Retail stacks that are
pleasing to the pallet
By Paul Wilkinson, Business
Development Manager,
Pacepacker Services
Stack ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap was once a palletising tactic confined to wholesale outlets.
Yet nowadays, it’s not uncommon to see pallet
loads, especially around busy seasonal periods,
carefully positioned on supermarket floors.
More complex patterns, combined with revisions by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE)
to the L23 manual handling guidance (Manual
Handling Operations; Regulations 1992), is
proving to be catalyst for automating palletising operations.
It might seem like a giant game of Jenga, but
given that back injuries from manual handling
are a major cause of occupational ill health, palletising is no game. Well over a third of injuries
lasting three-days or more reported annually to
the HSE are caused by manual handling.
Switching from stacking pallets by hand to
automated solutions, is far less risk averse. It
can also significantly increase your production
output and save on transport and labour costs.
Different strokes for different stacks
There are a whole host of stacking patterns. The
actual design will ultimately depend on the where
the pallet is destined for, e.g. shipping container
patterns would be different to a wholesaler like
Costco. Again, stability is vital and in most pallets
you won’t see the same pattern repeated layer
upon layer.
Like building a brick wall, most cases are arranged
to interlock. One exception tends to when stacking rigid cardboard boxes of similar size. Here, it
can actually increase the rigidity of the overall
pallet if each row is mirrored. For those heading to
the retail stores, packaging labels are also orientated to face outwards on all four sides.
Weighing up the risks
If you are currently stacking pallets by
hand, it’s important to give consideration to a number of factors. Manual
handling hazards are wide ranging.
The recent revisions suggest that
when lifting at waist height, it’s
around 25kg for me