Receiving and shipping area: doors and buffer space
Warehouse speed is often set by the doors, not the racks: the number of doors and the buffer space follow from trucks at peak hours.
Adding a new rack to a warehouse is easy, but a rack does not solve the jam at the doors through which goods pass. In many warehouses the slowdown begins not between the racks but at the doors: a truck waits for hours, a pallet gets stuck in the receiving area, a finished order goes astray at shipping. The receiving and shipping area is often drawn in the design on a "whatever is left over" basis. Below is a way to size it properly.
How to estimate the number of doors
The starting point is not the average day but the busiest few hours. How many trucks arrive in that time, and how long does each one occupy a door: stopping, opening, unloading, checking, paperwork, leaving. An example, with illustrative figures. In the busiest 3 hours 6 trucks arrive, each occupying a door for 1.5 hours. The demand is 6 × 1.5 = 9 door-hours, which in a three-hour window means three doors fully in use. If doors are busy 100 percent of the time, queues and delays are unavoidable, so aim for about 75 percent utilisation: 3 / 0.75 = 4 doors. The exact level depends on your operation; what matters is to leave spare time. Do not guess the figures: for a week, record the arrival and departure time of every truck. Often what takes longest is not the unloading itself but the paperwork and checking; then speeding up receiving is cheaper than adding doors.
Separating receiving from shipping
If possible, receiving and shipping should have separate doors and separate floor areas. Otherwise incoming pallets and outgoing orders meet on the way, staff carry off the wrong goods, and unaccepted goods mix with those being shipped. If the building is open on one side only, mark a clear boundary with a floor line and a sign, and at least separate them in time: receiving in the morning, shipping in the afternoon. When one person is responsible on the receiving side and another on the shipping side, accountability is clearer too: when something goes wrong, everyone knows who deals with it.
Buffer space: where goods stop
Unloaded goods do not go straight to the shelf: they are checked, compared with the documents and labelled. In shipping, a completed order waits until the truck arrives. Buffer space exists for this waiting. A rough rule: the area should hold the pallets that the largest typical truck brings in one trip. An example, with approximate figures. If a truck brings 20 pallets and one pallet needs 1.5 square metres including aisle, one truck needs 30 square metres; if two trucks may unload at the same time, 60 square metres. The buffer must not block main routes or mix with storage aisles. Do not turn the buffer into a warehouse: it is a temporary place, not a storage place. Decide how many hours a pallet may stand in the buffer, for example until the end of the working day, otherwise goods will lie there for months.
Queues and schedules
Even the best-designed area is helpless against trucks arriving at random. Agree time windows with suppliers: for example, no more than two trucks an hour. Trucks may face restrictions on moving through the city, so check arrival times against local rules in advance. Plan a waiting place in the yard too, so that trucks do not stand in the street, otherwise the queue will disturb the neighbours. Write a rule for trucks that miss their window as well: a late truck goes to the back of the queue. Otherwise the schedule stays on paper.
Safety and equipment
At the doors, lifting equipment and people on foot meet. That is why a separate pedestrian route, enough light, visibility for the driver and a suitable ramp matter. Drivers waiting at the doors also need a designated place and route, otherwise they wander round the warehouse. A ramp or lifting platform must match the height of the truck body, otherwise unloading slows down and goods are damaged. Building these in at the design stage is far cheaper than correcting them later.
Conclusion
Warehouse speed is often set not by the racks but by the doors. The OmborExpert specialists assess the warehouse design and help justify, with calculation, the size and flow of the receiving and shipping areas.