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Original Forum

Discuss the use of pallets in a shipping system. What considerations must be taken when deciding whether or not a pallet is required for a specific shipment of boxes? What considerations must be made in determining the placement of boxes on the pallet and securing the boxes to the pallet?

Response from students

1

In my five years working as a Logistics Specialist for the US Navy I can honestly say that palletized material is very common. In my current job, I work as a warehouse manager where we receive and ship material, so palletizing material has become second nature. In a shipping system, pallets allow material to be consolidated and shipped with ease as the material moves from location to location.

Some considerations that must be taken is how much--in quantity, size or weight--material is there? Pallets can be a great tool for consolidation and allows forklift maneuverability for large and heavy items. The next consideration is the destination of the material: if shipping multiple items on one pallet, is all the material heading for the same location?

When shipping boxes of material, weight is a determining factor of pallet construction. Heavy boxes should always be on the bottom with lighter boxes on top. Simply put, this decreases the risk for product damage. There are also methods that allow proper alignment of boxes on a pallet in order to prevent the stacks of boxes from tipping or becoming damaged due to hanging off the edge of the pallet, or in between the spaces.

When it comes to securing the boxes to the pallet, a common method I have seen is the use of plastic wrap. Many warehouses utilize equipment that rotates and applies shrink wrap to a pallet, but it can also be done manually. It other cases, it may be easier or more applicable to use metal banding. For instance, shipping boxes that are rectangular in shape that create two stacks on a pallet can be banded instead of shrink wrapped.

-Andrew

2

When I start to think about pallets, the first thought that comes to mind is palletizing gear prior to a deployment. In the military, we use pallets in order to combine large amounts of gear and supplies into a condensed fashion to make them a lot easier to transport. When it comes to the world of shipping on the civilian side of the house, I would employ the same type of mindset the military uses. A company that is transporting or storing goods would most likely want to move a few large pallets rather than dealing with a bunch of smaller boxes being moved one by one.

An advantage to using a palletized system would be in consideration to the actual protection of the shipped goods themselves. There would be less manual manipulation on the actual boxes carrying the products, since they would be moved as a unit by forklift, and the pallet would ultimately provide a layer of protection to its contents. One of the disadvantages of this might be the equipment necessary in order to move the actual pallets of goods. Forklifts can be a very expensive piece of equipment and might not be in stock everywhere that a company's goods might be transported.

As a company trying to decide whether or not to use pallets for products, money is definitely a factor as well. There are two types of pallets that could be utilized; export and shipping pallets and reusable pallets. Although wood pallets are the cheapest model out there, they are not always built to withstand the elements and can be damaged by moisture.

One would also have to consider shipping costs of, not only the initial transport, but also the cost of having the pallets send back to the origin company if they are reusable. You also have to take into consideration how you are going to secure the boxes on the pallets as well. Are the shipping boxes able to withstand outside elements and only require netting, or do they need protection from moisture and require plastic wrappings on the outside?

Ultimately, all of these decisions boil down to what you are going to be shipping and what type of monetary means you have available to you. If you are shipping a large amount of goods that can be easily stacked onto a single pallet and moved as one unit, a pallet system might be best for you. If you have unique goods that might be oddly shaped (which would make it difficult to stack onto a pallet), or include items that require special protection, you might not want to use pallets in your shipping process.

Charles

3

The use of pallets in a shipping system is efficient when it comes to transporting or storing raw materials. The use of palletization has certainly made my job easier working in the outbound cargo section of the traffic management office. Since I mainly prepare and package hazardous materials and classified cargo, these items tend to be heavier than usual. Sometimes the cargo comes in multiple boxes that we can consolidate on a pallet.

If it's a heavy metal container or an extremely large item, the use of a pallet comes in handy so that I'm able to easily transport the item from one location to the other. I even use pallets to help store products when I don't want something just sitting on the dirty floor of the warehouse.

Palletization definitely has its perks. Products on a pallet can be moved more quickly than manually handling individual containers. Since there is less manual handling of the products, there's less risk of damage and a reduction of work injuries thanks to the use of moving the pallets with forklifts or pallet jacks. More benefits include a faster turnaround at delivery points in transportation, increase in operational efficiency during transport of equipment and reduction in manual labor (Leblanc, 2016).

When placing the boxes and containers on a pallet, the heaviest items should be stacked on the bottom and the lightest on top. The pallet should be aligned like a square or pyramid with no overhang. Shrink wrap should surround the freight for tightening. Since the average pallet is 48x40, there should be at least two metal band wraps across the top and bottom of the pallet. The average height of a pallet should be between five to seven feet tall (Freightera, 2017).