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Receiving in a manufacturing environment is an overlooked process area that can be the start of numerous bottlenecks, accuracy errors and wasted motion. A few simple tools that have transformed receiving in the logistics world can be leveraged in a manufacturing environment to radically change the outcomes and improve your metrics in this critical process area while achieving a positive ROI in less than 12 months.

Despite low unemployment and a long-term economic growth streak with record profits now approaching a full decade, distribution centers and warehouses have continued to experience trouble retaining skilled or experienced staff. The problem lies more in how management values the contribution of their people in those facilities – which also makes it somewhat easier to resolve. Today we look into the problem with the help of some great research from ProLogistix through the WERC organization.

The average U.S. warehouse wastes 6.9 weeks a year on unnecessary motion—costing the industry $4.3 billion, or 265 million hours of labor annually, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Unnecessary motion is often difficult to comprehend and recognize. It’s ingrained in our habits, and many times it’s hard to understand how it indicates a larger problem on the floor. For example, walking to a fixed computer or printer is an activity warehouse staff have been doing for years. For many, it may not be viewed as waste of time, just simply a part of the job.

The annual DC Metrics study has been published and while the entirety of the report is worth studying as an excellent source of industry benchmarks and trends, we wanted to share and dive into a few of the highlights that jumped out at us as significant this year.

The Real Meaning of “Future” - One thing that everyone hates to admit about “future articles” is that the reality of what they talk about is already here. The rest of us are behind the curve trying to catch up!  While we are assigning these innovations to the “future” - perhaps to give us more time to budget for them – it certainly doesn’t hurt to invest our time into learning our options and planning ahead for the opportunity to take the leap with something new.

Lean practitioners are probably aware of the “Water Spider” which is an important role on the floor of the manufacturing shop. And you may also know that it, like many other lean terms like “Kanban,” “Gemba” and “Kaizen,” it originates from the Japanese language, where lean got its start.

Despite the fact that ‘Sophia’, a humanoid robot, was granted citizenship by Saudi Arabia and the growing fear and trepidation among retail and warehouse workers in the past decade, the integration of robotics and automation into warehouse processes is hardly the job “Robot Job Stealing Apocalypse” it has been made out to be.

The most essential core component of any good warehouse efficiency strategy begins and ends with quality control. Your team may not be responsible for the quality of the products you deliver, or for the commitment to customer satisfaction that comes from products, but they are just as responsible as the manufacturer when it comes to the quality of their work. Each product is handled by your team as it passes through your distribution center on their way to retailers, consumers, or to another destination.

There is nothing quite as satisfying in a distribution center as a well-balanced inventory. Orders arrive, orders are shipped, and your fulfillment and delivery flows consistently like the tides. Inventory does not become overstock to take up space and have a negative impact on cash flow. With excellent inventory control, being out of stock of any item is a rare occasion.

Sadly, the perfectly balanced inventory is somewhat of a Zen-like ideal: The moment you identify the inventory as ‘balanced’, it morphs. The best you can do to manage the factors that affect inventory to control overstock or short-stocked items on the warehouse floor.

With some careful planning and a few deft adjustments to inventory management processes, you eventually establish a balance that you can maintain.

How can this be accomplished?

How well does your receiving process flow? Where is your warehouse at its strongest and what needs improvement?

Today we want to share four processes that include common shipping and receiving actions found in most businesses. We break down into three rating tiers:

• Marginal
• Average
• Oustanding