Receiving may begin with advance notification of the arrival of goods. This allows the warehouse to schedule receipt and unloading to coo¨rdinate efficiently with other activities within the warehouse. It is not unusual for warehouses to schedule trucks to within 30-minute time indows.
    Once the product has arrived, it is unloaded and possibly staged for put away. It is likely to be scanned to register its arrival so that ownership is assumed, payments dispatched, and so that it is known to be available to fulfill customer demand. Product will be inspected and any exceptions noted, such as damage, incorrect counts, wrong descriptions, and so on.
    Product typically arrives in larger units, such as pallets, from upstream and so labor requirements are not usually great. (However, mixed pallets may need to be broken out into separate cartons; and loose cartons may need to be palletized for storage.) All-in- all, receiving accounts for only about 10% of operating costs in a typical distribution center [21, 22]—and RFID is expected to further reduce this.