The cross docking process occurs when material received at your dock can fulfill an outgoing order at your receiving branch or at another branch; and instead of receiving the material, stocking it on your shelves, and then picking it for the outgoing orders, you immediately transfer the material from the receiving dock to the shipping dock holding the outgoing orders.
For example:
You receive 20 kitchen sinks on a purchase order (P/O). You have a sales order ready to be shipped once it is fulfilled with two kitchen sinks. Instead of receiving and putting away all 20 kitchen sinks and then picking two of those sinks for the sales order, immediately move two of the kitchen sinks to the shipping dock holding the pending sales order.
Cross docking makes warehouse processes more efficient, especially in a central purchasing scheme where it is necessary to receive all ordered products at one branch and then transfer the appropriate material to each child branch. By cross docking material, you can skip the putting away and picking steps for much of your received inventory.
Use the Cross Dock Printing Confirmation Queue and the Cross Dock Suggested Transfer Queue to cross dock material. From these queues, you can view all outgoing orders with a shipping status that can be fulfilled with material received on . Specifically, use each of the queues to do the following:
Cross Dock Printing Confirmation Queue- Use to view and select outgoing orders at your branch that can be fulfilled with incoming inventory. Print pick or work tickets to complete the outgoing order.
Cross Dock Suggested Transfer Queue- Use to view outgoing orders at other branches that can be fulfilled with incoming inventory at your branch. Transfer the material to other branches by either creating new transfers or adding to existing transfers.
See Also:
How the System Selects Orders for Cross Docking
Printing Pick or Work Tickets for Cross Dock Tasks
Using the Cross Dock Suggested Transfer Queue