Flow smoothness & dock optimization

Receiving and shipping

Warehouse docks are too often the main bottleneck: congested receiving, long truck queues and double manual entry tie up capital and floor space. With traditional management, a single vehicle can wait over two hours while goods pile up.

This is where the Fox4Work Inbound Reception module comes into play. It turns this friction zone into a productivity hub by managing both receiving and flow organization from the moment goods arrive. Fox4Work eliminates idle time. The system also directs put-away as soon as the pallet is scanned, ensuring a continuous flow and reducing forklift travel distances by 20% to 30%.

In addition, the integration of scan/RFID tracking and real-time shipment scheduling shortens the 'dock-to-stock' cycle by several hours. As a result, you stabilize your OTIF (On-Time, In-Full) rate above 97%, ensuring increased efficiency and reliability across your entire supply chain.

Your challenges

The 4 challenges of inbound and outbound logistics

Challenge #1

Minimal dwell time

Trucks wait an average of 119 minutes at the dock due to missing time slots or incomplete documentation. During this time, drivers are idle and detention costs soar, while the maneuvering area turns into a bottleneck.

Reducing this dwell time requires real-time visibility on arrivals, precise dock/forklift scheduling, and advance document checks. Without this orchestration, docks become saturated at peak times; downstream activities (put-away, picking) must slow down to absorb the queue, causing customer delays and higher transport costs.

Challenge #2

Missing EDI delivery note

Receiving without a delivery note (DESADV/EDI 856) is like unpacking blind: unannounced items, duplicate entries and quality disputes. A complete electronic notice—sender, SKU, batches, quantities, temperature—allows the expected delivery to be compared with reality even before the truck arrives, halving quantity/quality discrepancies and inspection time.

When the EDI document is not exchanged, pallets remain stuck at the dock; labor costs increase, truck dwell time often exceeds 45 minutes, and urgent orders are delayed.

Challenge #3

Direct put-away

A poorly placed pallet means 20% more forklift travel for operators and sometimes a location error that persists until the next inventory. The primary cause of internal congestion remains the constant movement of forklifts between receiving areas and high-bay aisles.

The real challenge is to calculate the optimal location in real time (available volume, ABC class, material compatibility) and then guide the operator without double entry; otherwise, distances increase, “phantom” stockouts appear, and occupancy density drops.

Challenge #4

Cut-off compliance

Between premium orders, carrier time slots and urgent cross-docking, the slightest sequencing error can derail OTIF. Leaders target over 97% On-Time In-Full for shipping.

To achieve this, orders must be dynamically prioritized based on customer value, delivery promise and truck departure time. Without real-time prioritization or scanned proof of loading (weight, dimensions, photos), shortages go unnoticed; moreover, over 50% of freight claims are rejected due to incomplete documentation.

Truck queues, poorly stored pallets, duplicate entries and carrier delays: without action, these issues create major hidden costs and undermine the customer promise.

Our solution

Frictionless receiving and shipping

Inbound and outbound flows are often bottlenecks: half of trucks wait more than two hours due to missing time slots or unreliable ASNs. Meanwhile, goods block floor space, tie up capital, and delay downstream production. Fox4Work^TM removes these bottlenecks by enrolling each pallet into a continuous digital flow: electronic pre-advice, one-scan quality control, algorithmic put-away, and real-time shipment sequencing. The result: less waiting, fewer errors, and higher dock productivity shift after shift.

EDI Delivery Note: “one-scan” receiving

Fox4Work^TM imports the delivery note in EDI 856 (ANSI X12) or DESADV (EDIFACT) format: SKUs, batches, expiry dates and temperature conditions are pre-validated upstream. An inbound plan (dock, team, documentation) is generated automatically; operators know where and how to unload. At the dock, a single barcode or RFID scan confirms quantity, batch and temperature; any anomaly triggers a real-time alert. Result: up to 40% lower inspection costs and no double entry, while the digital proof of delivery immediately feeds the ERP and TMS to accelerate invoicing and traceability.

Algorithmic put-away: placing the pallet in the right location

From the moment a pallet is scanned, Fox4Work^TM calculates the optimal location based on available volume, ABC class and material compatibility. The forklift driver receives step-by-step guidance, avoiding detours and re-locations; forklift travel drops by 20–30%, and mislocation errors become marginal. The system continuously rebalances high-bay aisles and dynamic locations: occupancy density increases without real-estate investment, and picking replenishment remains smooth.

Inbound work orchestration

Even before unloading, the Inbound Reception module sequences tasks: it manages dock assignment, team allocation, QC checks, and forklift routes. Dock-to-stock is reduced by several hours: best practices target 8 hours, while Fox4Work often brings it down to 4–6 hours. Stacking is eliminated: pallets are validated and sent to put-away without waiting, freeing dock space and avoiding labor overruns. As a result, truck queues shrink and capital is no longer tied up on inactive square meters.

Smooth dock flows, zero congestion

Fox4Work tracks truck dwell time, forklift workload, and dock occupancy in real time; alerts are triggered after 45 minutes of waiting. It instantly reorders tasks if a slot slips and dynamically adjusts shipping priorities, reducing carrier waiting times and detention costs by up to 45%. As a result, docks flow smoothly, OTIF stabilizes above 97%, and billing is triggered as soon as proof of loading is available.

Truck queues, lost pallets, manual checks and missed departures: without dock control, these drifts create a major hidden cost and undermine the customer promise. Thanks to ASN digitization, algorithmic put-away, dock scheduling and dynamic outbound orchestration, Fox4Work^TM turns inbound/outbound into a continuous, fast and highly reliable flow.

The impact on your logistics performance

Measurable results

Before

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Dwell time reduced by up to 45%

Before

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20 to 30% fewer steps

Before

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+9 to +14 accuracy points

Before

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Cycle time reduced by 2 hours or more

Ready to optimize your flows?

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Learn more

The 4 key challenges a WMS must address

Whether it is an e-commerce hub or an industrial platform, four challenges now dominate logistical performance: maintaining a reliable inventory to avoid stockouts and overstocking, accelerating order picking—which absorbs up to 70% of warehouse labor—smoothing out receiving and shipping to reduce truck dwell time (frequently exceeding two hours), and guaranteeing exhaustive traceability capable of reaching 99% accuracy through the barcode/RFID pairing.

A WMS like Fox4Work tackles these four areas head-on: real-time visibility for every SKU, dynamic slotting and batch picking to eliminate unnecessary travel, dock scheduling and directed put-away to relieve docks, and time-stamped audit logs with live KPIs to move from annual inventories to continuous control.

Discover how Fox4Work addresses each of these challenges—and why mastering them determines a warehouse’s profitability.

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