Warehouse receiving – processes, characteristics, optimization, automation with WMS
Warehouse organisation involves several steps, and the success of these activities crucially depends on how you manage the processes prior to the actual storage of goods. Here’s how to optimize this critical link to ensure an effective supply chain management.
What is warehouse receiving?
Receiving is the receipt of goods from suppliers (or from the production department if the company is active in an industrial field). The receiving activity starts with the allocation of trucks to docks, planning and execution of unloading operations. This is followed by a quantitative and qualitative check of the goods received.
Receiving goods into the warehouse also requires the preparation of optimal spaces for the unloading and storage of each lot of goods arriving at the entrance to the warehouse. It is done by means of a Goods Received Note (GRN) confirming that the delivered goods have been received. GRN documents are generated for each individual load. Products that have passed the receiving stage are then moved from the unloading area to the appropriate spaces inside the warehouse based on logistically optimal criteria.
Characteristics of warehouse receiving activities
After goods arrive at the warehouse, they are inspected during unloading to check whether the qualitative and quantitative requirements are met. Quantitative acceptance is carried out on the basis of the documents accompanying the goods, by weighing, volumetric measurements or counting, in accordance with the regulations in force. Qualitative acceptance is carried out on the basis of documents issued by the supplier attesting the nature of the products and detailing the quality characteristics.
An inbound order may be processed in several receipts. In turn, warehouse receiving may comprise several inbound orders. There are two main ways of processing inbound orders: manually, by filling in physical (paper) receipt documents, or automatically, using mobile computers, electronic scanning, weighing and measuring devices that collect the information and store it in dedicated IT systems directly in the warehouse. In order to achieve efficiency targets in goods receipts, it is necessary to make the switch from manual to automated information processing at the receiving stage.
Ways to optimize warehouse reception
When goods are received in the warehouse, the flow of goods and documents as well as staff activities and the allocation of material resources in the warehouse according to the storage space must be effectively managed.
During receiving, it is decided what is to happen with the received goods: they are moved to warehouse and placed on the racks (putaway) or they are organised on the basis of transport or outbound orders, depending on availability (sufficient storage space, existence of outbound orders in the system at the time of receiving). Goods may also be temporarily stored in a special area of the warehouse for quick delivery (cross docking) when there are already orders for them and their short-term storage does not justify going through all the warehousing activities.
The characteristics of the products received (e.g. volume, weight, strength) may also determine their storage system: e.g. drive-in racking system (rows of racks for storing heavy pallets, through which the forklift can pass), block stacking (stacking of pallets/boxes on top of each other in stacks without racks), etc. Storage areas are also established according to ABC classes, which can be identified based on data collected in the WMS application. To ensure fast delivery of the best-selling items (classes A, B, C), these are placed in locations close to the delivery areas, which are easy to access and require the shortest distances to be covered during picking. The storage conditions (freezing/cooling/ambient temperature) of the products received may also require them to be stored in certain areas of the warehouse, to which the application automatically directs them for the putaway stage.
In the case of a logistics center managed by a 3PL service provider, based on data collected at receiving, the WMS application also takes into account the organization of the warehouse by zones not only according to item categories, but also by customer or customer type (IKA, online, fragile, etc.) and controls the putaway stage, reducing errors related to goods’ rack positioning.
To speed up subsequent deliveries, some of the goods can also be labelled and packed in kits as soon as they are received, based on data from orders recorded or imported in the xTrack WMS system.
During the receiving stage, the necessary data for the management of subsequent deliveries (FIFO, FEFO, LIFO system, etc.) are also entered, as the system adopted and the information collected during the receiving process is taken into account during picking. For example, if stored products are perishable, their shelf life is extremely important to avoid losses, so the FIFO (First In First Out)/FEFO (First Expire First Out) system is a priority.
How to automate warehouse receiving with WMS systems
To achieve the digitalization of the warehouse receiving process, you need a powerful WMS (Warehouse Management System) warehouse and stock management system.
Axes Software has created the xTrack WMS system, with modules and functionalities dedicated to all warehouse processes. By implementing this software solution, you get a tight control of the orders placed with suppliers as well as the returns from customers. In this way, goods receiving activities are carried out flexibly and efficiently, with a significant reduction in the number of errors.
With this powerful WMS system, you can separate an inbound order into several actual receipts on different dates. There is also the option of simultaneously receiving several inbound orders by the same operator or in several locations in the same warehouse or in different warehouses of the same network. You can correctly automate warehouse receiving by simultaneously monitoring the 3 types of batch-specific quantities and inbound orders:
- ordered quantity – what has been contracted from the supplier for purchasing purposes;
- the written quantity – what is specified in the delivery documents received from the supplier regarding the requested goods and the quantity ordered;
- the actual quantity – what is actually received by the warehouse operators: with xTrack WMS, the data is recorded by using mobile computers and the discrepancies are monitored automatically.
Furthermore, inbound orders can be automatically imported from external systems (usually, ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning). The xTrack WMS functionalities offer maximum flexibility and makes the goods receipt more efficient. You can completely eliminate any printed documents at the receiving stage by adopting barcode or RFID product identification technologies and real-time data storage directly in the application.
You can also use WMS as a SaaS application and work with the information collected in real time to reduce receiving errors and optimize workflows in warehouses or logistics centers. The xTrack WMS has a user-friendly interface, so employees quickly learn to work with this software solution to receive goods and coordinate warehouse activities.
Among other things, the software solution allows:
- multiple reception of identical pallets;
- the simultaneous scanning of up to 100 barcodes (useful for serial numbers of medical products);
- pre-filling of fields where the required data is already available in the system;
- grouping orders on a shipment and receiving a mixed load “in bulk”, accompanied by several invoices/supporting documents;
- automatic printing of item labels;
- scanning of serial numbers (SN), batch declaration for marked items;
- different receipts, depending on the product category (with a variable number of steps and documents processed, required by the type of product to be received);
- storage of pictures taken during the receiving process into the application and sending them automatically to other systems (e.g. website, mailboxes, etc.).
In this way, xTrack WMS offers an excellent level of integrability and scalability. Implementing the system provides you with full automation of data flows between departments and helps you prioritize the needs at the logistics center you manage.
Axes Software offers a suite of supply chain management software solutions. If you would like more information about our applications, send us a message using the form below.
