Several businesses may choose to use new employees in the shipping and receiving area, though they may be better served to assign pros to handle these demanding jobs. Qualified people who understand and know the products rarely mix things that might look the same but are somewhat different and they know how to stock shelves and bins properly and therefore, work much more effectively.
The best tip for new staff is to start them out filling orders. This provides them with an excellent opportunity to learn the products, clients and paperwork along with any electronic inventory system which can 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 suggestion is to schedule the truck arrival, as you truly do not want all trucks to arrive at the same time. By scheduling arrivals and being organized, you would eliminate too much waiting time in the yard and also eliminate pressure on shippers and receivers. The more efficiently you could schedule the arrival of your trucks, the fewer dock doors you would need to work that will really save you money on utilities in the long run.
Work with different shifts for shipping and receiving. If you can, receive products during one shift and separate your shipping to a different shift. Organizing yourself in this manner could enable you to lessen the staging area needs by 50 percent. You might also be able to get rid of time-wasting bottlenecks in the warehouse. As well, 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 occur down the road.
Speed up the unloading process. This would really help you out since the longer a truck sits at your door for unloading or loading, the more congested your yard can become. Based on research, roughly 60 percent of mass merchants are capable of unloading trucks in less than an hour, while about 20 to 30% of the grocery business performs at a similar standard. Take time to watch and time operations in order to see exactly how your facility measures up overall.
Floor maintenance is important as floor defects can cause forklift operators to take detours or slow down. This can lead to a reduction of productivity. Potholes or deteriorating floor section seams or uneven floors also cause vehicle damage and wheel wear. In certain cases, really damaged floors could result in loads tipping and product damage.