Receiving Putaway/Stocking

Receiving
Is the process of confirming that you received what you ordered

Data collected from receiving determines what your accounting department pays to your vendors
Success or failure in receiving determines what you pay for your receipts and errors can be very costly Ideally, the best receiving practice is to move items to their storage locations with as few touches as possible. Receiving provides the set up for all other warehouse activities. Problems related to receiving reverberate throughout the entire operation.

Receiving
Good receiving begins with good labeling Get suppliers to correctly label product before it arrives Make sure the labels can be read by both human and data capture devices Some data you may want to include on the label Shipper/supplier information (company name, telephone nbr, etc..) Purchase order number Pallet labels and quantities Case labels and quantities Product number and description Package count SKU
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Receiving
Vendor Quality and Compliance How your vendors ship product to you strongly affects the fate of your receiving operation Regularly track your vendors performance. Some things to look for:

Wrong product Wrong quantity Defective or damaged product Late/missed delivery dates Using the wrong freight method or carrier Incorrect Quantity

Receiving
Four Receiving Practices:

1. Cross-Docking: Loads are received and sorted on the receiving dock and then transported directly to an outbound dock. No storage required.

Generally no staging or inspection is required (big time saver) Instead of multiple pickups (trucks), consolidate into one shipment and ship to a regional local area for splitting into local shipments (big cost savings) Effective method to receive and fill large orders quickly. (no storage required)

short circuits the standard putaway, replenishment, and picking processes

Receiving Four Receiving Practices: 2. Receiving Scheduling: Essentially cross-docking but based on a timed schedule. 3. Pre-Receiving: Information about the incoming load is communicated electronically prior to delivery. Allows the inbound operation to pre-assign storage locations and reduces receiving cycle time. Saves time Better use of resources Fewer touches

Receiving Four Receiving Practices: 4. Receipt Preparation: Act of preparing product to fill orders before orders come in. Pre-apply labels/stickers Pre-packing of product into case quantity increments Reduces occurrence of split pallets or split cartons Opportunity to move more product

Putaway

Put Away/Stocking
The process of taking product from receiving and placing it in the most appropriate storage location The most logical first choice for put away is NOT to put product into a storage location, but rather to ship it directly to a customer via cross-docking Alternatives to cross-docking: Note: There are two primary types of stocking locations a. Reserve: for bulk storage and case/pallet picking b. Active/forward pick: for less than case quantity picking 1. Locate directly to active (forward pick) picking locations

+ Minimizes future replenishment + Improves overall productivity

2. Locate near eventual active picking locations + Minimizes replenishment travel time
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Put Away/Stocking 3. To a location based on velocity: Consider the shipping volume (quantity over time) of the product

A fast shipping product requires a reserve location close to its forward pick location because it will replenish more frequently
A slow shipping product may be located further away from its forward pick location because it will replenish less often. 4. Use a system: Use a warehouse management system (WMS) to direct putaway Whenever possible, always try to put away into empty locations. + You get a free cycle count + If there is product still in an empty location you have just identified an inventory issue AND recovered missing inventory Always try to use the smallest location possible for the quantity on hand to maximize your storage space
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Put Away/Stocking What would you do? 1,000 units of a specific SKU just arrived. It is packaged 10 units to a case/carton. If space is available, do you want to locate all 1,000 units/100 cases to a forward pick location? If so, why? If not, why?

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Put Away Four Types of Put Away Direct Put Away: Stocking directly to an active or reserve storage location. Directed Put Away: A Warehouse Management System (WMS) determines where to send product for storage. WMS identifies the location and quantity per location based on a variety of factors (cube, demand, space available, size, preprogrammed parameters, etc) Batch and Sequenced Put Away: Sort inbound product for efficient put away Sort product by type or some parameter then by location sequence
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Put Away Four types of Put Away

Interleaving or Continuous Moves: Perform both put away (stocking) with retrievals (picking)

After completing a put away, the stocker is directed to pull product to fill an order or to re-warehouse.
Eliminates deadheading = coming back empty handed

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Put Away
Replenishment The process of relocating reserve stock to forward pick locations. These can either be loose pick or case pick locations.

Proper replenishment and timing is critical to the efficiency of the picking team.
The product must be located in the directed pick location before a picker reaches the picking location. Waiting for restock causes unwanted delays and/or extra handling. The replenishment process can be time consuming. It needs to be properly managed to balance picking efficiency gains and replenishment labor. So, how do we determine how and when to replenish pick locations and maximize our efficiencies?
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Put Away
Replenishment Selecting the proper replenishment method: 1. Day or Wave Demand Replenishment: Used to move only the quantity needed to satisfy the demand for each wave (or day) to the forward pick locations

Works well for unpredictable SKU demand or very slow moving SKUs
Works well when pick locations are small and can only fit the demand quantity

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Put Away
Replenishment

2. Opportunistic Replenishment:
Replenishment is based on two to four week forecasted quantities. Minimizes the number of trips to both the reserve and forward pick locations. Productivity increases.

Not ideal if picking locations are: Too small to handle additional volume The forecast or demand is unpredictable If there are a limited number of forward pick locations

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Put Away Replenishment 3. Top Off or Lean Time Replenishment:

Utilize down time to fill each forward pick location to its maximum cubic quantity. Used when the picking window is tight, in order to remove the time-consuming effort required to complete the replenishment step just prior to picking.
Use only with faster moving SKUs when time allows. 4. Combination: Utilizes a combination of the above methods. Is usually triggered by a days demand or minimum quantity. 5. Emergency Replenishment: Used when a picker goes to a location that lacks the correct product or quantity.

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