Putaway

Putaway is moving received goods from the dock to the storage location where they will be kept, and recording where they went. It starts once goods are checked in and ends when the location is scanned, so the stock can be picked. A Georgia Tech textbook puts it at about 15% of warehouse operating expenses.

The steps

1. Unload, and stage the goods if they can't go straight away.
2. Check them against the advance shipping notice and the order, and record the receipt.
3. Choose a location — before product can be put away, an appropriate storage location must be determined.
4. Move the goods there.
5. Scan the location, so the system knows where the stock is.

In fixed-location, or dedicated, storage each location is reserved for one product, so the choice is made in advance. In directed putaway the warehouse system picks a free location for each pallet as it arrives. The EU's good distribution practice guidelines for medicines add a rule of their own: once checked, goods should be immediately transferred to appropriate storage. They also set the purpose of receiving: to ensure the arriving consignment is correct, that the medicines come from approved suppliers and that they have not been visibly damaged in transport — in a reception area designated and suitably equipped for examining deliveries.

Worked example: dock-to-stock time

The mistake people make

Reserving a location for every product. Dedicated storage is easy to run, but because each slot waits for its own product, the textbook warns that storage capacity can end up only about 50% utilized — space a directed system would have filled.