Dock Management Case Study

Dock management will have direct implications on drivers’ efficiency and utility of the transportation company. If the goods arrive in the form of mixed or partial shipments, consolidation of goods in dock area as per Put-Away location becomes extremely important in order to eliminate redundancy in the system and to save time as well as increase labor’s efficiency. So the sponsor must evaluate the allocation of “Staging area” prior “Put-Away evaluation”.

So as to make “Dock management” best in class companies must focus on below mentioned aspects:-

• Optimization of the dock usage by setting up of firm delivery appointments and using codes for dates

• Balancing of labor cost

• Committing to quick trailer unloading time

• Avoid traffic jams,

This process allows weeding out the discrepancies but at the same time increase the area required for staging and time spent by goods in the dock area.

• Staging of product with reference to part number. This allows put away to occur even before receiving entire items listed on purchase order. It reduces the staging area and time to put away.

Below mentioned are good practices for moving goods to put away19

• Staging as per Put-Away Zones. In order to carry out this activity the WMS should be capable of slotting the docking area to “Put-Away Zones” as per travel time, area or product velocity. This also reduces the time required for put away.

• Directly moving the received goods to “Put-Away” locations. This type of planning is possible only if even before receiving goods physically using ASN. In order to implement such system the company must use automatic transfer system by using automatic conveyor system. This system can reduce space required during offloading.

Warehouse companies are often in a dilemma of implementing automation in various sections or in warehouse in general. Below is a guideline that helps in rationalizing the investment:-

• What is customer requirement? (Efficiency, Accuracy or

• In which department or section is the company doing badly and what is the reason for such bad performance? Is it automation or something else?

• Which segment is performing best and is it possible to save more money over long time by implementing automation?

• What is the return of investment?

• Is economy of scale possible to achieve?

• Is economy of scope possible to achieve?

One of the important components of Put Away planning is strategy behind “Slotting and Re-Slotting”. Goal of slotting is to optimize “Cube Space” of warehouse and improve warehouse efficiency by reducing travel time for put away, replenishment and picking. It is important to investigate Factors for forming slotting strategy are: -

• Product velocity: - This is based upon number of orders for which a product is picked. These can be quoted as “High Volume products”.

• Seasonality of products

• Storage or Pick Types: - It is dependent on pallets V/s Half pallets, Cases V/s Half cases. This is information must be used to optimize the warehouse location where such full or partial orders are located.

• Special handling products

• Product Similarity

• Customer Similarity

• Shipping