18
Should my pallets be hardwood or softwood?
by Tyson Steffens
Since the beginning of time, there has been a handful of primal questions that emerge from the core of our souls. Questions that, if we could only positively answer them, would elevate our existence. You probably thought about them the last time you shared a sunset, watched the waves roll in, or held a newborn: is there a God watching over us, what is the meaning of life, and of course, should your pallet be made of hardwood or softwood?
Luckily, although past decisions on diet, anniversary gifts and fantasy football were ill-fated, when it comes to pallets, you have found the oracle. Let me enlighten you.
If you palletize loads in South Florida or west of the Texas Panhandle (projected north), then this is a no-brainer…softwood. This was easy. You don’t have hardwood in your region without bringing it in by rail from East Texas, Missouri, or Iowa, which is cost prohibitive. You will learn to love SPF in only two cuts…this is the Legoland of pallets. For pallet design geeks, this is purgatory – like limiting DaVinci to a red crayon, a blue pencil, and some play dough.
RPN
RPN
towards the adoption of disposable packaging due to its several advantages over reusable packaging.
According to Ma Zengrong, vice-chairman and head of the China Automotive Logistics Association (CALA), and reported by Automotive Logistics, an absence of overall standardisation and limited environmental standards have made the use of returnable packaging less urgent for carmakers, although there is now growing interest in pooling equipment.
The Pooling Opportunity for Reusable Automotive Packaging: Reducing Empty Packaging Transportation
The increased presence of disposable packaging has led to problems at production plants. In the case of Tenneco, a $8.2 billion global automotive tier one supplier, it previously relied on a company owned fleet as well as frequent reliance on cardboard boxes and wooden pallets when container shortages took place.
Partnering with CHEP to analyze the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of its existing packaging system for automotive exhaust systems, Tenneco discovered that the largest area of hidden waste pertained to single use packaging.
Prior to its relationship with CHEP, Tenneco relied on a company owned fleet, often supplemented with additional reinforced triple ply cardboard boxes and wood pallets when container shortages were experienced. The use of expendable packaging created various inefficiencies in production and logistics.Waste generation led to disposal problems, health & safety concerns, more labor to handle packaging, a lack of containers during peak production throughput, the cost of purchasing emergency cardboard packaging, and product damage.
“They are vertically integrated within their business units, so they are sending those sub-components themselves to different plants to build these systems,” Buchanan explained. “In doing that they had a certain amount of their own (reusable container) fleet…When they were emptied, they couldn’t get them back fast enough to the places where they were needed to refill them the subcomponents.
“Because of those issues,” Buchanan continued, “it also required them to carry extra cardboard safety stock, and in doing that, it also put a strain on their facilities. They had significant waste.”
The previous solution also required non-value-added CAPEX and under-utilized transportation. Remaining mindful that introducing change on the shop floor can be difficult, Tenneco wanted to ensure its people were bought into the new solution process.
CHEP proposed a pooled solution of its Large Foldable Containers (LFCs). When pooling works best, containers emptied at a tier 1 or OEM facility are picked up by the provider and re-issued locally, thus saving the need to relocated empty the containers great distances.
To reduce concerns about risk, the pooling program started with a trial. “Because we wanted to mitigate risk, we did an approach of one plant at a time,” Buchanan said. The low stress introduction allowed Tenneco to assess the advantages of a pooled reusable packaging solution.
Tenneco has been rolling out its use of CHEP Folding Large Containers (FLCs) since August 2015, with the full support of shop-floor personnel. With over 26,000 containers per month shipped, the company has enjoyed the elimination of repackaging and other non-value added processes at its operations in China, Europe and the U.S. In addition to improved production efficiency, there were transportation and warehousing.
According to CHEP, the overall system now has far greater transparency, with CHEP providing the customer with full control over its packaging planning and provision. This removal of uncertainty has resulted in greater stability not only within the plants, but also in the supply chain as a whole.