There's no better way to clog up a warehouse than to have an inefficient receiving area. Just look at the drawing below to see how simple floor staging of pallet loads can offer great flexibility yet limit the speedy movement of inventory to its next destination.

Modern brought in Drew Hale, a partner at materials handling consultant The Progress Group (404-876-3435), to help eliminate that bottleneck. "Receiving is a race. The objective is to get inventory into the building and ready for shipment as quickly as possible."

On the next page, he offers three alternative layouts that address specific receiving challenges. One is for handling of mixed-product trailers or ocean-going containers. The second is for crossdocking new products about to be launched. And the third is for managing returns.

Improvements

• Reduces time from dock to stock
• Sorts by SKU not pallet position for maximum flexibility
• Capital investment and space requirements minimized

Typically, mixed receipts are placed on a conveyor that feeds a sortation system. Sorts are by stock keeping unit (SKU) and pallet loads built manually. Often, there are more SKUs than there are divert lanes, and cases are routed to a re-circulation loop. That takes extra time and the loop gets congested.

This alternative eliminates the automated sortation system. Instead, it uses a conveyor spur that feeds cases to as many as 10 pallet positions. As the carton comes out of the trailer/container, its bar code is scanned. Software then tells an ink jet printer to apply a number from 1 to 10 on the carton. Workers match up cases on the spur to the pallet position number. Once a pallet load is built, a lift truck takes away the load to storage or orderpicking. This system works best when receipts are known in advance and SKUs are clustered in the trailer/container.

Improvements

• Reduces handling steps
• Inventory moves shorter distances in the DC
• Immediate availability of inventory for shipment

Most DCs don't receive new product launches any differently than other SKUs. When received, inventory is palletized, stored, and picked later.

A more efficient handling method creates a warehouse within a warehouse. Rather than sending new products to storage, they are staged in the receiving area until the launch date. They can also be placed on a mezzanine or other staging area close to receiving. Typically, this requires enlarging the receiving area 25% to accommodate crossdocked inventory.

Pre-notification of receipts is important to success here. Otherwise, there is no opportunity to plan receipts handling. When the date arrives to ship the inventory, release is tightly controlled through the information system. This approach is not as successful if shipment demand is random.

Improvements

• Better use of space
• Higher productivity
• Makes returns available to stock more quickly

By their very nature, returns from retail stores require extensive manual handling, at least initially. Returned product often arrives with little advanced information about it. Returns are then processed at workstations or on carts before being accumulated in shelving until full pallet loads can be built for putaway.

The process can be much less random if information about receipts is available prior to their arrival. That information facilitates staging of returns after processing and best use of space in shelving and carton flow rack, the former for slow movers and the latter for fast movers. In the shelving, the slowest movers are placed furthest from the center aisle and the fastest slow movers closest to the aisle. In essence, it's a matter of forecasting returns based on real-time information and then using picking principles in reverse.