Optimizing Warehouse Receiving Processes

Keep your Warehouse Receiving Processing Running Smoothly

In order to keep your warehouse processing running smoothly, you need to make sure all aspects of the workflow are performed with efficiency. The first place to start is with receiving. Before inventory is even received into the warehouse, there are steps you need to take to make sure you’re prepared to design and implement the correct system.

Plan Ahead

The first thing you need to do is compile the correct metrics. Figure out your quantitative details regarding the total time it takes to move materials through the system to usability, take note of your error reports, dock utilization, and supplier shipping problems. You should also make sure that all of your transactions are in order. Transactions may include bookkeeping, inventory accountability, and other data associated with your shipping and receiving operations. It also includes paperwork, income, expenses, and any transaction that should be recorded. Having all of these things in order will help you to plan out your course of action when it comes to how your inventory receiving processes will be laid out.

Pre-Receiving Requirements

Your next step is to enforce requirements for your suppliers and shippers. Packaging requirements should include:

• Label position
• Label Information
• Palletized or loose cargo
• Number of packages per pallet
• Items per carton
• Acceptable package size & weight

The best operations receive products from vendors that comply with your labeling standards. This will allow deliveries to seamlessly integrate into the warehouse supply. Incoming shipments will be much more easy to organize and place, and warehouse staff know exactly where the inventory needs to go. Bar-codes, RFID chips, or other tracking technologies can all be utilized to help the receiving process run more efficiently.

Radio-frequency identification (RFID)

The use of RFID technology is becoming more and more popular, as it can make it easier for you to rate vendors based on quality and performance. This technology allows workers to compare order sheets and invoices and ensure the accuracy of each shipment as it is received.

Keep Workstations Organized and Orderly

Shipments and orders move quickly and efficiently in workstations that are not cluttered with ingoing or outgoing materials. All space should be utilized to its fullest potential. The staff whose job it is to load and unload trucks should do so using a streamlined system. Vendors should be scheduled in delivery windows of about two hours or so, so that warehouse staff can move more products through the supply chain and ship faster.

Organize Your Labor Shifts

In order to plan out how you want to organize your staff members for receiving shipments, you need to look at a few variables. The first being how many man hours you will need to be allocated to complete the job. To do this, you must look at the number of shipments coming into the warehouse, and watch your workload accordingly.

Checking Shipment and Receiving Documentation

Once the shipment is delivered to your warehouse, it is important to verify that is has been done so correctly. You’ll want to have your inventory clerk go through all of the packages and make sure that what was supposed to be delivered is in fact what has been shipped. It is vital that your inventory clerk goes through proper training and has a good handle on this process so that signatures are not prematurely made for incorrect shipments. After the inventory clerk signs the shipping notice, warehouse personnel should unload and count the product received to make sure the correct amount of the shipment has been sent to you.

At this time, warehouse personnel should unload the crates from the truck and count the number of crates so the quantity matches the delivery person’s shipping notice. Each crate is opened and an exact count of the received product should be recorded. Any inconsistencies in the counting process should be recorded so that the proper steps toward correcting them can be made.

Another important step in the post- delivery procedures to stock and document the shipment. All products should have inventory numbers assigned to them prior to stocking the items on shelves. These numbers should be used to input product information into the warehouse date system. This may be done through the use of barcodes, which is another great way to keep things organized and automated.

Inspection  

The last thing to do to ensure a successful inventory receiving process is to create an inspection process which can handle incoming as well as outgoing items. During this time, any and all issues with vendors, shippers, and other handlers should be detected and corrected. QA specialists should be utilized to ensure every order is successfully filled. If any problems arise, you should trust your customer service team to correct them to the best of their abilities. If there is an issue with supplies, the QA team should notify the appropriate person in their company, and vendors should be notified immediately if products that fail to meet inspection.

Organization Within Every Aspect of Commerce Operations

Optimizing receiving inventory processes are a great first step to a successful warehouse, but it doesn’t stop there. One must keep things running smoothly and efficiently throughout all warehouse processes. One thing you need to succeed in doing so is a commerce operations system that customizes to your workflow. The many steps and procedures that are taken to keep things moving in the warehouse often become too complicated to keep track of manually, and most inventory management software systems are not intricate enough to deal with the many unique factors of a business. Get in touch with SkuNexus, the world’s most customizable order/inventory/warehouse management system, and work together to build the system your unique company needs. Click HERE to schedule a free demo today!