Cross-dock or stock? A simple way to decide
Cross-docking sounds fancy, but the idea is plain: the freight arrives, and instead of being stored, it moves straight to the outbound truck. No putaway, no picking later, no storage cost. The catch is that it only works for the right goods.
Ask three questions about a SKU: is demand steady and predictable, is the shelf life or the customer’s patience short, and can the supplier deliver on a fixed rhythm? Three yeses and the SKU is a cross-dock candidate. Anything else earns its shelf space.
Most small operations don’t need a cross-dock program — they need the habit of asking the question. Start with your top 10 SKUs by volume; you’ll usually find two or three that never needed storage at all.
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