Cross-docking
Sometimes goods arrive at your dock and leave again on an outgoing truck or parcel straight away, without being put on a shelf in between. It saves storage, handling and time, but only works when you know what is coming, and who it is for, before the truck arrives. That way of working is called cross-docking.
It suits a few situations: stock already sold to a known customer, goods a retailer wants delivered to several stores, or pallets that only change vehicle. For a small online shop sending single parcels it rarely applies, because most items have to be received, checked and put away first.
It depends on advance notice from the supplier (a despatch advice) and on a system that can match what is scanned in with open orders at that moment.
In practice
A wholesaler receives a pallet of 200 jars of honey that a café chain has already ordered. The pallet is scanned in, matched to the order, wheeled to the outbound dock and leaves on the afternoon truck. It never touches a shelf.
Further reading
Related terms
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Part one: Laying out a warehouse does not start with the racking
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