As the speed of the supply chain cranks up, the increase in smaller and more frequent shipments makes receiving time more critical and costly. To make their operations more efficient, major retailers have developed lengthy compliance documents that prescribe the organization and labeling of shipments to their receiving docks. Furthermore, they put teeth into the compliance standards, setting hefty charge-backs for even the smallest of errors.

Fortunately, you don't have to be a major retailer to benefit from compliance standards. Imagine how much easier life would be if products always arrived the way that you could handle them most efficiently. If you're not sure just what this means, ask the people on the receiving dock which supplier's order they would most prefer to work on, and then identify the characteristics that make it so.

Some of the characteristics you find may include:

• Receipt of an electronic advanced shipping notice (ASN) listing the products and quantities on the receipt before it arrives.
• Delivery on the day or at the time of day that you expected it.
• Purchase orders are not mixed in cartons or on pallets.
• Individual stock keeping units (SKUs) and/or product families are not spread over several cartons when they could fit into one.
• Cartons floor loaded in the truck or container are grouped by purchase order and product.
• Multiple SKUs on a pallet are in even layer quantities.
• Purchase orders are complete, and accurate.
• Carton and pallet sizes fit efficiently into your storage racks.
• Carton and pallet labels have a bar coded serial number (license plate) that ties the carton to the ASN. And, the label is placed in a consistent location that is easy to scan.

When those conditions are present, you can streamline your receiving and putaway processes by:

• Conveying cartons past a simple in-line scanner to record the receipt against the purchase order.
• Marking the carton with an ink jet symbol for easy manual palletizing.
• Adding a putaway location for carton storage or replenishment to the forward pickface.
• Reducing the manual counting of individual cartons by letting the system do it, and indicating that the last item has been received.

Of course, all of this will not happen at once. Some suppliers will not comply. Even the best ones will occasionally make a mistake. But, these can be handled as exceptions. For the rest, you will empty a truck faster, making the driver happy and freeing-up the dock for another truck. You will clear the dock area faster, making space available for other operations. Products will be available for picking sooner. Special orders and crossdocked products will get out the door today. And, you will do it with less effort and more confidence.

To get started, list those things that you need to make your process run smoothly. Anticipate how these needs may change in the future. Communicate them to your supplier. For additional leverage, work with others in your industry to develop standard approaches.

Now that you know what makes life easier, think about what you might be able to do to help your customers—and, how surprised they would be when asked.

Jim Apple can be contacted at japple@theprogressgroup.com