Observing a warehouse or distribution center operation can provide valuable insights. Our team walks through and reviews operations from receiving to shipping for every facility master plan or assessment project. Despite differences in people, products, and systems, most facilities share core functions: receiving, put away, storage, inventory management, order picking, packing, and shipping.

This new blog series, ‘Take a Walk with Me‘ invites you to virtually walk through each functional area of the warehouse with a focus on identifying improvements.  These might include reducing travel distances, decreasing material handling labor, improving accuracy, increasing storage capacity, adding locations, and enhancing safety.   We’ll be publishing one entry in the series every Thursday until we’ve walked the entire distribution center together, hopefully wiser and with real ideas for improving each area we’ve visited.

Let’s start where it begins – Receiving.  This is the first part of the “Dock-to-Stock” key performance indicator.  The 2025 WERC DC Measures reports “Dock-to-Stock – Cycle Time (in Hours)” is a top five (5) warehousing metric.  The ‘dock’ part the Dock-to-Stock metric starts when the trailer backs up to the dock door for receiving. That is probably good given operators must manage congested dock entrances, deal with unexpected deliveries, late deliveries, and more.  If you hear about these issues during the receiving walk, it is important to set up time with transportation/logistics to discuss.

In addition, the receiving process is impacted by suppliers, purchasing, freight management, scheduling, dock assignments, unloading, and finally the actual ‘receiving’ process.  And, before the trailer arrives at the dock, there are multiple software programs supporting the inbound process, including transportation management software (TMS), yard management software (YMS), warehouse management systems (WMS), and advanced shipping notice’s (ASN’s).  Investigating all these technologies is advised to streamline the inbound process and improve supply chain efficiency.

Let’s start the warehouse walk in the receiving dock, observing / understanding supervision, staffing, hours of operation, dock assignments, dock doors/equipment, material handling equipment, technology/systems, and space allocation.  Your current methods can be compared to the following general best practices of a typical Warehouse Dock Receiving Process:

Pre-Arrival Readiness

  • Advanced Shipping Notice (ASN): Utilize where possible, having suppliers send details about incoming shipments to support planning.
  • Dock Scheduling: Assign trucks to dock doors upon/before site arrival to limit travel distance to the staging area and potential pre-assigned storage zones.

Unloading

  • Dock Lights, Signage and Bumpers: Installed to direct driver to proper dock door and prevent building and trailer damage.
  • Wheel Chocks and Restraints: Chocks placed under wheels and trailer restrained to prevent trailer movement
  • Dock Levelers: Automated/semi-automated dock levelers are used for unloading trailers with forklifts versus the need to manually place dock plates.
  • Dock Fans & Lighting: Placement of adequate trailer lighting and fans to increase productivity.
  • Unloading: Utilize sit-down trucks to unload full pallets and stage in pre-assigned staging lanes.  Enable case unloading with flexible conveyor to build stable pallet loads on the dock.

Receiving

  • Match to Purchase Order (PO): Begin physical receiving when the expected quantities are electronically within the WMS (ideally via ASN).  This enables accuracy identification of receipt overages or shortages during the receiving process.
  • Barcode Scanning: Scan item/pallet barcodes using Warehouse Management System (WMS) and RF terminals (or Voice) to check against PO information.
  • Quality Check: Visually inspect for defects, expiration dates, or compliance issues.
  • Apply License Plate Barcode Labels: Print and apply labels to pallet load for tracking, storage, or cross-docking. Mobile RF cart equipment with printer/PC, or a mobile printer assists this process.
  • Special Handling Tags: Apply for fragile, hazardous, or temperature-sensitive items.

Reporting

  • Record Receipt: Update inventory systems with received quantities.
  • Report Discrepancies: Notify procurement or vendors of any issues.

Metrics

Based on the 2025 WERC DC Measures report the total “Dock-to-Stock – Cycle Time (in Hours)” is typically eight (8) to eighteen (18) hours.  If you want to achieve best-in-class, the metrics report suggests less than three and a half (3.5) hours.  Keep in mind, this includes the receiving and stocking process.  To calculate the total dock-to-stock time, sum of the cycle time in hours for all supplier receipts and divide by the total number of supplier receipts.

Consider this general estimate for receiving process productivity:

Unloading and Receiving Process (full pallet loads)

  • 50 to 75 pallets per hour
  • Factors affecting rate:
    • Type of goods (bulk vs. mixed SKU)
    • Use of automation (RF scanners, conveyors)
    • Dock layout and staffing
    • WMS level / speed
    • Equipment / technology

Closing

Take a walk through your receiving process and identify potential areas of improvement leveraging the information shared in this blog.  Validate and/or document standard operating processes, review WMS capabilities, estimate current labor standards, and collect inbound data to evaluate identified improvements.  Determine the impact of the identified improvements and any related capital costs.  Then, build the business case for change. If you need support with any of these tasks, please consider St Onge Company!
 
—Norm Saenz, St. Onge Company
 
 

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