While the use of pallets and palletization were once considered to be powerful components of materials handling strategy, today, industry takes the practice largely for granted.
When the palletization concept was first introduced, however, it had a dramatic impact on the improvement of material handling efficiency. Rail cars that had taken two days to unload could subsequently be unloaded in just one or two hours. You can read more about the history of pallets.
Europool System crates being palletized manually. Source: www.europoolsystem.com.
Then as now, the use of pallets as a base for unit loads offers a number of benefits:
1. Palletized products can be moved more quickly than by the manual handling of individual palletized cartons.
Benefits of this quicker handling include:
- Faster turnaround of delivery vehicle and increasing operational efficiency of transport equipment
- Quicker availability of the trailer door for the next arrival
- Dramatically reduced labor requirement versus manual handling
- Reduced risk of temperature abuse for perishable products on unrefrigerated docks
2. Because palletized goods require less manual handling, we expect:
- Less risk of product damage
- Reduced risk of worker injury
3. Palletized products can be moved more efficiently and stored more efficiently in warehouses.
4. Customers often prefer the receipt of palletized goods
5. Pallets are typically easier to handle with material handling equipment than other styles of unit load bases such as slip sheets, which may require specialized equipment.
6. Pallets provide drainage and circulation for commodities requiring this, including fresh produce.
Moving beyond the question of whether or not to palletize, we extend the conversation into pallet selection options, and finding the best pallet system for a particular application.