Warehouse Receiving and Putaway for Logistics Coordinators Training Course

Course overview

Receiving errors create downstream inventory problems that logistics coordinators are often expected to resolve under time pressure: purchase orders do not match deliveries, pallets arrive without usable labels, damage is discovered after receipt, and stock appears available before it has passed inspection. This course equips coordinators to control the inbound flow from appointment and dock arrival through verification, system receipt, quality disposition and directed putaway. It focuses on decisions that protect inventory accuracy, supplier accountability, warehouse capacity and customer service.

Participants learn to build and apply receiving control points, match deliveries against purchase orders and advance shipping notices, capture exceptions, and decide when to accept, quarantine, reject or short-receipt goods. They practise barcode and GS1 label checks, quantity and condition verification, blind receiving, discrepancy coding, inventory status control, and putaway task prioritisation. The course also covers slotting inputs, storage rules, replenishment interactions, cycle-count triggers and the use of WMS transactions and Excel-based exception analysis to identify recurring supplier, carrier and process failures.

Instruction combines facilitator-led process design with realistic receiving documents, WMS-style transaction scenarios, dock-capacity constraints and group investigations of inventory variances. Participants complete a capstone inbound-control workshop and leave with a tailored Receiving and Putaway Control Pack: a process map, receiving checklist, exception log, disposition decision tree, putaway rule set and improvement action plan that can be adapted to their site. The course is particularly valuable for coordinators responsible for translating procurement commitments and transport arrivals into accurate, available warehouse stock.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Map an end-to-end receiving and putaway process using control points, ownership handoffs and system transactions
• Reconcile purchase orders, advance shipping notices and physical deliveries using three-way receipt verification
• Apply quantity, condition, lot, serial-number and expiry-date checks to determine receipt acceptance status
• Create coded discrepancy records that distinguish shortage, overage, damage, mislabel, quality and documentation exceptions
• Configure practical putaway decision rules using product velocity, dimensions, compatibility, storage capacity and inventory status
• Prioritise dock, inspection and putaway tasks using appointment, ageing, service-risk and capacity criteria
• Analyse receiving and putaway KPIs in Excel to identify root causes of inventory variance and supplier non-conformance
• Produce a site-ready Receiving and Putaway Control Pack with checklists, decision trees, escalation routes and improvement actions

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Logistics Coordinators — who control inbound arrivals, system receipts and handoffs to warehouse operations
• Warehouse Coordinators — who need consistent receiving checks and location-directed putaway decisions
• Inventory Controllers — who investigate stock variances originating at goods receipt and putaway
• Inbound Operations Supervisors — who manage dock capacity, receiving labour and exception escalation
• Supply Chain Analysts — who measure inbound performance and convert operational data into corrective actions
• Procurement Operations Officers — who need defensible evidence of supplier delivery and documentation failures

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical exposure to warehouse or logistics operations and understand basic purchase-order fields, stock locations, units of measure, batch or lot control, and the purpose of a warehouse management system. Familiarity with receiving documents such as delivery notes, packing lists and advance shipping notices is expected. Participants should be comfortable working with spreadsheets, including filters and simple formulas in Microsoft Excel. Prior use of SAP EWM or Oracle WMS Cloud is helpful but not required; system exercises use guided scenarios. No programming, warehouse-engineering qualification or advanced data-analysis background is required.

Training methodology

The programme uses short instructor-led modules followed by structured warehouse scenarios. Participants work with purchase orders, advance shipping notices, delivery notes, pallet labels, damage reports and WMS-style receipt screens to make acceptance, quarantine and putaway decisions. Small groups analyse dock congestion, inventory discrepancies and supplier failures using Excel-based KPI extracts. Facilitator feedback tests each decision against stock-control and service consequences. On the final day, each participant converts the casework into a site-specific receiving and putaway action plan and control pack.

Course outline

Day 1: Inbound flow control and receipt governance

• Inbound process mapping from appointment booking to stock availability
• Receiving roles, segregation of duties and control-point ownership
• Purchase order, advance shipping notice and delivery-note data fields
• Dock appointment scheduling and unloading-priority criteria
• Goods-receipt transaction sequence in warehouse management systems
• Units of measure, pack hierarchy and conversion-risk controls
• Inbound KPIs for dock-to-stock time, receipt accuracy and exception ageing

Workshop: Participants map a congested inbound process and produce a control-point matrix identifying owner, evidence, system action and escalation trigger.

Day 2: Verification, inspection and receipt exceptions

• Three-way verification of purchase order, ASN and physical delivery
• Blind receiving versus expected receiving control methods
• Quantity counting methods for pallets, cases, loose units and mixed loads
• Condition inspection criteria for damage, contamination and packaging failure
• GS1 barcode, SSCC, GTIN, lot and serial-number validation
• Shortage, overage, damage and mislabel discrepancy coding
• Acceptance, rejection, quarantine and conditional-receipt decisions

Workshop: Using a delivery document pack and pallet-label evidence, participants complete a discrepancy log and disposition decision record for a disputed receipt.

Day 3: Inventory status and WMS receiving execution

• Available, blocked, quality-inspection, quarantine and return-to-vendor stock statuses
• SAP EWM inbound delivery and goods-receipt transaction concepts
• Oracle WMS Cloud receiving, inspection and task-generation concepts
• Lot, batch, serial and expiry-date capture requirements
• Quality hold release criteria and traceability evidence
• Receipt reversal, correction and audit-trail controls
• Cycle-count triggers following receipt and location exceptions

Workshop: Participants process a guided WMS-style scenario, selecting receipt statuses and correction actions that preserve traceability and audit evidence.

Day 4: Directed putaway, slotting and capacity decisions

• Putaway strategies based on fixed, dynamic and random location assignment
• Slotting inputs: product velocity, cube, weight, handling unit and compatibility
• Storage-zone rules for hazardous, temperature-controlled and high-value inventory
• Location-capacity checks using volume, weight and pallet-position constraints
• Putaway task sequencing by ageing, order demand and replenishment risk
• Exception routing for full locations, blocked locations and unscannable stock
• Replenishment interactions between reserve storage and pick-face locations

Workshop: Participants design a putaway rule set and location plan for a mixed-SKU inbound load with capacity, compatibility and service constraints.

Day 5: Performance analysis and operational improvement

• Receiving accuracy, dock-to-stock, putaway compliance and exception-rate calculations
• Microsoft Excel filters, pivot tables and conditional formatting for inbound data
• Pareto analysis of supplier, carrier and product-level discrepancy patterns
• Five Whys and fishbone analysis for recurring inventory variances
• Corrective and preventive action design for inbound non-conformance
• Standard operating procedure and checklist development for receiving teams
• Management reporting for supplier reviews and warehouse improvement meetings

Workshop: Participants complete a capstone review of inbound KPI data and produce a Receiving and Putaway Control Pack with prioritised corrective actions.

Tools & standards covered

SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM), Oracle Warehouse Management Cloud, Microsoft Excel, GS1 General Specifications

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions