Use advanced shipping notification (ASN). With ASN, suppliers notify receivers in advance, letting them know they are shipping a specific purchase order, and giving an expected arrival time.
"While the ASN can be sent via fax, using advanced shipment notification often implies an electronic data interchange or a web-based compliance module is used as part of an overall warehouse management system," McKnight explains. And, knowing what is coming into the warehouse enables managers to preplan receiving for the day.
"When you don't have an infinite number of dock doors, you need to schedule inbound receipts to increase dock utilization," says McKnight. "You need to have a central point of communication, and be very clear to the carriers about who to call, and when."
It's important that both carriers and receivers be flexible. "Arrival times can't always be controlled," McKnight explains. "It's not uncommon for the daily schedule to start slipping.