Speaking at the CII Supply Chain Leadership Conclave 2021, PN Varma, Director Sales – Consumer Packaging Group, enunciated the need for the manufacturing sector to embrace palletisation of goods to improve cost and efficiencies.
One of the low hanging fruits for the industry to adopt rapid technology is to change the way we move the goods, specifically in B2B environment. In the current scenario most of the distribution of goods in India happens by unit load like shipper, carton box or cases, but not in bulk. In fact, palletisation is often seen as a burden because of various factors such as limited flexibility, high investment, non-availability of right vehicles, lack of infrastructure to support it in the supply chain process, etc.
But companies end up spending a lot more on account of manpower cost for handling at various stages, and incur more expenditure due to product damages owing to manual and multiple handlings, repacking, rejection, providing additional safety in the pack design etc. The manual loading and unloading of trucks also result in high ‘gate in - gate out’ time loss for the trucks, which is estimated to be almost four times the mechanised handling.
We have several proven cases where palletisation works better and improves efficiencies across, that too at reduced overall cost. Palletization will have a dramatic impact on the improvement of material handling and supply chain efficiency.
With palletisation it is possible to down gauge the packing specification. For example, we have cases where a 5-ply / 3 -ply shipper carton has been entirely replaced with just a thin 50 Micron plastic film, saving cost on account of material and the subsequent packaging waste resulting in improved pallet loadability, faster truck TAT and better dock utilisation.
Once palletised almost all the handling of the goods can be mechanised. Using forklifts, conveyors etc. will improve material handling and storage efficiencies. Standard sized pallets are very common now, which will help in achieving the loadability and implementing warehouse storage solutions. Palletisation brings down the risk of product damage and can even help keep perishable items fresh for longer. The Government of India has committed to standardise the truck sizes and designs in the upcoming new nationwide policy guidelines and changes.
Most importantly we can automate many processes with palletisation. From packing, palletisation, handling and storage, processes can be automated suiting the customer requirements. Robots are now being extensively used to palletize goods. Robots & palletisers improve the quality of packaging and ensure the correct shape of the pallet. Automated palletization of goods also increases productivity, reduces manpower and guarantees cleanliness during packaging, thereby ensuring high efficiency and quality at low operating costs.
Signode’s expertise can help customers by capturing the end-to-end requirement and designing a suitable process to automate packaging that will improve pack performance, storage efficiency and handling of goods with ease. |
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