Reducing lead time for sending orders out could be an area of opportunity for your facility. While maintaining the best routes in your lumber yard is important, you can also optimize the process of preparing loads to be shipped. Some facilities are increasing efficiency by creating a pre-build system. For example, after placing all paper/electronic order forms together, your forklift operators will bring the right sized, previously cut lumber and build out all loads beforehand. If done correctly, an order will be complete and ready to go when the truck arrives for pickup.
Depending upon the size of your operation, you may be able to employ someone part or full-time who handles the task of scheduling these pre-built loads and managing your inventory. This type of planning can go a long way in ensuring your operation is always one step ahead in regards to inventory management and efficiency. Having these pre-built loads labelled in a way in which they are easily identifiable by your forklift operators further improves your efficiency and throughput. This can be easily accomplished by simple changes to eliminate the amount of time it takes to identify the order on the build sheet. Font size, placement and even length of the order number can help to reduce the amount of time it takes to identify each build and can help to eliminate costly downtime.