Increasing receiving efficiency in your warehouse can be a persistent, time consuming problem especially when purchase orders are hundreds of lines long. Multi-line Receiving (MLR) is a deviation from the way inventory is typically received. It provides a quick and easy way to look at an entire order of goods, identify exactly what you have, and receive it in as little time as possible at a receiving station.
Inspired by an RF-SMART for Oracle Cloud customer, MLR was designed as a function that would be intuitive and simple, allowing users to increase their receiving efficiency quickly and simply.
MLR resolves common receiving pain points by pairing down the process to present the receiver exactly what they need to create a receipt. MLR allows users to receive orders ranging from 1 to 100+ lines instantly, while also giving users the ability to print item labels, receipt travelers, and delivery labels.
A typical MLR workflow might look like:
Keep Reading: Behind the Scenes of Multi-Line Inventory Receiving
Overall, MLR gives RF-SMART users the ability to receive by exception - and it's created a tremendous amount of receiving efficiency for our customers. Here are some of the benefits of Multi-Line Receiving:
MLR allows users the flexibility to quickly accept multi-line purchase orders in seconds, improving the speed of receiving while also improving accuracy compared to traditional receiving. While MLR gives users the freedom to receive on multiple devices, we've found that it is fairly common for users to receive at a desktop station. Some questions to consider when evaluating receiving on a mobile scanner versus MLR are:
How many lines are on a typical PO for your organization?
Purchase Orders can be hundreds of lines long. Even if your PO is only 50 lines long, you may find increased efficiency using MLR!
What happens when the receiver misses an item when using a mobile scanner?
In this scenario, you end up formally receiving less than you expected, despite the inventory physically having the correct amount. Really long POs = the perfect use case for MLR!
What happens during the receiving process if the supplier has complicated barcode concatenation?
The item won't scan and you'd have to receive the item without scanning by choosing that product from the list of PO lines. This can lead to errors from manual data entry that could have been avoided using something like MLR.
Are the items valuable enough to be worth the time committed to check each product upon receipt?
For heavily regulated or very expensive items, it is probably worth it to receive each item individually to ensure that each item record contains the proper documentation for auditing purposes. However, many RF-SMART customers choose to receive via MLR for lower cost items.
One way to maximize efficiency with MLR is to integrate it with RF-SMART's Delivery functionality. Delivery gives you the ability to capture pictures of the items, packing slips and tracking numbers. The UPS tracking number that comes with a parcel will stop tracking at the dock door. With Delivery, the supply chain team can see the entire lifecycle of the package and ensure that it is delivered to the right person or location.
CentraCare, one of the largest healthcare systems in Minnesota, uses RF-SMART for receiving, dock logging, picking and delivery. Multi-Line Receiving has increased the number of products they are able to receive, increasing efficiency. They also chose to integrate their receiving with Delivery. “RF-SMART Delivery functionality gives us end-to-end chain of custody tracking,” said Ross Gunderson, Director of Support Services.
Want to learn more about how Multi-Line Receiving can make your supply chain more efficient? Speak with our team: