Additionally, 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 effectively.
Speed up the process of unloading. This would really help you out since the longer a truck sits at your door for loading or unloading, the more congested your yard can become. According to research, about 60 percent of mass merchants could unload trucks in under 60 minutes, whereas about 20 to 30% of the grocery industry works 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 crucial as floor defects can cause forklift operators to take detours or slow down. This may result in a reduction of efficiency. Uneven floors or deteriorating floor section seams or potholes also lead to wheel wear and vehicle damage. In certain cases, floors that are really damaged can lead to loads tipping and product damage.