Top 10 items you should consider increasing warehouse receiving productivity!

Manpower productivity and speed to process should be one of your top priority to reduce warehouse spending. Here are the top 10 items you should be considering increasing receiving efficiency and reduce overall warehouse budget.

1) Set up a process for carriers to call for warehouse delivery appointment. Information should include all delivery identification (transport company and suppliers’ origin, quantity to be delivered in packages (pallets, boxes, envelope, etc.) and any particularities.

 2) Develop a summary of upcoming receipts from a combined process and using the report from the purchasing or supply department (expected date of receipt) and the process for making appointments with carriers (see point 1);

3) Define the rhythm and receiving productivity according to the type and product conditioning (pallets, boxes, envelope, etc.) and plan the need for required resources as well as the needs for receiving spaces, all to ensure a continuous flow and space utilization;

4) Build a Delivery Warehouse Specification (DWS) document to communicate to the purchasing and supply departments so that they can communicate it to suppliers. Information to include: appointment scheduling process, acceptable format of pallets, packaging, identification of pallets and boxes, adequate documentation with a reference number for receipt, product protection, recyclable packaging materials, etc;

5) Ensure proper sequencing of products and orders received. The aim is to ensure that the spaces allocated to the pallets are well defined on the ground (see appropriate lineage) and the spaces dedicated to receiving the boxes are easily accessible. It will also be necessary to ensure that you have space to perform the physical count if necessary. Some operations will use gravity rollers (pallet flow rack) to force the first in first put away process;

6) Develop a process allowing in the planning in point 2 to identify the back order products to prioritize the receiving process, if necessary. However, if the receiving and putaway process is carried out in less than 4 hours, the need to prioritize these broken items could be eliminated.

7) Promote EDI type ASN (Advance Shipping Notice) transactions to get away with the physical verification of products received in your distribution center. Certain more evolving approach, will include the certification of the supplier’s quality to eliminate the verification while receiving products;

8) Promote the use of putaway labels using bar codes (supported by WMS) so that the person responsible for placing the products, released at receiving, can quickly understand the instructions concerning the products received: Cross Dock, replenishment of picking locations, put in reserve, etc. This process including location destination information (rack, zone, mezzanine, temporary space etc;

9) Developed and documented the processes for receiving discrepancies. Several events can occur during the receiving and verification process and it is essential to know the procedures to follow: type: products not ordered, quantity in excess or missing, wrong PO reference number (Purchase Oder), PO information missing, damaged products, supplier returns, etc;

10) Set targets (Performance Indicators) for reception processing times. For example: receiving processing times 4 hours, time for putaway 4 hours; discrepancy regular meeting and sharing with purchasing and supply Chain, setting up a communication channel with purchasing and sales representatives (product availability for sale);