Palletizing, or palletization, is the act of placing products on pallets for shipping or storage. While it may not be the most important part of manufacturing or warehouse operations, it can have an impact on customer commitments and your bottom line. To keep your operations optimized, it’s important to have a palletizing strategy that meets your business needs.
Choosing the Right Palletizing Strategy
When you palletize, you are taking smaller products and grouping them together into a single load that can be moved as one unit. Automated palletizing is considered the conventional way to move a pallet load. However, it can also be done with manual palletizing, robotic palletizing, or with a hybrid solution.
Which palletizing solution you use will depend on your strategy. Here are a few factors to consider when creating a palletizing strategy.
Efficiency
Downtime can result in delays for the shipping process, and inefficient palletizing can affect the amount of product that can be stored in an area. Since this is the case, it’s a good idea to consider palletizing as part of production and distribution. Minimizing inefficient palletizing will enhance the speed and efficiency of material handling.
Packaging Trends
Today’s packaging trends have had a big impact on how palletizing is handled. Now many products are using less packaging, more fragile materials, and smaller items, not to mention that pallets are also being used as part of consumer displays. As these packaging changes continue, palletizing methods need to be assessed to mitigate potential damage. This can alter the way you need to approach stacking patterns and stability.
Safety Requirements
When choosing a palletizing strategy for your business needs, it’s important to consider every factor that could come into play. This includes the safety requirements that are associated with each method. Both automated and robotic palletizing have to adhere to safety regulations stated under category 3 control system requirements. A hybrid solution would also have to follow these rules.
Labor Challenges
Among the many factors to take into consideration for a palletizing strategy, your workforce will likely determine what options you have available. Increasing minimum wages, turnover, potential injuries, and the number of qualified workers limits how many people you can employ. You’ll have to assess what options are most realistic for your business needs.
Let Us Help You With Your Palletizing Needs
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