Let's start with the receiving function. We are going to focus on the area where attention to detail can help the customer. In brief, the receiving process most commonly consists of receiving an advance shipping notice (ASN) via electronic data interchange (EDI) into your warehouse management system (WMS). The license plates are printed prior to the trailer arriving at the assigned door. During the unload process, the product is counted and reconciled against this ASN information.
The problems most commonly occur at this stage. The receiving dock worker is supposed to open at least one box per trailer load and confirm that the quantity inside matches the master carton label. If they are in a hurry, this does not always get done, or the items are miscounted. Remember that the stores order by the individual unit, so if the carton count is off, the stores will not receive the quantity they are being billed for. It is easy for a receiving dock worker to lose sight of the customer service aspects of the job, so reminders need to made that will help them remain focused on the importance of their function.
The next function that affects the customer is the put-away process. The receiving department puts a license plate on the pallet of merchandise. This label tells the put-away driver exactly where to place the pallet. It gives the module, aisle, bay, level, and position for the pallet. Where this process can go wrong, and ultimately affect the customer, is when the driver puts the pallet into the wrong bay. By doing this, the picker will be instructed to pick from that bay, but the items being selected will not be what the customer ordered. The system identifies that the customer received the correct items, but what they actually received may be of greater or lesser value. This will either cause shrink or swell to both the customer's inventory and the distribution centers inventory.
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