Overall inventory move. Exchanging products between handlers or moving goods from one piece of equipment to another wastes time and increases the potential for product damage. Thus, as a general rule, longer warehouse handling movements are preferred. Goods, once in motion, should be continuously moved until arrival at their final destination.
Scale economies justify moving the large qualities or loads possible. Instead of moving individual cases, handling procedures should be designed to move cases grouped on pallets, slip-sheets, or containers. The overall objective of materials handling is to eventually sort in bound shipment into unique customer assortments. The three primary handling activities are receiving, in-storage handling or transfer, and shipping.