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Warehouse receiving operations are a critical part in maintaining the integrity of inventory systems and ensuring the availability of products for customers. Without an effective receiving system, items fall through the cracks, are not counted, do not receive adequate inspection, and fail to provide evidence of problems with vendors that affect profitability.

As we have learned from managing the Ecommerce boom in 2020, the adrenalin of ramping up adequately to get hundreds – or thousands – of shipments out every day also has a “hangover” feeling that comes from the Returns process.

Since 2020 has us rethinking EVERYTHING we were doing before, we wanted to make a quick share for you to start the week with a visual look at some basic Warehouse Design fundamentals. The events of the last few months have everyone wondering what the warehouse of the future will look like. But while doing updates to your CURRENT space to react to the new normal, how closely have you been adhering to the basics already?

We thought this infographic was a good representation of some of those basic pillars of good warehouse design. Let's start with the basics we use for planning. The one thing we'll highlight here is how often we hear that space management is the BIGGEST issue our client's are having. If you are exceeding the guidance below and using over 30% of your square footage for storage, it means you might be feeling crowded. Better rack utilization and building up may improve your sense of space!

The “Merry” part of the Christmas season can often be forgotten quickly when the first trucks show up at the receiving docks with mountains of returns. There is nothing worse as a retailer than experiencing the feeling that your products were “unwanted”, but if you do it right, returns processing can be a positive for your customers and your bottom line.

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.

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

If you’re in the manufacturing industry, then you know how much pressure there is to maximize your warehouse’s efficiency. Considering that your bottom line depends on how quickly you can stock and move product, there is a lot of incentive to make any necessary changes to improve the workflow of your business to increase profitability and lower costs.

When you run a warehouse, you know that one inefficient process can create a bottleneck that can slow down everything. A warehouse staff is rated on how accurately it can handle orders and how well it can organize product, and there are plenty of issues that come with even routine warehouse management processes. 

Warehouse management is a difficult job that requires years of experience and the right tools. You need to know every detail about how your warehouse operates if you want to be able to control productivity and accuracy. To be able to fix the most common warehouse management issues, you need to be aware of every link on your supply chain within the warehouse and know how to anticipate the needs of your customers.