Receiving new inventory is the first step in the warehousing operations management process and one of the most important. An inefficient or disorganized warehouse receiving process can lead to preventable mistakes that increase waste and negatively impact downstream processes.Outcomes of a poorly managed receiving process may include improperly accepting incomplete or damaged shipments, failure to accurately inventory goods as they enter the warehouse, or accidentally storing goods in the wrong locations. A slow or inefficient receiving process predictably results in wasted time and effort that hurts your bottom line.The first step to improving the receiving process in your warehouse is to optimize the layout of your receiving area to support the most efficient process flow, based on the size of your warehouse and unique characteristics of your business.In this blog, we’re sharing ten of our best tips for optimizing your warehouse receiving area layout.

Warehouse Receiving Process

Receiving is the process of unloading, inspecting, and documenting new inventory as it is transferred into your warehouse.The receiving process begins when a cargo truck with a shipment from a supplier arrives at the receiving dock of your warehouse. When a new shipment arrives, a representative from your warehouse (often with the job title “inventory clerk”) should meet with the driver immediately to begin the receiving process.Before new inventory can be accepted into the warehouse, it must be inspected thoroughly for signs of damage. New inventory should also be counted to ensure that your company received all of the product it ordered.Once a shipment has been accepted, your warehouse receiving team can start inputting product information into your warehouse inventory control software system. All new inventory must have an assigned inventory number and a correct label before it can be stored in the warehouse.After the new inventory has been accurately documented, it can be passed along to put-away teams who will transfer it from the receiving area to its optimal storage location in the warehouse.

Warehouse Receiving Area

The receiving area of your warehouse is the physical location where the receiving process happens. A typical warehouse receiving area has four critical zones that support the receiving process.

Four Critical Zones in Warehouse Receiving

1. Receiving Docks
2. Receiving docks are the entry point for new inventory into the warehouse. This is where cargo trucks from shippers will pull up and park to unload pallets of new inventory into your warehouse.
3. Inventory Staging Area
4. As inventory leaves the shipper’s cargo truck, the first place it should land is in your inventory staging area. This staging area is a large, clearly marked space where your inventory clerk and members of your receiving team will unload, inspect, count, and accept shipments of inventory before they are ready to be processed into the warehouse.
5. Inventory Processing Zone
6. Once inventory in the staging area has been accepted, it is moved ahead to the inventory processing zone. In this area, your warehouse receiving teams will work to ensure that each new product is assigned an inventory number, entered into your warehouse inventory control system, and properly labeled.
7. Put-away Lanes
8. Put-away lanes are motorized conveyor belts that carry newly processed inventory from the receiving area of your warehouse to a separate area where put-away teams will sort it and eventually transport it to its storage location in the warehouse.

Smaller warehouses often use just one put-away lane to transfer inventory from receiving into the put-away process. If your storage area is organized into “zones” for put-away and order picking in the warehouse, you can set up multiple lanes to route new inventory to the right put-away zone of your warehouse.

Ten Ways to Optimize Your Warehouse Receiving Area Layout

Optimizing your warehouse receiving area layout means arranging your inventory staging area, processing zone, and put-away lanes around your warehouse docking infrastructure to ensure a fast, safe, and efficient process flow.Use the ten tips below to start optimizing your warehouse receiving area layout.

Start With Sufficient Docking Infrastructure

Starting with sufficient receiving docking infrastructure is essential for optimizing your warehouse receiving area layout.When designing the layout, it's important to determine the number of dock doors required to handle the expected volume of shipments. Installing enough receiving docks ensures that you can accommodate multiple cargo trucks and unload trucks as quickly as possible to reduce waiting times and prevent bottlenecks in the receiving process.Additionally, having enough space for visiting cargo trucks to maneuver in and out of the docks is crucial to avoiding accidents and damages. Ensuring there is adequate docking infrastructure in place will help to optimize the receiving process and reduce unnecessary delays.

Right-Size Your Inventory Staging Area

Another crucial aspect of optimizing the warehouse receiving process is right-sizing your inventory staging area.In the same way that you need enough receiving docks to handle the expected volume of shipments, you also need a large enough staging area to accommodate pallets of inventory as they are unloaded, inspected, and counted by your receiving team.Your inventory staging area should be located next to your receiving docks. The staging area should be clearly marked and kept clear of excess inventory or equipment at all times, ensuring that it is available for use in the inventory receiving process.

Deploy Mobile Workstations to Help Receive Inventory

As new products enter the inventory processing area, they must be entered into the warehouse inventory control system and labeled as efficiently as possible. Investing in battery-powered mobile computer workstations for your warehouse can significantly accelerate the process of receiving new inventory.Warehouse mobile computer workstations bring essential technologies directly to the point of task, allowing warehouse personnel to scan barcodes, take photos, and update inventory records directly in the inventory processing area - without traveling back and forth to a separate workstation. When a high volume of inventory is being received, more workstations can be allocated to speed up inventory processing and prevent bottlenecks.Using mobile computer workstations to count inventory in the warehouse leads to increased efficiency, accuracy, and a more productive warehouse operation.[dt_divider style="thick" /]

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Train a Directed Put-away Algorithm

A directed put-away algorithm is a software tool that tells your warehouse receiving and put-away teams where each item should be stored in the warehouse. Directed put-away algorithms use data and analytics to determine the optimal storage location for each item based on factors such as demand, stock velocity, and bin capacity.This capability allows you to optimize the design and positioning of put-away lanes to efficiently route inventory through the warehouse. As your receiving teams process shipments into your inventory control system, your directed put-away algorithm instantly tells them how each product should be sorted for put-away.By training a directed put-away algorithm, you can improve the speed and accuracy of the put-away process, reducing the time it takes to locate and retrieve items later on.

Use Put-away Lanes to Route Inventory into Storage

Put-away lanes use conveyor belts to transfer inventory from the warehouse receiving area to put-away zones. Put-away teams will then batch and sort the new inventory before storing it inside the warehouse.Put-away lanes aren’t always necessary in smaller warehousing operations, but in larger warehouses they can be deployed as a sorting mechanism that sends inventory to the right put-away zone for storage. If you run a large warehouse or utilize put-away/order picking zones, put-away lanes can help save time and reduce errors in the receiving and put-away processes.

Leave Space for Heavy Equipment Traffic

One of the most important considerations when optimizing your receiving area layout is to leave adequate space for heavy equipment traffic.That means positioning your inventory staging and processing areas to enable access for vehicles like pallet jacks and forklifts that transport inventory through the warehouse. Travel lanes for these vehicles should be clearly marked and kept clear of inventory/debris to ensure their safe and efficient operation.Forklifts and pallet jacks are an efficiency multiplier when it comes to transporting inventory at scale, so it’s vital for warehouse managers to design a warehouse receiving area layout that always gives these vehicles room to operate.

Paint Safety Markings to Protect Human Workers

In addition to optimizing your warehouse receiving area layout for efficiency, it’s also important to consider how your layout impacts worker safety.One way to improve safety in receiving areas is by using high-visibility safety markings on the floor. Safety markings can include visual cues such as painted lines or tape, which indicate where items should be placed, where equipment should be operated, and where people should walk.By clearly marking areas and paths, you can reduce the risk of accidents, prevent collisions between personnel and equipment, and promote a safe and organized work environment. You can also use floor markings to support receiving process flows by indicating the optimal flow of people, vehicles, and inventory through the space.Incorporating safety markings into your receiving area layout allows you to effectively prioritize worker safety while optimizing the efficiency of your receiving process.

Invest in Ergonomics

The warehouse receiving process is filled with repetitive tasks for your inventory clerks and receiving teams, such as inspecting and counting inventory, inputting data into warehouse inventory control systems, applying labels, and sorting inventory to the correct put-away lanes.Receiving personnel spend much of their time standing, lifting, and moving items, which can lead to physical strain and discomfort. Ergonomic workstations are designed to promote comfort and productivity, while reducing risk of injury, by incorporating features like adjustable work surfaces, armrests or footrests, and anti-fatigue mats.By incorporating ergonomic workstations in the receiving area, you can reduce the risk of workplace injuries like strains, sprains, and repetitive stress injuries, while improving overall productivity and efficiency.

Minimize Worker and Inventory Travel Distance

Minimizing travel distance for both workers and inventory is a critical aspect of running a smooth and efficient receiving process. This can be achieved by:

• Making your receiving areas wide (instead of long) to keep stations close together while leaving plenty of room for periods of high volume
• Positioning your inventory staging area close to your receiving docks to avoid waste space
• Positioning your inventory processing area close to the staging area to minimize travel distance between the two stations
• Positioning put-away lanes near the center of the inventory processing area to travel distance for newly processed inventory that is ready for put-away
• Deploying battery-powered mobile workstations so receiving personnel can bring technology to the point of task instead of traveling back and forth from a fixed workstation

Measure Your Results Using Warehouse Efficiency Metrics

If you’re planning to reorganize your warehouse receiving area, it’s important to understand the real impact of those changes on overall productivity. Below are some warehouse efficiency metrics you can track to quantify the benefits:

• Receiving Cycle Time measures the total time it takes to verify, count, and sort a shipment of inventory into the warehouse. Improving your receiving layout and processes should lead to faster cycle times and a more efficient receiving process.
• Per Line Receiving Cost is determined by calculating the total labor cost of receiving an order, then dividing that cost by the number of lines on the order. This metric tells you the per unit cost of receiving inventory. Improving your receiving area layout to accelerate receiving cycle times helps reduce your labor costs, which in turn drives down your overall and per line receiving costs.

Optimize Your Warehouse Receiving Process with DTG Mobile Computer Workstations

Investing in mobile computer workstations for your warehouse operation provides immediate benefits to worker productivity and efficiency. In the warehouse receiving process, mobile carts bring essential technologies directly to the inventory processing zone, reducing wasted steps for employees, minimizing inventory travel distance, and accelerating your receiving cycle times.DTG’s Problem Solver warehouse cart is a battery-powered mobile computer workstation purpose-built to drive productivity and efficiency in the warehouse receiving process. Our Problem Solver’s customizable capabilities and ergonomic design make it the ideal addition to your warehouse receiving area layout.[dt_divider style="thick" /]

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