When people think of a third-party logistics (or 3PL) service like Spectra, their focus tends to be on warehousing and shipping. But before a pallet of product is even placed on a shelf in our storage facility, it has to pass through a critical step in the process that can be overlooked by clients choosing a new fulfillment partner: the receiving step.

Mistakes in receiving can quickly add up to very high costs for the client, and those costs are often deceptive because they may not show up until long after the receiving step is actually complete. This makes it difficult to trace the costs back to their root cause. Here are some of the most common receiving mistakes we see in the industry and how you can avoid having them waste your organization’s capital.

Disorganized/Unsafe Environment

Picture the moment that a delivery truck backs up to a storage facility’s loading dock with items to be unloaded. The events that unfold immediately afterwards can either be efficient, quick, and organized; or they can be chaotic and rushed. Truck drivers are typically running according to a strict schedule and need to have their trailer unloaded as quickly as possible, which imposes a sense of urgency.

If the team at the 3PL provider’s warehouse is not fully prepared to receive the shipment, the result is a flurry of activity, rushed communication, and frantic attempts to identify what needs to be unloaded and how much space is needed on the loading dock for it. Only once the work is done and the truck departs does the team have time to take a second look and verify that everything is correct.

This worst-case scenario is a “perfect storm” for mistakes. The truck may still have product on board when it leaves; incorrect pallets may have been unloaded that should have remained on the truck; and items could have been damaged during transfer if the team did not have time to make note of special handling instructions.

The Spectra team makes it a priority to know what shipments are arriving each day, when the truck will be on site, and any important factors that could make unloading unusual for that particular delivery. Team members are assigned to handle the receiving process, and when the truck backs up to the dock and the door is opened, the team knows exactly what to do and how to do it safely. This creates an efficient receiving process without chaos!

Lack of Attention to Detail

One of the features of a large storage facility that amazes people unfamiliar with the industry is the fact that so many items look similar from the outside packaging. Stacks of brown cardboard boxes all look indistinguishable, except for brand names and labels indicating their contents. 

Unfortunately, it’s not just newcomers to the industry that can be confused by the similarities. During the receiving process, it is very easy for human error to introduce expensive mistakes, as boxes, crates, and pallets are misidentified and put in the wrong spot. The most effective way for a team like Spectra to avoid these mistakes is to recognize that humans are prone to make mistakes, and to mitigate that risk by using stringent quality control measures.

Spectra imposes its own quality control systems at each stage of the fulfillment process, and that certainly includes receiving. Multiple team members check each other’s work, and barcode scanning ensures that even boxes that look identical are verified to hold the expected contents. While this process may feel tedious at times, it is incredibly valuable in avoiding unnecessary costs down the road.

Bypassing Procedures

When the priority is unloading a truck and getting the driver on his way to the next stop, there is a temptation to simply get pallets off the truck and into the building, without taking too much time to identify where they end up in the moment. This is a recipe for disaster in several ways, but unfortunately it is extremely common in the fulfillment industry.

Particularly with a large shipment, crates and boxes may be scattered to different areas of the building in an attempt to simply put them somewhere in the moment. Once the “dust has settled,” the team must backtrack and find all of those boxes in order to get them to their destination in the warehouse. This is a significant waste of time on the part of personnel, when a more efficient process could have kept all the boxes together and moved them straight to their end location from the truck.

More importantly, items incorrectly placed during the receiving process very easily get misplaced and forgotten. Days, weeks, or even months later, a team member looking for those items for an order will have little to no chance of finding them if they are not in their designated spot within the warehouse. The inevitable delays and even reordering items that are believed to be missing from the warehouse waste valuable capital.

Process, Procedure, and Organization

At Spectra, organization is a priority in our warehouse. This priority comes from a perspective of humility, as each of our team members is aware of their own potential for human error. Rather than “trusting ourselves” to navigate a chaotic receiving process, keep all the information straight in our head during a confusing period of time, and end up getting everything correct, we rely on process and procedure to keep things as simple and predictable as possible. We also rely on both technologies and the eyes of other team members to perform quality control measures and “check our work” to make sure everything is correct.

If you have experienced problems with your current fulfillment provider due to inefficiency, faulty or nonexistent procedures, or repeated mistakes, get in touch with Spectra to find out how we do things differently. Our storage facility and our systems are carefully designed to ensure that your products and materials make it in and out with maximum accuracy and efficiency every time.