PRODUCTIVITY SOLUTIONS FOR DISTRIBUTION, WAREHOUSING AND MANUFACTURING
mmh.com
®
September 2013
Vera Bradley’s
multi-channel
success
18
PACKAGING ISSUE
READER SURVEY
Annual pallet report 26
+ Webcast: Talking about pallets
Thurs., Sept. 19 at 2:00 p.m. ET
www.mmh.com/pallets2013
BEST PRACTICES
Transport packaging
of the future 36
EQUIPMENT REPORT
Packaging and
automation 40
Dave Gealy,
senior director
of distribution,
Vera Bradley
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UP FRONT
BREAKING NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW
Daifuku Webb to acquire Wynright
DAIFUKU WEBB HOLDING COMPANY,
a subsidiary of Daifuku Co. Ltd., and
Wynright Corp. announced they have
reached a definitive agreement for
Daifuku Webb to acquire privately
owned Wynright. Under the agreement, Wynright will operate as a wholly
owned subsidiary of Daifuku Webb.
The acquisition is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2013.
“The acquisition of Wynright will
strengthen our business in North
America and greatly improve the
services and products we offer our
customers, which is always our focus,”
said Brian Stewart, chairman, president and CEO of Daifuku Webb. “We
have worked together with Wynright
on several projects and have great
respect for their expertise in designing, manufacturing, integrating and
installing intralogistics solutions that
are helping some of the world’s largest
and fastest-growing companies.”
Wynright is headquartered in Elk
Grove Village, Ill., and has regional
offices and manufacturing locations
throughout the U.S.
North American robotics
companies set new records
for first half of 2013
MSSC partners with Houston
Community College
NORTH AMERICAN robotics
companies have set new sales
records through June of 2013,
according to new statistics
released from the Robotic
Industries Association (RIA),
the industry’s trade group.
A total of 10,854 robots valued at $679.3 million
were ordered from North American robotics companies in the first six months of 2013. Shipments to
North American customers totaled 11,308 robots
valued at $715.1 million, breaking the previous
first-half records set in 2012 by 11% in units and
10.4% in dollars.
“The advancements in robotics and machine
vision technology have allowed for new applications in materials handling, especially in picking,
packing and palletizing,” Jeff Burnstein, president
of RIA, told Modern.
THE MANUFACTURING SKILL STANDARDS COUNCIL
(MSSC) and Houston Community College (HCC) have
partnered to add the MSSC’s Certified Production
Technician (CPTAE) certification to HCC’s associate of arts
and sciences in manufacturing degree program.
“This partnership is a historically significant event for HCC and
the Houston community,” said
HCC acting chancellor Renee
Byas. “Through this partnership,
Houston’s manufacturing industries will have direct input in the kind of training they
need for their employees.”
“MSSC is delighted to work with Houston Community
College to provide industry-recognized, national certifications to meet the workforce skill needs for both
manufacturing and logistics (M&L),” said Leo Reddy, CEO
of the MSSC. “The closely integrated industries of M&L
together represent one-third of the heavily industrialized
Texas economy, well above the national average of 27%.”
ISM: July manufacturing activity at highest level since June 2011
MANUFACTURING ACTIVITY
in July continued its solid turnaround since dropping to its lowest levels since June 2009 in
May, according to the Institute
for Supply Management’s
monthly Manufacturing ISM
Report on Business.
The PMI, the index used by
the ISM to measure manufacturing activity, hit 55.4 in July,
up from June’s 50.9 and the
mmh.com
highest since 55.8 in June 2011.
New orders, which are often
referred to as the engine that
drives manufacturing, followed
a 3.1% increase in June with
a 6.4% increase in July to
58.3. The ISM said that this
increase is the highest for
the index going back to April
2011. And production, at 65,
was up 11.6% over June’s
53.4 and stands as the highest reading since May 2004.
Employment rose 5.7%
from June to an index of 54.4.
M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G / S
E P T E M B E R
2013
3
NO ELEVATORS. NO CONVEYORS. NO TRANSFERS.
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&IGEYWI[MVIPIWWM&38WSTIVEXIMRHITIRHIRXP]JVSQ
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Exceedingly scalable in
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VOL. 68, NO. 9
®
PRODUCTIVITY SOLUTIONS FOR DISTRIBUTION,
WAREHOUSING AND MANUFACTURING
Dave Gealy,
senior director
of distribution,
Vera Bradley
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFF CASO, VERA BRADLEY
COVER STORY
SYSTEM REPORT
60 seconds with
Laszlo Horvath
18 Vera Bradley’s multi-channel success
The handbag and accessories maker’s new DC was designed to handle
store replenishment, wholesale distribution and direct-to-consumer
sales under one roof.
22 Designed for multi-channel distribution
Vera Bradley makes the most of pick-to-light and put-to-light
methodologies to optimize order fulfillment.
FEATURES
READER SURVEY
26 Talking pallets with Modern’s readers
From wood to plastic to pallet pools, our readers tell us what’s
important in pallets.
DEPARTMENTS & COLUMNS
3/ Upfront
7/ This month in Modern
14/ Lift Truck Tips: Narrow aisle
16/ Packaging Corner: Bulk containers
52/ Supplement: Warehouses/DCs
60/ Focus On: Totes and Containers
63/ Product showcase
66/ 60 seconds with...
NEWS
BEST PRACTICES
36 Transport packaging materials
of the future
Modern asked a group of packaging experts to take a peek at new
developments in secondary packaging for transport and shipping and
see which innovations might hold promise for improving the best
practices of tomorrow.
9/ Organizers prepare for largest
Pack Expo ever
10/ Report shows national 3PL revenues
more than doubled in past decade
12/ Menzies dies unexpectedly
Clarification
EQUIPMENT REPORT
In the August issue of Modern Materials
Handling, the photo on the contents page
of Jim Chamberlain should have credited
Jean-Marc Giboux/AP Images.
40 Packaging and automation:
Sealing the deal
With the growing complexity of e-commerce orders, packaging
methodologies prove as important to company missions as they are
to the speed of fulfillment.
PRODUCTIVITY SOLUTION
48 Brewery reduces labor with
floor-level palletizer
50 Custom storage containers enable
growth and optimize operations
mmh.com
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M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G / S
E P T E M B E R
2013
5
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THIS MONTH IN
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Packaging takes center stage
T
his month in Modern, we fix the spotlight on packaging, a topic that’s now
clearly top of mind for savvy materials
handling professionals working in the evolving retail sector—and rightfully so.
The surging volume of smaller, more frequent orders that need to be filled due to
the nature of e-commerce continues to increase distribution complexity and is pushing companies to leverage highly responsive materials handling systems to meet the
demands of an ever-fickle consumer.
And while many e-tailers have reengineered their businesses around these
automated systems, they now find themselves searching for just the right packaging
solutions to not only speed up the process,
but to cut freight costs and maintain an environmentally sound position in the market.
The terrific case study that Modern
recently ran on Staples’ continued orderfulfillment transformation summed up the
state of packaging in e-commerce almost
perfectly. Its highly automated supply chain
process allows the second-largest e-tailer
to now ship millions of orders to customers
with the guarantee that any order placed
before 5 p.m. will be delivered the next day
to 98% of the U.S. population from its network of state-of-the-art fulfillment centers.
However, the Staples supply chain team
found that not even the most sophisticated
fulfillment process could solve their customers top complaint: excessive packaging.
Based on this feedback, the company created a self-imposed goal of a 20% reduction in packaging by 2020 and then set out
to find a solution.
In January 2012, the retailer launched
its “smart-size packaging program” and
deployed a system-wide rollout of a trans-
formational new technology known as “ondemand packaging.” The technology allows
Staples to automatically create a customsized carton specific for every less-than-fullcase order it ships.
Today, these types of orders—also known
as break-pack orders—account for approximately 40% of Staples’ order volume.
“It’s a remarkable change,” says contributing editor Maida Napolitano, who wrote
the article. “Staples has reduced costs,
they’ve given customers what they want,
and it’s a positive, environmental story.”
This month, associate editor Josh Bond
takes Modern readers deeper into the packaging challenge in his two-part article that
first explores the technology that is helping
companies to ensure speed and damage-free
movement within automated systems, and
then offers a snapshot of the automation that’s
improving traditional packaging processes.
“Packaging is not simply about keeping
up with throughput,” says Bond. “As the
last touch point between a merchant and
consumer, packaging speaks for the entire
organization. Changes in packaging might
improve the speed, efficiency and cost of
fulfillment, but all those gains are lost if it
negatively impacts customer satisfaction.”
And, if there’s any doubt of the importance that’s now being placed on packaging, look no further than the numbers being
reported in regards to this month’s Pack
Expo Las Vegas (Sept. 23-25).
According to PMMI, the association
that produces the show, 1,750 packaging
solutions providers (up 15% from 2011)
will occupy more than 700,000 square feet
of exhibit space. The association says this
will be the largest event since the show
opened in 1995.
Official Publication of
Member
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Member of
Winner
Jesse H. Neal
Certificates of Merit
for Journalistic
Excellence
M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G / S
E P T E M B E R
2013
7
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Modern Online
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Web | mmh.com
PACKAGING
Organizers prepare for largest
Pack Expo ever
SINCE EXPANDING EXHIBIT SPACE IN LATE JULY, THE SHOW
HAS ADDED ANOTHER 150 EXHIBITORS.
BY JOSH BOND, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
including:
Innovation Stage: 40 free half-hour
presentations, from engineering,
operations and cost-analysis experts
from the Alliance for Innovation
and Operational Excellence (AIOE)
and consumer insight analysts from
Mintel, among others. Central Hall,
Booths C-141, C-142 and C-143.
Center for Trends & Technology:
In this new special exhibit, learn how
technological innovations can improve
production. Central Hall, Booth 1358.
Food Safety Summit Resource
a third Innovation Stage to expand
PMMI, THE ASSOCIATION for
the on-floor educational programPackaging and Processing Technoloming, delivering even more insights to
gies, the owner and producer of
attendees looking to learn about ways
Pack Expo Las Vegas (Sept. 23-25,
to enhance sustainability, efficiency,
2013), is gearing up to host the
automation and food safety measures.
largest show since the event
The roster of educational proopened in 1995.
grams includes a number of new
As of Sept. 1, more than 1,750
and, for the first time, free events,
processing and packaging solutions
providers were set to occupy more than 700,000 net
square feet of show floor
space. The show is also on
track to play host to its largest audience of attendees.
Attendance is expected to
well exceed 26,000 manufacturing professionals from the
baking and snack, beverage,
confectionery, pharmaceutical and other industries—a
10% increase over 2011
numbers.
“Our exhibitor numbers
are already up 15%, and the
floor itself has expanded
by 12% compared to the
2011 Las Vegas show,” says
PMMI president and CEO
Charles D. Yuska.
As of Sept. 1, more than 1,750 processing and packaging solutions providers are set to
In fact, PMMI has added
occupy more than 700,000 net square feet of show floor space.
mmh.com
M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G / S
E P T E M B E R
2013
9
Center: Offering free presentations, information and one-onone consultations that address
critical food safety issues and
compliance with the Food Safety
Modernization Act. Upper South
Hall, Booth S-7332.
Reusables Learning Center:
This new program offers daily
free informative presentations by
end users and industry experts on
how they have successfully integrated reusable packaging into the
supply chain. Presentations are on
the show floor in the Reusable Packaging Pavilion. Lower South Hall,
Booth S-6458.
Education & Workforce Development Pavilion: Those looking for
education opportunities outside of the
show can meet several representatives
of colleges and universities in the Education Pavilion. Upper South Hall.
Clemson University Packaging
Emporium—Design for the Future:
Discover the impact that packaging
design has on consumer behavior as
you explore an interactive exhibit featuring Clemson’s biometric technology. Central Hall, Booth C-151.
The Amazing Packaging Race:
Teams of students from across the
country are given points as they go
hands-on with a variety of packaging
hardware and software.
PACK Solutions Challenge: Student teams are tasked with recommending a packaging solution for
a specific application. Students’ innovative solutions will be on display
after 3 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 23;
Tuesday, Sept. 24 and Wednesday,
Sept. 25 in the Education & Workforce Development Pavilion. Upper
South Hall.
3PLS
Report shows national 3PL revenues
more than doubled in past decade
A NEW REPORT SHOWS that 86%
of domestic Fortune 500 companies
use third-party logistics providers
(3PLs) for logistics and supply chain
functions, including General Motors,
Procter & Gamble, and Walmart,
who each use 50 or more 3PLs.
These are among the findings of a
report recently issued by Armstrong
& Associates, titled “Trends in 3PL/
Customer Relationships—2013.”
The report leverages Armstrong &
Associates’ proprietary database of
6,398 3PL customer relationships to
provide detailed information on the
top outsourcers to 3PLs, trends in
service demand, and 3PL market size
by vertical industry segment from
2005 through 2013.
Commenting on the report, Evan
Armstrong, president of Armstrong
& Associates, said 3PLs continue to
develop business at approximately
three times the rate of growth in the
U.S. economy.
“Even in the current slow-growth
global economy, overall U.S. 3PL
market growth was 6% in 2012 and is
forecast to be just over 4% in 2013,”
he said. “North America is benefiting from a slowly improving U.S.
economy with increasing manufacturing levels, the near-shoring of some
manufacturing to Mexico, and
newly addressable oil and gas
operations in Canada and the
U.S. At the same time, U.S.
consumers bounced back from
the great recession of 2009
and started to spend more. All
of these factors are driving a
slightly improved 3PL market.”
The average customer is
using each 3PL for just under
three different logistics services
with transportation management being the most frequent
service. Among all 3PL/
customer relationships analyzed, 18.5% are strategic, with
the 3PLs performing supply
chain management and/or
Report says that 86% of domestic Fortune
lead logistics provider ser500 companies use 3PLs for logistics and
vices. While these strategic
supply chain functions.
relationships were dominated
relationships within the retailing and
by automotive and technological industries in the past, there
industrial industries, said Armstrong.
are increasing numbers of strategic
Armstrong said the estimate of
3PL penetration of the total potential national 3PL market is 21%, up
from 10% in 2002. “Consistent with
the increased U.S. market penetration is our estimate of total U.S.
3PL revenues increasing from $65.3
billion in 2001 to $141.8 billion in
2012.” The report also quantifies
the Global Fortune 500 3PL market
at $250.2 billion, a 67% increase
since 2005.
The complete report is available
from Armstrong & Associates at:
www.3PLogistics.com.
E-Commerce Challenge:
Fast, Accurate Order Fulfillment.
Solution:
PUT-TO-LIGHT
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Fulfillment Systems
Systemsis delivers advanced material
Matthews Fulfillment
handling automation to maximize productivity, quality and
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technologies available.
This is why successful e-commerce operations utilize our putto-light solution for fast and accurate sortation of batch orders
into individual customer orders. Simply scan and sort by light
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Lightning Pick | A part of Matthews Fulfillment Systems
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Email: info@lightningpick.com | Website: www.lightningpick.com
12
S
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2 0 1 3 / M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G
OBITUARY
Modern remembers
Jock Menzies
JOHN T. “JOCK” MENZIES III,
president of American Logistics Aid
Network (ALAN) passed away unexpectedly on Aug. 17 after an accident
at his Maryland home.
According to a published report, Menzies, 69, was traveling in a
private tram car on Friday when the
cable snapped and sent Menzies
falling 200 feet
down a steep
slope behind his
home in Arnold,
Md. Menzies
died as a result
of injuries susJohn T. Menzies III tained in the fall.
Menzies will
be remembered for helping to transform the logistics of disaster relief,
co-founding ALAN in 2005 after witnessing the breakdown in relief efforts
in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The
nonprofit tapped into transportation
and logistics networks to supply water,
food and medical supplies to areas
hardest hit by natural disasters.
Among other notable achievements,
Menzies traveled to Haiti in the months
following the 2010 earthquake, where
he coordinated efforts to transport
Haitian orphans to safety. ALAN also
assisted with the delivery of critical supplies to victims of the Japanese tsunami
in 2011 and those of Superstorm Sandy
in 2012. As chairman of the Central
Maryland Red Cross in 2003, he helped
engage supply chain companies to assist in the wake of Hurricane Isabel.
Menzies brought expertise from his
30 years as chairman of The Terminal
Corporation, a logistics, warehousing
and transportation company based in
the Port of Baltimore. Menzies and his
brother bought the company from their
father and uncle in 1984. According to
the company’s Web site, the company
grew tenfold under Menzies’ guidance,
with current annual sales in excess of
$30 million. 䡺
mmh.com
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LIFT TRUCK TIPS
Narrow aisles boost efficiency
for smaller operations
The transition to two-level picking can improve storage
and cut travel times in cramped facilities.
By Josh Bond, Associate Editor
W
hen lift truck customers think about narrow
aisle applications, the tendency is to envision
massive, hyper-efficient facilities with picking
at 400 inches, according to Bill Pfleger, president of Yale
Distribution for Yale Materials Handling Corp.
“Many people think of narrow aisle and picture these
huge facilities with tall aisles and sophisticated warehouse
management systems,” says Pfleger. “But, it’s also possible to make a lot of space very quickly by adding just
one additional layer of racking for storage or picking.”
Pfleger offers the example of a customer who traditionally used internal combustion lift trucks to stack
product on the ground. They did not have any expertise
in warehousing methodology, but they were looking at
pushing through almost twice the product the following
year compared to the current year. The solution included
a shift to narrow aisles with second-level order picking.
“It was simple enough to add a second level of racking in
the 5- to 12-foot pick zone, and the customer was able to
meet their expected growth.”
The key is to understand what’s changing and what a
customer thinks will change in terms of volume and SKU
profiles and the equipment needed to handle that, says
Pfleger. “If there are minimal changes, customers are able
to keep getting more efficient in their existing space. But
in cases of significant growth and space limitations, narrow aisle equipment can provide real benefits, including
increased efficiency and storage volume.”
In addition to storage efficiency improvement, some
small-scale narrow aisle applications can also significantly
reduce inefficient travel time. “Travel time is lost time in
the picking business,” says Pfleger. “Significant losses in
picking occur from travel time between picks and from
the last pick to wherever the finished pallet needs to be
transported.”
The transition from standard aisles to narrow aisles can
14
S
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2 0 1 3 / M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G
turn a few feet of width per aisle into productive space. In
very narrow aisle setups, subtle differences in the dimensions of equipment can enable a customer to even further
optimize floor space, where every inch counts. An example is a customer whose use of a slightly thinner lift truck
allowed them to add three more aisles of racks, amounting to a 2% increase in storage capacity. “That was huge
for them, because it didn’t require a dime of brick and
mortar to achieve the desired storage expansion,” adds
Pfleger.
Josh Bond is Modern’s associate editor and can be reached
at jbond@peerlessmedia.com
mmh.com
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PACKAGING CORNER
Bulk containers deliver parts,
cost savings
Changes in bulk container size during the recession reduce
wasted trailer space and increase efficiency.
By Sara Pearson Specter, Editor at Large
M
ajor North American original equipment
manufacturers (OEMs)—including automotive, industrial machinery and appliance
makers—have long relied on reusable, plastic bulk
containers to transport components from suppliers
to assembly lines. During the recession, companies
seized the opportunity to further expand the use
of containers, says Scott Krebs, senior product category manager for BulkPak containers at Orbis.
“In addition to holding onto those assets longer, many companies took advantage of slower
production to push idle reusable containers even
deeper into their supply chains,” Krebs says.
“When they were busy, their traditional reusable
program only went to Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers;
during the slowdown they extended it to Tier 3
and Tier 4 suppliers.”
The advantage, says Krebs, is two-fold. In addition to eliminating more expendable packaging
and its associated costs further into the supply
chain, the companies involved have improved their
lean manufacturing and sustainability practices.
In the same vein, Krebs says that OEMs are
always looking at how parts and inventory handling
impact costs within their supply chain operations.
With most components trucked from supplier to
assembly, transportation and logistics efficiencies have
become a key area of focus because they represent up to
80% of costs, he says.
“Bulk containers used in these applications have a 45 x
48-inch footprint. When transported in a 53-foot trailer, 13
containers sit side-by-side down the length of the trailer
for 26 positions,” Krebs explains. “But that doesn’t completely maximize the volume of the trailer.”
Many OEMs have identified that wasted trailer space
as an opportunity for better efficiency, says Krebs. “Reengineering the sidewalls to a 44.5-inch footprint allows
two additional containers to fit the space in 14 side-by16
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2 0 1 3 / M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G
side positions. That lets OEMs fit more of their product
into a single truckload without requiring any changes to
line-side processes: The tops and bottoms of the containers still inter-stack, for example.”
Further, bulk container sidewalls have been redesigned
to create a shorter collapsed height for return shipping,
allowing a nine-high (instead of the previous eight) to fit a
trailer, says Krebs.
Sara Pearson Specter is an editor at large with Modern and
can be reached at sara@saraspecter.com.
mmh.com
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D I S T R I B U T I O N :
C O N S U LT I N G / E N G I N E E R I N G
|
D E S I G N / B U I L D
|
S O F T WA R E
T EC H N O LO G Y
MODERN system report
Vera Bradley’s
multi-channel
success
The handbag and accessories
maker’s new DC was designed
to handle store replenishment,
wholesale distribution and
direct-to-consumer sales
under one roof.
By Bob Trebilcock,
Executive Editor
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or years, retailers and their suppliers outsourced distribution
activities to third-party logistics (3PL) providers. The argument was that their core competency was in designing, sourcing, merchandising and selling, and not in picking, packing
and shipping.
In today’s retail market, where sales can originate from
multiple channels, that model is being turned on its head.
Brick-and-mortar retailers are selling online, Web retailers are opening retail stores and wholesale distributors are
competing in both channels. The best retailers recognize that
distribution has to be a core competency. They are bringing
distribution back in house, often serving multiple channels
under one roof.
Those were among the reasons Vera Bradley, a designer
and manufacturer of colorful quilted women’s handbags and
accessories, expanded to a 400,000-square-foot, multi-channel distribution space near its corporate headquarters in Fort
Wayne, Ind., last fall. The new facility added 200,000 square
feet and associated capacity in support of multi-channel
growth. It was designed from the outset to serve a number of
sales channels under one roof and from one reserve inventory,
including:
• wholesale distribution to specialty retailers that are Vera
Bradley’s traditional customers;
mmh.com
From left: Cindy Goheen, distribution manager,
warehouse; Ted Dienelt, distribution manager, shipping;
Jason Kiser, senior WMS specialist; Dave Gealy, senior director,
distribution; Larry Harness, inventory control manager.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFF CASO, VERA BRADLEY
• wholesale distribution and value-added services for a
growing list of large, national retailers, which they refer to as
Key Accounts;
• store replenishment to Vera Bradley’s own growing chain
of retail and outlet stores; and
• a rapidly expanding direct-to-consumer Web fulfillment
business.
Working with a systems integrator (Forte, forte-industries.
com), Vera Bradley implemented a flexible system that includes
three multi-level pick modules, a best-of-breed warehouse management system (WMS) and a pick-and-pass order fulfillment
solution powered by bar code scanning, pick-to-light and put-tolight technologies.
The facility ships mixed pallets to Key Accounts, mostly
full cases to its outlet stores, split cases to specialty retailers as well as corporate stores and specially packed gift
boxes to online customers. All orders are filled from one
reserve inventory. “Orders flow through our pick-and-pass
fulfillment pipeline, regardless of where they originate,”
says Dave Gealy, senior director of distribution. “At the
same time, we created a foundation for a separate fulfillment flow for the Web should we begin to experience negative impact to service levels in the future due to multichannel growth.”
Two friends with an idea
In March of 1982, Vera Bradley’s co-founders Barbara Bradley
Baekgaard and Patricia R. Miller took note of the lack of feminine-looking luggage as they waited for a flight in the Atlanta
airport. Within weeks of arriving home, Baekgaard and Miller
created a company to market and manufacture their original
designs for stylish, cotton luggage, handbags and accessories. The company was named for Baekgaard’s mother—Vera
Bradley—a stylish woman who had once been chosen by
Elizabeth Arden to model.
It was an unlikely beginning for a women’s accessories
business. The new company was headquartered in Fort
Wayne, Ind., a city better known for heavy manufacturing
than its fashion sense. But, Vera Bradley quickly developed a
loyal following for its colorful designs.
Today, Vera Bradley has grown to more than $570 million
in annual revenue. While some product is still manufactured
in Fort Wayne, other items are also manufactured overseas.
Over the past seven years, the company has evolved from
one distribution channel into multiple channels. A Web store
for direct-to-consumer sales was launched in 2006. Internet
fulfillment was first outsourced to a 3PL in Michigan. The
next year, Vera Bradley opened its first retail store, and by the
end of fiscal year 2013, it will operate nearly 100 retail and out-
mmh.com
M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G / S
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2013
19
MODERN system report
Full cartons are stored and picked
from order pickers. These are most
commonly used to fulfill orders for
Vera Bradley’s key accounts.
let stores. In 2012, it expanded its Key
Accounts program, distributing its product to a select group of large, national
retailers and the military, many of whom
require value-added services. In all, Vera
Bradley is now distributing to more than
3,300 retail partners along with managing its growing online presence.
As recently as 2007, the company
was handling wholesale distribution
from a 40,000-square-foot facility
north of Fort Wayne while the 3PL in
Michigan handled Web fulfillment. In
the original facility, associates picked
by paper to shopping carts. However,
the growth in sales and sales channels
demanded a new distribution infrastructure, according to Gealy.
The first step was to open a
200,000-square-foot,
semi-automated
facility in February 2007, which included
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50,000 square feet of dedicated manufacturing space. The DC introduced
technology, automation and best practices. It featured high-density storage in a
very narrow aisle reserve storage area, two
pick modules with pick-to-light technology, and a WMS. E-commerce was still
being handled by the 3PL.
Within a year, Vera Bradley was
investigating ways to turn that facility
into a true multi-channel distribution
center that could support retail and
e-commerce order fulfillment. “In the
summer of 2008, we moved domestic
manufacturing to a new location across
town,” Gealy says. “Then we added a
level to our pick modules, expanded our
packing area and brought Web fulfillment in-house. It gave us the ability to
leverage our automation.”
By 2009, that facility was constrained. “We only had four dock
doors and limited staging space that
we often shared with shipping,” says
Cindy Goheen, distribution manager
for the warehouse. “That created a
bottleneck.” Despite the addition of a
third pick module plus adding levels on
existing pick modules, more space was
needed for picking, Goheen explains.
Service levels, which are the life blood
of retailing, began to degrade.
Creating a multi-channel facility
In 2010, the company did a network
study to determine whether it should
add a second distribution center. The
result indicated that Vera Bradley
would be better served by expanding
the existing DC, adding capacity and
implementing new processes for multichannel distribution rather than adding
a second DC.
In a sense, Vera Bradley’s business
model lent itself to multi-channel distribution, since a significant portion
of orders for retail distribution involve
split-case picking and mixed carton
orders, not unlike Web orders. “We
ship as many full cases as possible to
2 0 1 3 / M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G
our outlet stores, but all of our other
channels are mostly split-case picking,”
Gealy says. The difference between the
channels is the size of the orders and in
how they are packed after picking. “We
ship mixed cartons with a number of
items to our retail stores and partners,”
he says. “Our typical Web order, on
the other hand, is gift boxed in a special way. So, we have a different profile
downstream at the packing station.”
The expanded facility builds on
the best practices Vera Bradley implemented within the first 200,000 square
feet, including very narrow aisle reserve
storage, enhancements to the WMS,
RF bar code scanning and pick-to-light
technologies. Processes are tied together
by a conveyor, sortation and associated
warehouse control system (WCS).
It features three multi-level pick
modules. Faster moving SKUs are
picked in two three-level modules. In
those, associates are directed by the
pick-to-light system.
Slower moving SKUs are picked in a
third module, where associates rely on
mobile computing and bar code scanning to receive instructions and confirm picks. In the future, the module
can be expanded to three levels.
All three modules can fulfill orders
for any sales channel. The real difference
is how the product is handled after it is
picked: Cartons for Key Accounts need
value-add attention and may be palletized and stretch-wrapped; cartons for
Vera Bradley’s stores and retail partners
are automatically weighed and taped
then sorted into trailers; Web orders are
sorted to packing stations for special gift
boxing before they are conveyed directly
into a parcel carrier trailer.
New features
The facility includes three new features
to optimize processes.
One is a put wall for direct-toconsumer orders with more than one
item. This is a wall with 18 bin locations that are enabled by lights. Each
bin represents a customer order. Totes
with SKUs for larger Web orders are
conveyed to the put wall area. When an
mmh.com
MODERN system report
The new Vera Bradley DC features a
unique light-directed put wall solution
for direct-to-consumer orders with more
than one item (top left). A separate
processing area fulfills orders for Key
Accounts (bottom right).
associate scans a UPC bar code label
from items in the tote, lights indicate
which bins will receive product from
that tote. Once all the items for an
order are put in the bin, a light on the
other side of the wall alerts a packer
that the sorting is complete and orders
are ready to be packed.
“More than 60% of our Web orders
are multi-unit orders,” says Gealy. “Using
the put wall takes the hunting and pecking for items out of the process.” The
put wall, he adds, has realized a nice
improvement in labor costs associated
with filling multi-unit orders.
Another feature is an 18,000-squarefoot mezzanine for value-added services
required by Key Accounts, such as
stuffing the bags with paper for shelf
display. The mezzanine area includes
some carton- and pallet-flow pick locations. “Before, we picked inventory that
required value-added services to a pallet truck and delivered them to processing tables,” says Gealy. Now, the product can be picked in one of the pick
modules and conveyed in and out of the
value-added processing area. Or, during
busy periods such as a core product
launch, that demand can be picked and
processed from the pick locations in
the mezzanine. “By putting the demand
there, we take that volume out of the
mmh.com
other pick modules,” Gealy says.
Finally, outbound shipping from the
Web packing stations bypasses the shipping sorter and flows directly into parcel carrier trailers. “Before the expansion, all of that volume went through
the shipping sorter,” Gealy says. “Now,
we’ve opened up capacity on the sorter
for retail and partner store growth.”
One of the keys to making these
systems work together is the integration between Vera Bradley’s WMS and
WCS. In the new configuration, the
WMS communicates with the order
management system to receive orders.
Based on priorities communicated from
distribution management, key shipping
associates determine which orders are
going to be picked, and the WMS then
determines how they will be batched
and where they will be picked from.
The WMS performs those management
functions and then sends the orders to
the WCS for execution.
“The WMS still handles conventional RF-directed picking,” explains
Jason Kiser, senior WMS specialist.
“But the WCS communicates with the
pick- and put-to-light systems, the conveyors and the sorter. Once the picks
take place, that information is communicated back to the WMS.” In that
sense, Kiser adds, the WMS “has taken
on more of a set up role for the WCS.”
By October 2012, the expansion had
gone completely live. Since then, the
bottleneck on the docks has become
a thing of the past. “We have 24 doors
and significantly more space,” says
Goheen. “We have the ability to bring
in a higher level of inbound materials
and process them more quickly.” Prior
to the renovation, Vera Bradley typically processed four to six inbound con-
M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G / S
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2013
21
MODERN system report
tainers in a 24-hour period. This past
March, the facility processed 39 containers in a 24-hour period.
Overall, the facility has seen a
decrease in distribution labor costs. “In
the two-week period after Thanksgiving,
we processed 40% more volume and
improved service levels by 60% over the
previous year,” says Gealy. “And, we did
it with very little stress.”
More importantly, he adds, the DC
has established the foundation to sup-
Designed for multi-channel
distribution
port Vera Bradley’s growth through the
foreseeable future. “We’ve been able to
address each of those pain points and
create solutions that can handle business growth for the next three to five
years,” he says.
Vera Bradley Designs
Fort Wayne, Ind.
SIZE: 400,000 square feet of distribution space
PRODUCTS: Women’s handbags and accessories, luggage
and travel items, eyewear, stationery and gifts.
Vera Bradley makes the most of pick-to-light
and put-to-light methodologies to optimize
order fulfillment.
THROUGHPUT: Each fulfillment channel is measured differently.
DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER: Averages 6,000 to 7,000 cartons
shipped per day. Peak was 27,000 cartons shipped.
V
era Bradley’s expanded distribution center was designed to
manage the company’s traditional wholesale and retail replenishment sales channels while accommodating the growth of its
Internet fulfillment. The facility brings together conveyor and sortation
technology along with both pick-to-light and put-to-light technologies.
STORE REPLENISHMENT: Averages 50,000 to 60,000 units
shipped per day for retail and specialty partners. Peak was
191,000 units shipped.
EMPLOYEES: 375 full-time and temporary associates, fluctuates seasonally
SHIFTS PER DAY/DAYS PER WEEK: 3 shifts, 5.5 days per
week (3:30 p.m. through midnight on Sunday).
Three-level pick module
4
Outbound staging
Value-added
services mezzanine
7
6
3 Narrow aisle
reserve storage
Shipping sorter
Taping lines
14
5 Slow-moving
13
Outbound
auditing
12
Put wall 11
SKU pick module
Narrow aisle 3
reserve storage
Outbound processing
and staging area
4
Receiving and staging
processing area
2
1
Receiving
7
Narrow aisle 3
reserve storage
Three-level pick
module
Single unit
e-commerce orders
8
9
Shipping
10
Parcel shipping
for e-commerce orders
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mmh.com
MODERN system report
Receiving:
Product is
processes are complete, the prodreceived from two different System suppliers
ucts are conveyed to an outbound
sources.
order consolidation and staging
SYSTEMS INTEGRATOR AND WAREHOUSE CONTROL SYSTEM:
Vera Bradley receives an
area (7). There, they are palletForte Industries, forte-industries.com
advance ship notification
ized,
stretch-wrapped and staged
LIFT TRUCKS: Raymond, raymondcorp.com
(ASN) when sea containers
for
pickup
and shipping (8).
CONVEYOR: Dematic, dematic.com; Intelligrated, intelligrated.com
from off-shore manufacturPacking:
Direct-to-consumer
SORTATION: Dematic, dematic.com
orders are sorted to one of two
ers arrive in Long Beach or
WMS: Manhattan Associates, manh.com
pack-out areas. Totes picked for
Seattle. Containers travel
PICK-TO-LIGHT: Lightning Pick Technologies, lightningpick.com
single unit, e-commerce orders,
by rail to an inland port in
COMPUTING AND BAR CODE SCANNING: Motorola
which represent about 35% of
Chicago and then by truck MOBILE
Solutions, motorolasolutions.com
the direct-to-consumer orders, go
to Indiana. At the receiving
RACK: Ridg-U-Rak, ridgurak.com
docks (1), the process begins
to one area (9). Items are scanned
with a receipt against the ASN
to initiate the packing process.
in the warehouse management
They are then wrapped in tissue
onto the conveyor system, it is scanned
system (WMS). Cartons are manu- and diverted to a pick zone. Once it paper with embossed logo sticker and
ally palletized in the receiving area (2) reaches a zone, an associate scans the placed in a special shipping box along
where they are built into unit loads. license plate bar code label. Lights illu- with an invoice folio and gift card if the
The WMS creates a license plate bar minate the locations where items for consumer desires. Customers may also
code label to associate the SKU and that container are stored and indicate request a special two-piece gift box.
quantity to a pallet. Once pallets are the quantities to be picked. The asso- Once the process is complete, the carready for storage, product is inspected ciate presses the pick light to confirm ton is sealed and conveyed directly into
for quality control and pallets are staged the pick and places them in the carton. a parcel carrier trailer (10).
Multi-unit orders are conveyed to a
(2) for storage.
The container or tote is then conveyed
Domestically manufactured product to the next pick location until the order special put wall area (11). When a tote
arrives (1) at the facility on pallets. They is complete. It is then conveyed to the arrives, an associate scans the label on
the tote and begins scanning the UPC
are unloaded by lift truck, and staged next step in the process.
(2) for put away into storage.
• RF scanning for slow moving bar codes on items in the tote. When a
Storage: A lift truck operator scans SKUs: Slower moving SKUs are stored UPC bar code is scanned, the system
the license plate bar code on a staged in a one-level module (5) that includes lights up the location that will receive
pallet and is directed to a drop-off loca- carton flow and conventional deck rack the item from that tote. That process is
tion for the very narrow aisle reserve for storage. Any order with a SKU from repeated with each unit in a tote until
storage area (3). There, the pallet will this module initiates there. The picking all of the items for an order have been
be picked up by a wire-guided turret process is similar to the process in the put to a bin. At that point a light on
truck. That operator will be directed to three-level pick modules, except that the other side of the put wall will india storage location in the reserve storage orders are sent to the associate’s mobile cate that the order is ready for packing.
area. The product is now available to fill RF computer and picks are confirmed An associate will remove items from
by scanning a bar code label. Once all the bin and pack the order similar to
orders.
Picking: Vera Bradley uses two of the picks are complete, the container a single-unit order. The order is then
is either conveyed to one of the three- conveyed directly into a parcel carrier
picking processes.
• Pick-to-light for fast-moving level pick modules (4) or to the next trailer (10).
SKUs: The fastest-moving SKUs are step in the process.
Shipping: Some cartons are comstored in two three-level pick modules
Value-added processing for Key plete coming out of a pick module.
(4). Within the pick modules, product Accounts: Value-added processes are They require neither value-added
is stored in both pallet flow and carton performed in an 18,000-square-foot processing nor packing and convey
flow racks. Associates are directed by mezzanine area (6). Items requiring to a carton sealing area and then to
pick-to-light technologies and can fill value-added services can be conveyed the shipping dock. In route, the carorders from any sales channel. Orders from one of the slow- or fast-moving pick tons pass over an inline scale which
for retail partners, corporate stores and modules. Or, during busy selling sea- audits (12) the actual weight of the
Key Accounts are picked to a shipping sons, those items can be picked from a carton to the projected weight. If the
carton. Web orders are batch picked to carton-flow area located within the mez- weight is correct, the carton is taped
a tote that will be sent to a packing sta- zanine to improve the order flow in other (13) and sorted (14) to a shipping
tion. When a carton or tote is inducted picking areas. Once the value-added lane (8). 䡺
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NOTEWORTHY
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times, it’s simply having straight forward conversations.
At the same time, Yaskawa customers share their proprietary knowledge because they can trust
us. Because we give their challenges a lot of thought. Because when they talk to us, they know
we are on their side.
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That’s noteworthy.
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MODERN reader survey
Pallet Report
Talking
pallets with
Modern readers
From wood to plastic to pallet pools, our
readers tell us what’s important in pallets.
R
By Bob Trebilcock,
Executive Editor
ecently, we read a case study about how CHEP and IFCO
worked with a food distributor to develop a new pallet management program. The project involved the implementation
of a dock sweep program to pick up CHEP pallets shipped
to the distributor and a new design for better performance
of the used wooden pallet shipped to the distributor’s customers. “The industry is really becoming more consultative
and service based rather than product based,” a spokesperson
from CHEP told Modern.
That change may not yet be fully reflected in the broad
market. In fact, 56% of respondents in Modern’s annual survey
of pallet users said purchase price was the most important factor in their decision to use a certain type of pallet. That was
more than any other factor. But, it is reflective of feedback we
hear from system integrators, who are beginning to understand
that a poorly built pallet can wreak havoc on their automated
systems, and consultants who are now paying attention to
how their clients’ loads perform after they come off the end of
26
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2 0 1 3 / M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G
the packaging line. In other words, pallets and the associated
transport packaging are more of a priority than ever.
That may explain why the pallet market continues to grow,
even as shippers look for alternatives to the every day wooden
pallet. Research firm Freedonia Group expects the pallet market to grow by 3.5% a year through 2017. While modest, that’s
a growth rate that is faster than the overall economy.
How then does the user community view pallets? To
answer that question and others, we surveyed subscribers
of Modern as well as a sample of recipients of our e-newsletters. We received 353 qualified responses, defined as
a reader who is employed at a location that uses pallets.
Here’s what we learned.
Purchasing decisions
A number of factors go into the decision to buy a certain type
of pallet. And, while purchase price remains the most important factor, cited by 56%, it was down from 63% of readers
mmh.com
Reader Survey Report/Webcast
ANNUAL PALLET REPORT
Thursday, Sept. 19, 2013 • 2:00 PM ET
www.mmh.com/pallets2013
What types of pallets do you use?
91%
Wood
37%
Plastic
18%
Wood composite
Cardboard/corrugated
the prior year. Cost per use was cited
by nearly 40% of respondents, suggesting not only that cost is important, but
that readers are getting more than one
trip out of their pallets.
Other leading factors include:
• 53% strength,
• 50% durability,
• 43% customer requirements,
• 40% reusability, and
• 32% availability.
Wood pallets still predominate. They
are used by 91% of readers. However, pallets manufactured from alternative materials are in the mix, with some readers also
using:
• 37% plastic pallets,
• 18% wood composite,
• 8% cardboard/corrugated, and
• 7% metal.
More importantly, there appears
to be a growing interest in alternative pallets. In its most recent report,
Freedonia noted that plastic pallets
are expected to record above average
growth. The research group also premmh.com
8%
Metal
Other
7%
3%
Source: Peerless Research Group (PRG)
Are the wood pallets you purchase new or used?
58%
60%
What has been your experience
obtaining used wood pallets?
Quality is not as good, worse
27%
Fewer pallets are available/
Used pallets are in short supply
27%
They are more expensive
16%
Pallet
pool
Other
New Used pallets,
pallets
or cores
15%
5%
Have not experienced nor
do we anticipate any issues
procuring used pallets
39%
Source: Peerless Research Group (PRG)
M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G / S
E P T E M B E R
2013
27
Reader Survey Report/Webcast
ANNUAL PALLET REPORT
Thursday, Sept. 19, 2013 • 2:00 PM ET
www.mmh.com/pallets2013
dicted that metal pallets will notch the
During the next 12 months what do you expect
biggest percentage gains of any of the
from your usage of plastic pallets
three most common pallet types (wood,
plastic, metal).
Those projections are supported by
Modern readers: 34% indicate they used
Stay the same 62%
more plastic pallets during the last 12
months, compared to 27% who reported
they were using more plastic pallets in
Decrease 5%
last year’s survey; 33% expect to increase
their usage of plastic pallets in the next
Increase 33%
12 months. Most respondents said they
are attracted to the cleanliness and longer life span of plastic pallets:
• 48% said compliance issues/cleanliAnd, why do you expect your usage of plastic pallets to increase?
ness and safety reasons;
• 45% said plastic pallets are more
Compliance issues/Cleanliness and safety reasons
48%
sustainable than wood and last longer;
More sustainable than wood/ Last longer
45%
• 40% said plastic pallets are more
Durability
40%
durable than wood;
• 25% said customers ask for plastic
Customers are asking for plastic pallets
25%
pallets; and
Greater control over our pallets
18%
• 18% said customers have greater
control over their pallets.
18%
Other
Although Freedonia Group predicts
increasing demand for metal pallets, only
Source: Peerless Research Group (PRG)
4% of respondents expect to start using
metal pallets in the next 12 months, and
only 8% expect their usage to increase in the next 12 months. bors, including Canada (80%), Mexico/South America/
Readers indicate they are exploring metal pallets because Carribean (67%), China/Asia (63%), Western Europe (50%)
they are durable, cleanable and conductive; because their and Eastern Europe (39%). Keep an eye, however, on the
customers want options besides wood and plastic; and Middle East and North Africa (33%).
because they are exploring options for reusable pallets.
International business does require a different pallet
The 48 x 40-inch is still the most commonly used size strategy for most shippers, with only 22% reporting that they
of pallet, according to 58% of readers. That was a signifi- don’t do anything differently for international and domestic
cant change from the 81% that reported using 48 x 40-inch deliveries. Some of the strategies include:
pallets last year. Still, no other size was being used by more
• 45% treat their pallets;
than 17% of respondents. Only 8.3% reported that they are
• 18% use alternative materials other than wood that don’t
shipping on a 24 x 20-inch half pallet, down from 10% in last require treatment;
year’s survey.
• 12% use wood pallets from their own pool; and
The number of respondents who are using pallets to ship
• 6% use a pallet pool for international shipments. This is
globally dipped from 57% to 55% this year, while the num- double the 3% who reported using a pallet pool for internaber that report they only ship domestically rose from 39% tional shipments in 2012.
to 42%. Only 3% ship on pallets solely to international cus- It’s still a wooden pallet market
tomers. If pallets are a leading indicator of economic activity, While plastic, presswood and metal pallets are taking some marthis slight dip coincides with the drop in exports from U.S. ket share, no alternative is as versatile and cost-effective as new,
manufacturers.
used or pooled wooden pallets.
Like last year, the leading recipients are our closest neighModern’s readers appear to take a strategic approach to
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mmh.com
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Reader Survey Report/Webcast
ANNUAL PALLET REPORT
Thursday, Sept. 19, 2013 • 2:00 PM ET
www.mmh.com/pallets2013
pallet usage—given the percentages, a typical respondent is
probably purchasing both new and used pallets, and some
are also participating in a pallet pool. In all likelihood, these
decisions are driven by the requirements of their customers.
What type of pallets are you primarily using?
Stringer 51%
Block 27%
Both equally 22%
Source: Peerless Research Group (PRG)
However, there were some slight changes in the dynamics.
The number of respondents using a pallet pool remained
constant at 17%. However, the gap between the purchase of
used and new pallets narrowed. In 2012, nearly 63% reported
that they rely on used pallets, also known as cores, while 59%
said they purchased new pallets. In 2013, 60% say they purchase used pallets, while 58% say they purchase new pallets.
Similarly, the number of readers who report they are using
more used pallets this year dropped to 42% from 46% in 2012.
The change can be explained, at least in part, to the shortage of cores that has plagued the market for several years and
showed up in Freedonia’s research.
For instance, although 39% of readers say they have not
experienced any issues in procuring used pallets, 27% report
that the quality of used pallets has deteriorated; 27% say
that fewer used pallets are available; and 15% say they have
become more expensive. Of those readers who have experienced price increases, 48% have seen a spike of 5% to 9%,
and 24% have seen a spike of from 10% to 14%.
In response to these issues, 64% of readers say they will buy
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mmh.com
The BaldorÝDodge® Quantis®
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Reader Survey Report/Webcast
ANNUAL PALLET REPORT
Thursday, Sept. 19, 2013 • 2:00 PM ET
www.mmh.com/pallets2013
more new pallets, and 13% say they plan to create and manage
their own pools. Just 4% say they plan to rent from a pallet pool
such as those from CHEP, PECO and iGPS.
Block or stringer
At the grocery store, the question is paper or plastic? When it
comes to wooden pallets, the question isn’t just used or new, it’s
also stringer versus block? The stringer pallet design is favored by
standard pallets such as the 48 x 40-inch GMA, the most commonly used pallet on the market. The block pallet design, favored
by plastic pallet makers as well as wooden pallet pooling organizations like CHEP and PECO, got a boost two years ago when
Costco became the first retailer to require its suppliers to ship
product on block pallets.
Beginning with last year’s survey, we began to look to see
if the Costco requirement is having an impact on the pallet
market. A few trends are beginning to appear.
First, as with the new versus used question, block or
stringer isn’t an either/or question. More than half (51%) of
How likely are you to consider participating
in a pallet retrieval/recovery system or in a
third-party pallet rental system during
the next year?
Highly likely
6%
Likely 13%
Not very likely 38%
Not at all likely 33%
Don't even know what
a pallet retrieval/recoveryy
system or third-party
pallet rental system is 11%
Source: Peerless Research Group (PRG)
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mmh.com
Over the past 12 months have any customers
required you to change your pallet usage?
No 86%
Yes 14%
What changes are you making/did you make?
Using more block pallets 33%
Using more stringer pallets 25%
Other 42%
Using different/special sized pallets
Heat-treated pallets for overseas shipments
Using pallet pooler
Went from plastic to wood
Improved pallet design for more strength
Source: Peerless Research Group (PRG)
mmh.com
MODERN reader survey
readers are shipping solely on stringer
pallets and 27% are shipping solely on
block pallets. Another 23% are shipping
on block and stringer pallets in equal
measure. In other words, a significant
percentage (50%) is shipping some
loads on block pallets. That is up from
47% in 2012.
Second, a relatively small percentage
of readers (14%) have been asked by customers to change their pallet usage. Of
those, 33% are using more block pallets
compared to 25% that are using more
stringer pallets.
Changes are being requested from
a variety of points in the supply chain.
According to respondents, 46% are from
the manufacturers; 36% are from the
retailer; and 26% are from the wholesalers.
As with last year, Costco appears to
be one of the few companies planning
to require its suppliers to ship solely on
block pallets.
DXWRPDWLRQVVLVFKDHIHUXVPDWUL[
M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G / S
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2013
33
MODERN reader survey
Have you evaluated or considered a
system/solution for creating or
managing your own pallet pool?
Yes 32%
No 68%
Source: Peerless Research Group (PRG)
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Get into the pool
Nearly 50% of food, beverage and consumer packaged goods
currently ship on a pooled 48 x 40-inch pallet, according
to some sources. Pooled pallets, especially plastic pallets,
are also used by auto suppliers, pharmaceutical makers
and food and beverage manufacturers with tight control
over their manufacturing and distribution operations. In
fact, nearly 44% of respondents said they either use a pallet rental company, such as CHEP, PECO or iGPS, or they
have a pallet retrieval or recovery system in place.
Still, it means that 56% of respondents are purchasing
their pallets or reshipping on pallets delivered to them by
suppliers. Looking forward, most companies plan to continue with their current strategies. A majority of readers say
they are not very likely (38%) or not at all likely (33%) to
participate in a pallet or pallet management program, while
19% say they are likely (13%) or very likely (6%).
Of readers who would consider participating in a pallet
pool, 55% report that they would explore creating or managing their own pool; 32% say they have already evaluated or
considered creating or managing their own pool.
Finally, we asked how interested are readers in using a pallet
pooling service managed by the pallet industry as an alternative
to established pools managed by CHEP, PECO and iGPS.
The responses were almost identical to last year’s survey:
roughly 14% indicate they are interested or highly interested.
And, 69% indicate they are not very or not at all interested.
As the building block of unit loads and the most fundamental transport packaging, we’ll continue to watch the
pallet market over the next year. 䡺
Companies mentioned in this article
CHEP: chep.com
IFCO SYSTEMS: ifco.com
FREDONIA GROUP: fredoniagroup.com
PECO: pecopallet.com
IGPS: igps.net
mmh.com
MODERN best practices
Modern asked a group of packaging experts to take a
peek at new developments in secondary packaging for
transport and shipping and see which innovations might
hold promise for improving the best practices of tomorrow.
By Sara Pearson Specter, Editor at Large
T
oday’s secondary packaging suppliers
are no longer content with selling pallets, containers, totes and dunnage to
their customers—rather, they’re working to be providers of innovative solutions. By engineering unique products
with novel features, these packaging
vendors aim to help companies meet
a variety of goals, including reduced
damage, timelier food and beverage
handling, improved sustainability and
overall cost savings.
“The future of the packaging industry is in efficiency,” says Lance Wallin,
executive director of global packaging systems at Sealed Air. “Whether
it’s finding more efficient designs that
require less material for more protection, efficient transportation and recy-
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cling or disposal of packaging, vendors
are looking for ways to do more with
less, while supporting environmental
and economic sustainability.”
To see which products might hold
promise for the best practices of the
future, Modern spoke with packaging
experts to take a look at a few of the
recent innovations in secondary and
bulk transport packaging.
Hybrid pallets
Wood remains the dominant pallet
material, representing an estimated
95% of pallets in use today. But wood
has its downside.
“Wood pallets are extremely strong
compared to their weight by nature, but
if you don’t protect the blocks and the
2 0 1 3 / M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G
leaderboard, a forklift can easily destroy
them,” says Laszlo Horvath, assistant
professor of practice at Virginia Tech
and director of the Center for Packaging
and Unit Load Design. “Plastic pallets
last longer, but they are less stiff than
wood and more expensive.”
In response to these challenges,
says Horvath, suppliers are creating
hybrid pallet designs and attachments
that combine the best features of each
material.
An example of a hybrid pallet is
offered by C&H Distributors for use in
closed-loop applications. Manufactured
by Relius Solutions, the 48 x 40 x 5-inch
Green Line Armor pallet features oak
boards encapsulated on both ends with
molded recyclable plastic bumpers.
mmh.com
Transport packaging
materials of the future
“The plastic on the ends takes the
abuse from forklifts, while the wood
in the middle supports higher capacities than plastic pallets can, at half the
price,” says Dave Caltreux, product
manager for material handling at C&H.
“It’s still more expensive than a one-way
use wood pallet, but it’s so durable that
it’s covered by a 10-year warranty.”
Also offered as a means to improve
the longevity of wood pallets in closedloop systems, United Pallet Services
has developed a plastic attachment
that screws on to the pallet’s 40-inch
sides to protect the lead boards by
deflecting forklift impacts. The attachment—made of either recycled polypropylene sourced from bottle caps
or virgin plastic—debuted at ProMat
mmh.com
earlier this year.
“We engineered the pointGUARD
wood pallet protector to be an alternative to more expensive plastic pallets,”
explains Callen Cochran, business
development manager. “The plastic
protector keeps pieces of wood from
being broken off, reducing debris to
create a safer environment and extending the life of a wood pallet by up to five
times.”
Cochran says the pallet protection
device also boosts lift truck driver productivity. “Several companies testing
the attachment in their facilities have
noted that it cuts down on the number
of times the forklift driver has to exit
the vehicle to remove the debris caused
by a misaligned forks,” he adds.
New materials, construction in
plastic pallets, totes & containers
Suppliers of reusable pallets, totes
and containers are working on extending the life cycle and reach of their
products through the combination of
different materials—such as plastic
with wood and metal, or additives that
enhance the properties of plastics—
without adding to their cost.
“The disadvantage of plastics is
that they are not inherently stiff,” says
Virginia Tech’s Horvath. “You can make
them stiff by adding a lot more plastic,
but that makes them extremely heavy,
as well as more expensive.”
In designing new products, Rehrig
Pacific has taken what Trent Overholt,
the company’s vice president, calls a
M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G / S
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2013
37
MODERN best practices
performance characteristics
of wood block pallets.”
Buckhorn is applying the
same hybrid design approach
to the new BN4845 bulk
container, says Dan Huhn,
the company’s new product
development manager. “We’ve
mixed a structural foam sidewall with a two-piece welded,
injection-molded base to create a container that gives the
best of both construction
techniques,” he says. “There’s
strength and rigidity in the
structural foam side panels,
but also strength and impact
resistance in the base.”
Suppliers of reusable plastic packaging systems are also
evaluating a variety of alternative materials used in the construction of their products.
“We’re looking at different
materials for different applications,” adds Huhn. “In the
past, suppliers used polyethylene or polypropylene for all
applications. But, for a cold
storage or high heat application—or a facility with a lot of
forklift handling where high
Suppliers are working to maximize their use impact resistance is imporof raw materials to boost users’ efficiency
tant—we’re investigating difin transportation, recycling and disposal
ferent variations of the base
of packaging materials—from loose fill
material to produce different
dunnage to formed packaging trays to air
performance characteristics.”
pouches.
Some additives can even
be used to reduce the noise
“materials agnostic approach.”
produced by the containers as they
“We’ve found, particularly for our travel over conveyors, Huhn says. The
structural products, a hybrid design is modified materials don’t substantially
really a better fit,” he says, citing the affect the cost of the products, but they
company’s new edge-rackable, 40 x 48 substantially improve the specific perx 5.6-inch GMA 228 block pallet that formance that the application demands.
holds capacities of 2,800 pounds, even
“These materials changes allow the
in a 2-inch flow through edge rack.
packaging to go into applications that
“It’s a mix of polyolefin plastics with it couldn’t go into before, such as blast
embedded metal reinforcements,” he freezing to -20° Fahrenheit,” he says.
explains. “Adding the metal allows us “By using different resins and additives,
to make the pallet nearly a half-inch now we can offer plastic reusables as a
shorter than most standard plastic pal- solution.”
lets, while still replicating the structural
Still other material variations might
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help control the cost of the products
themselves, says Bart Eggert, industrial product line manager at Akro-Mils.
“It’s not just the bottom line costs, but
also the raw materials cost fluctuations
associated with plastic resins such as
polypropylene,” Eggert explains. “We
continuously evaluate other options to
verify that we can produce the same
performance and quality of our current
products, but provide the flexibility to
keep our prices stable.”
In evaluating those materials, new
inspirations sometimes arise—such as
the broad line of clear reusable storage
bins constructed of polycarbonate that
Akro-Mils unveiled last year. Targeted
to a variety of markets, the bins extend
productivity and efficiency by giving
users better visibility to the products
stored within.
“Simply by being able to visually
identify the product, and the amount of
it, stored inside a stack of the containers
without having to lift or open each one
also makes it safer for users and easier to
manage inventory,” Eggert says.
In addition to modifying the materials and construction of reusable plastic
packaging, suppliers are also adjusting
their approach when presenting the
solution to customers.
“We’re not just selling the packaging assets anymore; we’re selling business intelligence,” says Rehrig Pacific’s
Overholt. “Reusable packaging systems
are a very cost effective way to deploy
technologies that bring new data about
the supply chain and consumer preferences to our customers. Particularly
those in the food and beverage industries,
where products have a freshness date.”
By embedding radio frequency identification (RFID) tags (or other available
technology) on as little as 10% of a reusable secondary packaging system, the
packaging itself can provide information
about turn rates, utilization, environmental conditions and loss rates—and
not just about the asset, says Overholt.
“For many of our customers, outof-date inventory represents an area of
potentially significant loss,” he explains.
mmh.com
RIDG-U-RAK
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By applying a hybrid design approach to manufacturing container
components—using different materials and construction techniques (such
as structural foam, welding and injection molding) when forming bases and
sidewalls—suppliers can offer products that leverage the advantages of each.
“If a pallet gets misplaced, a worker
with a mobile RFID reader can walk
or drive through the warehouse and
use that additional visibility to quickly
locate inventory that is close to being
out of date, and get it shipped.”
Having that additional layer of
technology on the secondary packaging helps a company push the product
stored on or in it out to the stores in
time for a consumer to still have a positive experience, says Overholt.
Inflatable dunnage materials
bolster sustainability
Alternative materials and formulations
are also finding their way into inflatable, film-based dunnage, says Sealed
Air’s Wallin.
“We’ve focused on significantly
reducing the amount of petroleumbased resins used in our packaging film,
while simultaneously improving product performance,” he says. “Reducing
the gauge of the film while increasing
the volume of air it can hold yields both
environmental and economic benefits
for our customers by better protecting
the contents of their shipments.”
Additionally, the company has developed a variety of different film formulations to create new properties, such
as inflatable cushioning anti-static
material that meets military specifimmh.com
cations, and renewable, biodegradable and home-compostable plant and
mycelium-based cushions that can be
molded for custom-engineered packaging solutions.
“We also help our customers’ customers by communicating to them
directly on the packaging how it can
be properly disposed of after their use,”
Wallin adds. The company has implemented the Sustainable Packaging
Coalition’s How2Recycle label on certain materials to explain how recipients
can properly recycle or dispose of the
air pillows after their use.
“It really comes down to efficiency.
If we can optimize the use of raw materials, our customers are much more
efficient in transportation, recycling
and disposal, and that’s a win for everyone,” he says. 䡺
Companies mentioned
in this article
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MODERN equipment report
Packaging and automation:
Sealing
the deal
With the growing complexity
of e-commerce orders, packaging
methodologies prove critical
to the speed of fulfillment.
By Josh Bond,
Associate Editor
T
Shuttles and
mobile robots
are capable
of storing and
retrieving
a variety of
packaging sizes.
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he rise of e-commerce is transforming traditional approaches
to order fulfillment and distribution. The growing volume of
smaller, more frequent orders challenges conventional means
of storing, picking and shipping product, but it’s also forcing
companies to look at their packaging operations in ways they
never needed to before.
In store fulfillment operations with predictable order volumes and dimensions, packing stations can get into a groove
and keep pace with picking approaches geared to the same
predictability. E-commerce introduces uncertainty in terms
of when orders will arrive, what customization the directto-consumer order might require and what infinite number
of shapes a final packaged order might take. Many companies are finding manual packing processes buckle under this
increased complexity. As a result, automated packaging solummh.com
Poly bags can reduce packaging
and freight costs, but pose unique
challenges to systems based on
carton handling.
tions for everything from document insertion to right-sized
containers have become more appealing.
“We’ve seen a lot of automation in order picking, but little
change between picking and the dock,” says Bill McMahon,
director of new business development for Orbis. “It’s the
Jetsons on one side of the curtain and the Flintstones on the
other. That’s starting to change.”
As automated packaging solutions gain steam, the more
time-tested automation in storage and picking has also had to
contend with increased uncertainty in the face of e-commerce.
Systems once tuned to cartons and cases are increasingly
expected to handle more individual units and therefore a wider
range of product sizes and packaging types. “The challenge is
to design a system that can handle whatever comes at it, without knowing how that might change in the future,” adds Dave
Simpson, director of application engineering for SSI Schaefer
Systems International. “Packaging has become more challenging for automation.”
Of course, it all comes back to the e-commerce customer, who expects speed, consistency and quality at the
lowest possible price. With its historic focus on speed and
cost, the DC might turn to automation to efficiently store,
pick, pack and ship. But while automated packing solutions
can cut material costs and improve throughput, wider discussion is happening about their value.
“The packing area is the last touch point between a consumer and a merchant,” says Kevin Reader, senior account
executive with System Logistics. “There is a CEO-level recognition that the presentation factors are critical to customer
satisfaction. The cost of excessive void fill is one thing, but
mmh.com
M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G / S
E P T E M B E R
2013
41
MODERN equipment report
Right-sized shipping containers can reduce packaging
costs and also enhance the customer experience.
more damaging is a customer’s impression that a company is inefficient.”
In this two-part article, Modern will
explore the strategies and technologies
that help ensure speedy and damagefree product movement within automated systems, as well as take a look
at the automation technologies that
improve traditional packing processes.
Part I. How packaging
interacts with automation
As retailers dipped their toes into the
e-commerce waters, facilities designed
for the certainty of store replenishment
could be augmented to handle the
uncertainty of the few direct-to-consumer orders that needed to be filled,
according to Tim Kraus, product management supervisor for Intelligrated.
Now, the volume of e-commerce
orders—and the uncertainty associated with those orders—is growing for
retailers and distributors alike. As a
result, facilities or systems dedicated
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E P T E M B E R
to e-fulfillment are becoming the norm
because an order “is processed entirely
differently in terms of where it comes
from, how many items are picked and
how it’s packaged,” Kraus says.
Dedicated facilities will more readily meet the e-commerce challenge,
but more often the fulfillment for that
channel has been shoehorned into
existing systems. Automated systems
now need to be able to move both a
mini fridge in a box and an individual t-shirt in a poly bag, says Lance
Anderson, director of sales, sortation
and distribution for Beumer. “In existing facilities, companies either force
product into boxes to use the automation equipment they already have
or handle bags in a separate process
altogether,” he says. “When you have
two different processes, it’s harder to
synchronize them to meet the same
outbound objectives.”
On the inbound side, a similar tension is created when attempting to
align pallet putaway with the need to
later access eaches. In years past, com-
2 0 1 3 / M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G
panies that wanted to automate the
movements of a range of product sizes
might have married them to bar coded
totes, breaking pallets down into those
totes before storage. Today, more customers want to get away from the touch
points and labor required in the process
of unpacking before storage and instead
prefer to store in the carton. Automated
storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS)
have evolved accordingly.
New attachments for mini-load
crane or shuttle systems allow systems
initially built for the predictability of
totes to now handle variable carton
sizes. In addition to the conveyors used
to transfer totes from storage locations
onto an AS/RS load handler, that handler might be fitted with two fingers
that grasp even small, light cartons
from the side before pulling them onto
the conveyor. “Automation can now
handle different sized packages on the
load handler as well as different sizes in
a single storage location,” says Roy van
Putten, manager of sales engineering
for Vanderlande Industries.
mmh.com
The New Rehrig
Building a better bottom
One of the most common ways to move smaller volumes of
varied product through an automated system is to use totes
or trays. In addition to absorbing the scuffs and scrapes that
might damage consumer packaging, these standardized containers interface with retrieval systems independent of the
dimensions or types of product packaging they contain.
“You’re trying to take a complicated set of SKUs and standardize the way you handle them,” says McMahon from
Orbis. “Reusable packaging is an enabler of that process.”
Totes can also play a valuable role in connecting facilities,
not just processes. Consider that a product might be loaded into
corrugated containers at the manufacturer only for that container to become trash at the distribution center, where it will
again be packed into a corrugated container before shipping.
“Totes can be used to gain efficiencies in the handoff between manufacturing and distribution,” says Sean
O’Farrell, market development director for Dematic. “If the
manufacturer can put finished product directly into a tote,
the product can then go directly to the pick face, bypassing
reserve storage and a number of touches while eliminating
wasted cartons.” In the future, O’Farrell imagines reusable
packaging could even connect the distributor with the consumer, who might retrieve his item from a reusable shipper
and send it straight back.
For now, the standard tote and tray have a few drawbacks. If you pull one case from a tote that carries two, you
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are now 50% less utilized in that cube.
Additionally, totes and trays often require
that the entire contents be delivered to a
picking location where one item might
be removed before the rest are returned
to inventory.
“Every time you move something, it
costs money,” says Schaefer’s Simpson.
“The goal is to handle it the fewest number of times.” New trays are designed
with slots so that automation can come
from underneath to retrieve a single case
or carton from a tray containing many.
“When you build a better bottom, that
reusable packaging allows for greater
uptime of the automation because of the
predictability,” says O’Farrell.
Part II.
Automated packaging
As the frequency of orders has
increased, so has the complexity
of packing those orders. Depending on
the destination and the contents of the
shipment, special labels and documentation might need to be included, creating even more steps and opportunity
for error at the packing line. Automation
can take the guesswork out of customizing per-order requirements while collecting data about each process step.
“In the past, companies measured
only overall production off the line, not
at the level of individual machines or
steps of the packing process,” says Wink
Faulkner, vice president of business
development for Logopak. “Without that
visibility, things like traditional printand-apply labeling—with its notoriously
spotty uptime—often went unnoticed.
But the packing station is the last thing a
box sees before it leaves the facility. If it’s
down, your facility is down.”
Collected data can also expose imbalances throughout the supply chain. One
distributor found its per-carton number of items at the manufacturing side
didn’t line up with what customers were
ordering. “When those boxes move into
distribution, 90% of them have to be
broken down and repackaged,” says Dan
Hanrahan, president of the Numina
Group. “We’re helping them right-size the
package further upstream so they don’t
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have to touch it again in distribution.” It’s
a new take on the concept of building to
order, he says, where the manufacturer
reduces the need for downstream repacking by building to the average order.
“We’re trying to get the packaging
engineer from the manufacturing side
and the distribution folks together,”
Hanrahan says. “I don’t think that conversation has traditionally happened,
but it works well when companies look
at the supply chain as an integral unit
instead of discrete processes.”
Because of the importance of customer presentation and satisfaction,
this conversation might need to go even
wider in an organization. “It can’t just
be an operations decision to automate
packaging functions, since it will change
the way customers receive their orders,
and presentation is key,” says Helgi Thor
Leja, industrial distribution industry
leader with Fortna. “You must get buyin from other departments, like sales
and marketing, to make sure packaging
changes won’t negatively impact your
customer. I’ve seen companies make
changes that improve the packaging process but hurt the overall customer experience. That’s a bad tradeoff.”
Making the business case
In addition to speed, data collection
and consistency, one of the best reasons to automate steps in the packaging
process is physical space. “From wholesale distribution to direct-to-consumer,
the amount of labor needed in picking
and packing has literally exploded,” says
Junior Cairns, senior design engineer
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E P T E M B E R
2013
45
MODERN equipment report
for Retrotech. “The theory is that you
can continue to add labor to solve your
problems while the reality is that congestion and traffic and the ability to fill
all those orders in the space you have is
no longer feasible.”
Cairns estimates that an automated
solution can reduce the footprint
required for two laborers to pack dunnage and seal and label a box by as
much as 75%. That might be huge for a
company that is seeing a 300% increase
in the number of cartons out the door
per day, since they’re not likely to find
300% more space and people to do that
with a manual process.
For customers not prepared to automate the entire packaging process,
Cairns suggests the best business cases
for automation are at the ends of the
process: the construction of a rightsized carton and its presentation to
use points, as well as sealing, labeling
and preparing the carton for shipment.
“Those two areas are seeing the most
activity and have pretty clear paybacks.”
For customers ready to radically
revise their packaging processes, Leja
recommends taking a holistic view.
“It’s more than just automating some of
the steps in the packaging process,” he
says. “It’s looking at the integrated process and identifying which steps really
add value when automated and which
ones don’t.”
For instance, one customer ranked
each step by how important it was
to have a human do the work. They
decided to automate everything except
quality assurance and validation. “That
eliminated a full minute per case of
monotonous labor,” Leja says. “The
process was faster, but there was also a
boost in morale among employees. They
felt their roles became more strategic
when they could focus solely on quality
assurance, and not packing.”
Right-sized packaging
When a pair of reading glasses is packed
into a box big enough for a pair of shoes,
it consumes costly corrugate, wasteful void fill and expensive labor—while
potentially angering the customer. New
automated technology from companies like Packsize, Sealed Air, System
Logistics and Retrotech shape each
shipping container around the product,
trimming the corrugate to fit the unique
cube of the order.
Before right-sized packaging, an
operation might keep five, 10 or 15 different sized boxes on hand. The system
determined the order size and the cartonization logic decided which box was
best. “But if there are a virtually infinite amount of order sizes then math-
46
S
E P T E M B E R
2 0 1 3 / M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G
mmh.com
MODERN equipment report
ematically you will average 40% air in
those standard containers,” says Hanko
Kiessner, CEO of Packsize.
Right-sized packaging solutions can
cut the needed quantity of corrugate
by as much as 28%, while reducing
filling material by 80% to 90%. These
systems can also work as much as 40%
faster with the same labor. But to create a customized box for each order,
the system must know the dimensions
of the order.
One option is to capture the volumetric data right before packaging
and then store it for future reference.
Kiessner describes a self-learning database, which automatically populates
the SKU list with volumetric data that
becomes available for use across the
enterprise. “The holy grail is to provide
real-time shipping rates as an e-commerce customer is selecting goods and
placing an order,” says Kiessner. “This
integrates and optimizes data throughout the supply chain, from selecting the
right box size to the right carrier and
shipping mode.”
Taking it one step further, new software can optimize automated packaging not just within a facility, but across
an entire network of buildings. From a
cloud-based server, companies can steer
each order to the right building with the
right inventory and through to the right
packaging machine, says Kiessner.
Automated packaging systems
therefore offer improvements not only
to tasks as simple as inserting documents into a box, but to objectives
as big as the company mission itself.
Traditional systems, where manual
laborers make decisions on the fly, provide too many opportunities for miss-
ing both of those objectives.
“I look at the packaging area as a bit
like war,” says Reader. “You can make a
general plan, but as the ships get closer
to the beach, all hell can break loose
and you’ve got to have a good way of
managing that.” 䡺
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beumer.com
dematic.com
FORTNA: fortna.com
INTELLIGRATED: intelligrated.com
ORBIS CORP.: orbiscorporation.com
LOGOPAK: logopakcorp.com
NUMINA GROUP: numinagroup.com
PACKSIZE: packsize.com
RETROTECH: retrotech.com
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M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G / S
E P T E M B E R
2013
47
MODERN productivity solution
By Josh Bond,
Associate Editor
Brewery reduces labor
with floor-level palletizer
New equipment
and software
more than double
throughput while
reducing strain
on workers.
Deck 2 lines
U
tah Brewers Cooperative, a small regional brewery that produces 25 different ales and lagers,
realized in November 2010 that it needed a less
labor-intensive way to palletize outgoing product.
After installing a floor-level palletizer, the company
was able to reassign workers to more value-added
areas while more than doubling throughput.
The company had installed a new, faster bottling
line that produces 37,500 barrels per year. But, Dan
Burick, director of brewing operations, realized that
this increased production would result in more strenuous labor for employees who were palletizing by hand.
He considered adding a palletizer to the packaging line.
Utah Brewers was able to install and start-up the
new palletizer (Columbia Machine, palletizing.com)
in-house. “Our palletizer has been a great addition to
our brewery, reducing some of the more difficult and
back-breaking labor and allowing us to cross train our
employees in other areas,” says Burick. “The machine
is robust. Delivery was on time and the two days of
48
S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 3 / M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G
training at the facility were very helpful.”
Before the new bottling line and palletizer, two
employees were stacking cases on pallets while a
third delivered finished pallets to the shrink wrapper. Cases were stacked at an average rate of 6.25
per minute. Now, one person loads the palletizer
with empty pallets in the morning and one forklift
driver moves the finished pallets. A total of two fulltime positions were reassigned to more value-added
tasks, and cases are now automatically stacked at a
rate of 16.46 cases per minute.
With various package sizes being palletized at
Utah Brewers, the palletizer must be flexible and
operator friendly. With the palletizer’s on-board software, the company is able to squeeze even more productivity from the palletizing process. Burick adds,
“The product manager software is great. We can set
our own patterns and adjust things on the fly, which
is nice. It is a very dependable and operator friendly
machine with 98% uptime.”
mmh.com
MODERN productivity solution
By Josh Bond,
Associate Editor
Custom storage containers
enable growth and optimize
operations
PK USA optimizes parts storage and
materials handling to continue growth
without expanding its warehouse.
T
o continue growth, PK USA, a primary supplier
of metal body, chassis and plastic injection parts
for domestic and international automotive companies, had to optimize operations. The company was
using eight different types of containers for storage
in existing warehouse space.
“Many of our storage containers used space inefficiently, had weight and stacking limitations, and
required frequent replacement because they broke
down in our environment,” says Dan Sizemore, a
senior engineer at PK USA’s Shelbyville, Ind., facility. “If we hadn’t sought new custom containers, we
would have had to expand our warehouse to meet
the demands of continued growth.”
By deploying a series of custom containers, the
company was able to increase storage capacity by
30% while improving labor efficiency by 20%.
According to Sizemore, for instance, a new prod-
50
S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 3 / M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G
uct needing parts storage between
die set ups was not stackable with
wood pallets or wood containers, and
required considerable storage space.
Sizemore recommended adding a
few new custom containers (Steel
King, steelking.com) that would be
fully stackable and accessible from
all sides. This would consolidate
storage from eight container types to
four custom container types.
“Because we’re now able to store
at least 30% more parts in the same
warehouse space, we’ve avoided
expanding our plant simply to store
more parts,” says Sizemore. “We’re
able to stack six high with the new
containers, versus only four high at
best with our previous containers.”
For the parts storage that was unstackable using
wood pallets or wood containers, a special rack with
adjustable pins was developed that enables securing
the part, as well as stacking the racks up to four high
for space savings of at least 75%, says Sizemore.
“Unlike racks that are welded in a solid stand for
a particular part and must be discarded once the
part has finished its lifecycle, the new pin racks are
adjustable so we’ll be able to use them for new parts
far into the future,” says Sizemore. “Where the lifecycle of a typical automotive part is about four years,
we expect to get flexible use of our specialized racks
for 40 to 50 years, with ROI in about two years.”
Reducing the need to track, inventory, repair or
replace eight types of containers down to four durable containers and specialty racks has improved
labor efficiency by at least 20%. 䡺
mmh.com
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A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT TO:
Wireless +Mobility:
trends
taking us
closer to
visibility
Top industry analysts define the leading wireless and mobility
trends that are helping logistics professionals work smarter and
faster in an increasingly competitive business environment.
BY BRIDGET MCCREA, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
W
hen analyst David Krebs
assesses wireless and
mobile penetration across
various industries, the
logistics and transportation markets stand out as segments that
consistently invest in equipment and
solutions that help them operate in an
increasingly untethered world.
Whether they’re equipping delivery drivers with ruggedized devices,
52
S
E P T E M B E R
using handheld computers to track
inventory, or relying on mobile
devices to monitor the temperature
of refrigerated goods as they make
their way through the supply chain, it
seems that today’s supply chain professionals have come to both understand and appreciate the value of a
wireless world.
“Some of the largest mobile and
wireless deployments we’ve seen to
2 0 1 3 / M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G
date have been instituted by the logistics and transportation segment,” says
Krebs, vice president of enterprise
mobility and connected devices at
VDC Research. That positive momentum is pushing the industry closer and
closer to a “completely wireless, realtime supply chain nirvana” and helping
companies work smarter, better and
faster in an increasingly competitive
business environment.
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Selective Pallet Rack
Pallet Flow
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A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT TO:
Over the next couple pages we’ll
explore the eight leading wireless and
mobility trends taking place in the
industry, and then we’ll identify how
supply chain professionals can effectively leverage these trends to their
advantage.
Trend tracking
Supply chain operations around the
world have certainly benefited from
the ongoing release of new wireless
products and applications designed to
streamline logistics and transportation
management. Where it is providing
better transparency, prompting shippers to discard their historically wired
ways, or allowing smaller companies
to affordably beef up their IT infrastructures, mobility is having a major
impact across the supply chain.
After interviewing the market’s leading analysts, eight trends emerged that
all supply chain professionals should
be aware of in 2013 and beyond:
Wireless now accommodates
a sharper focus on efficiency
and transparency. Workers in
the supply chain are under constant
pressure to reduce costs as part of
larger, company-wide cost reduction
strategies. Even minimal increases in
fuel and labor costs, for example, can
throw a firm’s bottom line out of whack
when these expenses are multiplied
across the entire supply chain.
To offset this challenge, companies
are turning to wireless solutions that
provide tracking and tracing capabilities that result in improved efficiency
and transparency. “There is a vested
interest by organizations to ensure
that their operations are performing
at maximum efficiency,” Krebs points
out, noting that manual processes—
1
54
S
E P T E M B E R
many of which are still in use—simply don’t cut it anymore. High-tech
options like wireless proof-of-delivery
solutions for trucks, for example, can
help managers gain both efficiency
and transparency outside of the four
walls of the warehouse.
run applications, then it isn’t helpful,”
says Simon Ellis, practice director at
IDC Manufacturing Insights. Over
time, Ellis expects more providers to
create mobile versions of their applications and mobile-enabled equipment
that is both appealing and useful for
Transportation solutions
(USD millions, CAGR 2011-2016)
1,500
Rugged mobile devices
Commercial grade mobile devices
Software
1,250
Professional services
1,000
750
500
250
0
2011
2012
2013
2016
Source: VDC Research
The end user is dictating
mobile consumption and driving the market. Knowing how
efficient and effective it can be to work
without wires, today’s professionals are
putting pressure on equipment and software suppliers to build more devices
and solutions that operate wirelessly.
That pressure has extended out to the
end-to-end supply chain, where vendors are scrambling to accommodate the
requests.
“At the end of the day, if you’re a
vendor and your mobile device doesn’t
2
2 0 1 3 / M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G
end users who are striving to gain visibility across the entire supply chain.
Mobile solutions are pushing
users out of their “manual”
comfort zones. Because they
don’t require hard wiring or elaborate
IT infrastructures, today’s wireless
solutions—many of which can be run
in the cloud—are helping companies
of all sizes make the jump from manual, fax-based systems to highly automated solutions literally overnight.
Krebs recently worked with a com-
3
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A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT TO:
pany that moved its fleet of 3,500
trucks over to ruggedized handheld
devices that drivers now use to capture, track, and report proof of delivery information in real time. Previously, the company was using a partly
manual and partly Nextel phone solution on an intermittent basis for the
same task.
“This particular application proves
that there are some cool things happening in the wireless market,” says
Krebs, “but the fact that it took place
in the last 12 months to 18 months
also shows that a lot integration and
automation upgrades still need to
happen.”
The smart phone is carving
out a place for itself in the
supply chain. Sure, they’re still
not as physically robust as their ruggedized counterparts, but today’s smart
phones—whether they are provided by
the company or brought in by workers
on a “BYOD” (bring your own device)
basis—are staking a bigger claim in
supply chain operations these days.
And while consumer devices like
the iPhone aren’t made to withstand
the wear and tear inflicted by warehouse workers, truck drivers and
delivery personnel, their vendors are
beginning to introduce more robust
equipment and protection options.
“You can put a bumper around a
smart phone, but you can’t save it
from all of the damage, particularly in
an outdoor environment,” says Krebs.
“The idea that consumer products can
incorporate features like fall, water
and dust protection in the future certainly isn’t inconceivable.”
4
Wireless helps users create a
more cohesive workforce outside of the four walls of the
5
56
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warehouse. Few would argue the positive impact that today’s mobile devices
and capabilities have had on human
communication and collaboration. The
same holds true in the logistics organization, where drivers using mobile
devices and solutions no longer have
to go to the dispatcher to pick up their
“instructions” for the day, and then follow them independently with little or
a bigger interest in developing wireless
supply chains—in particular, those that
aren’t currently tied into large, enterprise-wide, wired technologies.
In fact, she says one of the biggest
obstacles that larger organizations
run into when implementing wireless solutions is the fact that they’ve
already invested significant dollars in
wired systems. “When you don’t have
Because they don’t require hard wiring or elaborate IT
infrastructures, today’s wireless solutions—many of which
can be run in the cloud—are helping companies of all sizes
make the jump from manual, fax-based systems to highly
automated solutions literally overnight.
no other intervention.
“Mobility creates tighter communication across the supply chain
and between the individuals who are
out in the field and the folks who are
developing strategies back at corporate
headquarters,” says Ann Dozier, vice
president of consumer products, retail,
and distribution for Capgemini Consulting. “Those higher levels of communication and collaboration translate
into improved customer service,” says
Dozier, “and a workforce that’s more
focused on a point in time, versus a
slip of paper.”
Smaller, more nimble companies are using wireless to ramp
up and improve their technology infrastructures. There’s little
doubt that mobile allows companies to
become more successful overall thanks
to the expedited information sharing, portability and connectivity that it
offers. Dozier sees smaller firms taking
6
2 0 1 3 / M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G
large investments in current technology,” says Dozier, “it’s actually easier to
move forward with mobile initiatives.”
The mobile device and applications are being paired up
with the individual worker in
mind. Smart phones, tablets and ruggedized devices aren’t homogeneous
and neither are the individuals who
use these products on a daily basis.
Dozier says that both companies and
vendors have awakened to this fact,
and notes that both parties are taking
more time to match the right user up
with the correct device.
“Companies have to recognize that
there are different devices for different people,” Dozier says, “and look
hard at what device, data and applications someone may need to be able to
the job.” As part of this trend, Dozier
says many vendors are now working to
separate their devices from the associated applications and are moving away
7
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from the age-old strategy of integrating
technology into their devices on the
assembly line.
Mobile devices are still only
as good as the information
that’s available. Looking back
at how much supply chain visibility
companies have gained over the past
two years—and how much they will
gain over the coming two years—Ellis
says much of that positive impact
comes from the continued growth of
wireless and mobile in the space. But
none of that would be possible without the information itself, says Ellis,
who points out that mobile devices are
only consuming the information that’s
8
being made available to them.
“You can have the best mobile
device in the world, but the information is still the information,” says Ellis.
“Mobility serves purely as a more flexible access point and a way for companies to get at the information that they
need to make the best possible business decisions.”
Wireless crystal ball
Going forward, all of the analysts interviewed for this article say mobility will
play an increasingly important role in
supply chain management.
Being able to “cut the wires,” it
seems, can create substantial benefit
across the supply chain and allow ship-
pers more freedom to optimize their
operations and improve visibility. No
longer relegated to a desk, rolling computer stand or electrical socket, supply
chain professionals continue to leverage mobile devices and applications
nearly as quickly as vendors produce
them.
Ellis says that there’s no end in sight
to the wireless supply chain movement. “We expect a nice upward tick in
the use of mobile and an emphasis on
better and smarter devices,” says Ellis.
“It will be a steady, upward march for
wireless as its adoption levels rise, the
business case for it becomes clearer,
and the number of available mobile
tools grows.” 䡺
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E P T E M B E R
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mmh.com
Let Dehnco Help You Evaluate and Integrate Workstations,
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FOCUS ON
Totes
& Containers
Industrial grade totes
stack and nest for storage,
transfer and shipping
Offered in nine sizes and three colors,
the NST line of nest and stack totes stack
(with or without lids) for storage and
shipping, and nest when empty. Made
of strong, high-density polymers, the
totes will not rust, corrode or bend out of
shape—even when fully loaded. Textured
bottoms provide a no-slip grip on conveyor belts, while smooth surfaces are
easy to clean. Ideal for food and pharmaceutical handling, the totes are manufactured from FDA-sanctioned materials.
Akro-Mils, 800-253-2467,
www.akro-mils.com.
Pail cover eliminates
gaskets
Offered as a drop-in replacement for a
standard gasketed cover on most filling
lines (with only minor adjustments to
existing capping equipment), the Tri-Seal
60
S
E P T E M B E R
gasketless openhead plastic cover works
with standard 5-gallon, rigid-plastic
pails. Because the cover eliminates the
need for a gasket, concerns with gasket
twisting, incomplete seating and gasket
rebounding are averted. The pail cover
is ideal for use with foods, adhesives,
lubricants, building products and consumer products. Features include a primary inner plug cork seal unaffected by
changing top loads, a secondary top flap
seal that engages the lip of the pail, and
a tertiary outer stretch seal for added
security. The covers are made of 100%
high-density polyethylene (HDPE), making them fully recyclable. BWAY,
800-527-2267, www.bwaycorp.com.
32 x 30-inch container has
reduced collapsed height
for improved return ratio
The BN3230 bulk box with a 32 x 30-inch
footprint may be specified with or
without drop doors in 25- and 34-inch
heights. Features include a non-sequential fold, a replaceable runner that snaps
into place, and reduced collapsed height
for a better return ratio. For cost savings, the container’s sidewalls feature a
variety of fastener-free labeling options.
Buckhorn, 800-543-4454,
www.buckhorninc.com.
Molded system totes for
use with carousels and
vertical lifts
All-plastic reusable totes
for food applications
Impact-resistant Polylewton Stack-NNest containers are injection-molded
from high-density polyethylene. Capable
of holding up to 70 pounds per tote (for
a total of 300 pounds when stacked),
the containers stack when full and nest
at a ratio of 4.5:1 when empty to maximize space. The easy-to-clean containers employ material FDA approved for
direct food contact and resist oil, water,
steam, most chemical solvents and
temperatures from 0°F to 120°F. They
are compatible with chrome-painted
metal dollies, shelving units and storage
systems. Fully recyclable, the containers are offered in a variety of footprints,
from 20.1 x 13 to 30.1 x 24 inches, and in
heights up to 15.1 inches. LEWISBins+,
877-975-3947, www.lewisbins.com.
2 0 1 3 / M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G
A line of molded system totes is ideal for
use with any vertical carousel, horizontal carousel and vertical lift application.
Featuring sleek construction, the durable,
straight wall totes provide 100% cube
utilization. Offered in a range of standard
and custom colors, the totes inter-stack
while organizing inventory with patent
pending dividers that easily snap-lock
into the tote to eliminate part migration.
For easy handling, the totes include an
ergonomic pull handle and can be marked
with a custom embossed logo in the front
of the tote. Flexcon Container,
908-871-7000, www.flexcontainer.com.
mmh.com
FOCUS ON
Totes & Containers
Automated Vertical
Storage Systems
Textured container
surface makes label
removal easy
Offered in a variety of sizes, NXO
StakPak containers have been
enhanced with a textured surface area
so labels can be easily removed, and
no label placard is needed. This feature eliminates unnecessary automation fields and
cardholder pins. The containers’ textured surface can be optionally added to all four
sides, the two short sides, two long sides or two adjacent sides. Container dimensions
range from 24 x 15 x 7 inches to 24 x 22 x 14 inches. For easier handling, a 24 x 15 x
14-inch model can be equipped with optional, molded-in hand holes. All of the units
accommodate custom dunnage to protect parts during shipment, and sport a standard “Place Label Here” hot stamp on the textured surface. Orbis, 800-890-7292,
www.orbiscorporation.com.
Organize small parts storage with
shelving, bin package
Offered as a complete package, the Euro Drawers shelving
system includes both sturdy open or closed steel shelving
and bins for economical small parts storage. The system
offers a choice of bin and shelving sizes. Bin colors include
blue, yellow, gray or red for color coding stored products
to simplify order picking and inventory control. The heavyduty, high-grade gray shelving handles up to 400 pounds
of capacity per shelf. Other shelving finish options include
epoxy-coated, chrome, solid stainless and solid galvanized.
Quantum Storage Systems, 800-685-4665,
www.quantumstorage.com.
Reusable transit packaging
keeps produce fresh
To reduce waste and keep vegetables and fruits
fresh, the Maxinest reusable transit packaging crate
is offered as an alternative to cardboard and wood
boxes. Washed between uses, the containers are
perforated with holes to permit cooling and ventilation and extend produce life. The units are stackable and come in 20 different models—including a
conveyable version with a reinforced base that interfaces with automated filling, weighing and handling
equipment—to accommodate a variety of applications within the grocery industry. Schoeller Allibert,
44-0-121-506-0100, www.schoellerallibert.com.
It All Adds Up
To VALUE
Small parts are expensive.
Traditional shelving eats
up valuable floor
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parts. What’s more,
parts can be tough to
find and reach;
accurate inventories
a challenge.
The Lauyans Small
Parts Storage
System (SPSS) is
a USA manufactured
solution offering
high density storage
utilizing vertical space
for greater footprint capacity, worker
safety, security, labor savings and the
most competitive pricing available.
Before you decide to buy any Automated
Storage System, go online and check out
our pricing.
www.SPSSonline.com
VALUE
IItt All Adds UUp
p To VALU
E
Lauyans & Company, Inc.
1-866-LAUYANS (528-9267)
USA Manufactured
Since 1986
mmh.com
FOCUS ON
Who’s
Driving
Your Lift Truck?
Totes & Containers
Universal tote line includes box, partitions
for custom part organization
Offered as a complete system, TransGuard Universal Totes include a standard molded
expanded polypropylene (EPP) foam tote/box with a series of slots molded into it to
allow the insertion of plastic corrugated partitions. For inventory storage and organization, an operator inserts the correct amount of partitions and configures them to
allow the correct spacing for a
specific product. Should tote
contents change, the partitions
can easily be removed and rearranged. Sonoco Protective
Solutions, 847-632-9694, www.
sonocoprotectivesolutions.com,
www.sonoco.com.
Handle high-density dry products
with low-profile bulk container
Control vehicle access and get
operator accountability with wireless
vehicle management:
s No more unauthorized drivers
s No more anonymous accidents
s Improved safety/reduced risks
s And much, much more
Improve fleet safety, reduce material
handling costs, and increase efficiency
with PowerFleet ® and PowerBox™
from I.D. Systems, the global leader in
wireless vehicle management.
To learn more call us
at 201.678.5565 or visit
id-systems.com.
The P-340 Ship Shape reusable bulk container features a stout, low profile that accommodates payloads up to 1,000 pounds. Standing 30 inches high on a standard footprint, the container is ideal for storage and transportation of products with high bulk
densities and/or high compaction rates. When covered, the units stack three-high to
cube out standard trailers. The containers are rotationally molded in a single piece
from 100% polyethylene to create a smooth, non-stick interior. Dual side projections
allow a dumper to establish a firm, non-slip grip and rotate the box 180 degrees for
product discharge. For
customization, optional
accessories include fork
safety tubes, casters,
lockable covers and
custom colors. Meese
Orbitron Dunne, 800829-4535, www.shipshapecontainers.com.
Lockable, latched PVC/plywood storage cases
A line of storage cases constructed of PVC-laminated plywood is offered in three
sizes, ranging from 12.5 x 16 x 12.125 to 17.625 x 23.125 x 17.325 inches. The small,
medium and large boxes can be ordered independently or as set. Each case interior is completely lined with foam to protect
contents. For security, two locking latches
are included. The smaller units nest inside
the larger units, and all include two carrying
handles—one on each end. Capacities range
from 70 to 90 pounds. Vestil Manufacturing,
800-348-0868, www.vestil.com.
Tel: +1.201.678.5565
sales@id-systems.com s www.id-systems.com
mmh.com
PRODUCT
Showcase
Transferring Pallets?
Compact controller
integrates sequence,
motion, temperature
and vision
The compact L series controller
integrates sequence, motion,
temperature and vision into a single package to support fully
automated machinery that weighs, palletizes and stretch wraps
loads. Programmed with GX Works2 software, the controller
enables multiple working modes to be pre-set and engaged
with a graphic operator interface touchscreen. For palletizing,
the unit delivers precise motion control to package and stack
products faster and with greater accuracy. When stretch wrapping, the controller uses a servo system that improves tension
control to ensure loads are secured with maximum stretch without excess film or film ripping. Mitsubishi Electric Automation,
847-478-2100, www.meau.com.
Self-leveling and electric
hydraulic palletizers
A new line of palletizing lifts includes mechanical spring and air
spring self-leveling models as well as electric hydraulic units for
more exact positioning. All of the units feature finger-protected
turntable rings over solid platforms to keep debris from falling
through into the lifting mechanism. To further prevent debris
issues, the turntables incorporate clean out holes and optional
metal tops. The mechanical and air spring models have fork
truck mobility built into the lift platforms, eliminating fork pockets around the base frame. Delivered fully assembled, the palletizers are plug and play upon arrival. Advance Lifts,
800-343-3625, www.advancelifts.com.
- Enhance safety for warehouse personnel
- Category 3 safety compliant
- Prevents contamination from entering
production areas
- Safer, cleaner & faster than other load
transfer devices
Scan for a FREE white paper
on pallet handling practices
1-800-628-4065
www.loadtransfer.net
Stainless steel palletizer for
harsh plant environments
The 72AGSS stainless steel, low-level palletizer is ideal for harsh
plant environments with high humidity, moisture or corrosive
factors caused by foods, beverages or chemicals. Washdown
safe, the machine includes components rated to NEMA 4X
specifications. Intended for high-speed applications—including cases, bags, trays, totes or multipacks—the system reaches
speeds of 50 cases per minute and four bag layers per minute.
Features include a welded and bolted heavy gauge frame, an
elevator table reinforced with crossbar beams to eliminate load
stress, and gently tapered table edges to ensure stable layer
transfer. To eliminate drive motor
stress, the table is counterweighted. Vertical transfer of the elevator table is powered by a variable
frequency motor drive that eliminates hard starts and stops. A-B-C
Packaging Machine, 800-2375975, www.abcpackaging.com.
mmh.com
M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G / S
E P T E M B E R
2013
63
/RQJHU/DVWLQJ%HOWV
PRODUCT
Showcase
Integrated palletizer, stretch
wrapper system
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Take the Bulkiness
Out of Bulk Storage
Vidmar® STAK System®
The ARBOT palletizer integrates a Motoman five-axis robot with
an automatic stretch wrapper, pallet loader and pallet dispenser
for end-of-the-line handling of cases, trays and other products.
The palletizer forms the desired pattern layer stacks onto the
pallet in a tight, uniform configuration. To accommodate different product sizes, both pattern configuration and layer counts
can be quickly changed over. Constructed with heavy-duty reinforced structural steel and a non-corrosive baked on powder
coat finish, all movement is controlled
by an Allen-Bradley
processor and a userfriendly operator interface. ARPAC Group,
847-678-9034,
www.arpac.com.
Produce air-filled protective
packaging on-demand
The portable, benchtop AirPouch FastWrap system produces
cellular cushioning wrap and air-filled tubes on demand, reducing
storage costs for large, bulky rolls of pre-filled protective wrapping material. Using high-yield boxes of flat, preformed bubble
film material, the machine inflates the film at the packing station. Each box of material produces 1,385 linear feet of wrap—in
12-inch widths with perforations every
10 inches—and employs a patentpending honeycomb pattern to allow
air transfer between cells for maximum product protection. Automated
Packaging Systems, 330-342-2000,
www.airpouch.com.
Protect pallet loads with stretch hood film
Save up to 75% of your floor space by storing up,
instead of out, with STAK. The ultimate high-density
system, STAK maximizes space savings, load capacity,
operator efficiency, and safety.
For more details or to schedule
a free onsite analysis, contact a
Territory Sales Manager today
at 800-523-9462.
64
S
E P T E M B E R
StanleyVidmar.com/UP
2 0 1 3 / M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G
For watertight protection of pallet loads, the stretch hood
machine applies packaging film to all five sides of a load with
horizontal and vertical tensile forces for load stability. The film
hood is drawn over the pallet stack, forming a stable product
and load carrier unit. Ideal for use with loads composed of
bags, crates, trays or cartons, the film material protects the
load against weather, dust, moisture and transport hazards. The
machine consumes minimal energy and has a low compressed
air requirement. No heat energy
is needed or produced, and the
unit works with all types of film,
including recyclable. BEUMER
Group, 49-0-2521-24-317,
www.beumergroup.com.
mmh.com
PRODUCT
Showcase
Hybrid pallet combines
wood, recycled plastic
The Relius Solutions green line armor
hybrid
pallet features oak stained boards encapsulated on both ends
with molded, recyclable plastic bumpers to withstand impacts
and increase durability. Equipped with a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag for more efficient inventory management,
each stackable, rackable pallet measures 48 x 40 x 5 inches.
The four-stringer pallets hold up to 10,000 pounds when
moved by forklift (15,000 pounds on the floor) and are covered
by a 10-year warranty. C&H Distributors, 888-316-2223,
www.chdist.com.
classified
Label Holders
Label Holders
Export and Domestic
Pallet Solutions
800.242.3919
www.aignerlabelholder.com
PRES
PALL
info@aignerlabelholder.com
ŹMinimize Waste
Benches
Cut Packaging Co
ŹFree of Bugs, Mold
TCP and TCA Che
ŹReduce Fork Truck
Traf¿c
ŹReduce Shipping
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Which Pallet
Will You Choose?
LITCO International Pallets
To advertise, or for more information contact:
Jennifer Drevline, 847-223-5225, ext. 11,
jenniferd@caseyreps.com
mmh.com
Export and Domestic Pallet Solutions
855-296-2891 t www.litco.com
SPACS95-8/12
M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G / S
E P T E M B E R
2013
65
MODERN 60 Seconds with...
Laszlo Horvath
Virginia Tech
University
TITLE: Assistant professor and
director of the Center for Packaging
and Unit Load Design
LOCATION: Blacksburg, Virginia
EXPERIENCE: A professor at
Virginia Tech since 2010, Horvath
and his colleagues are in the process
of developing new curriculum and
state-of-the-art research programs
that bring together education,
research and solutions for industry.
PRIMARY FOCUS: The program’s
objective is to help industry save
resources by focusing on the role
of transport packaging and the unit
load in the supply chain.
Modern: Laszlo, you’re the director
of the Center for Packaging and
Unit Load Design. Not that long
ago, the focus of the center was
unit load design. Talk about that
evolution.
Horvath: When the program
was founded, we focused on the
component parts of a unit load. We
began with pallets. Later, we added
unit load design. Today, our program
encompasses the whole system,
starting with the design of the unit
load and packaging materials to the
way that load moves through the
supply chain. It’s the whole system
and not just the component parts.
We are working with primary and
secondary packaging. Similarly, our
students are learning everything
from marketing to supply chain
management. We don’t just train
packaging engineers. Our goal is to
train packaging managers who can
66
S
E P T E M B E R
tell the designer what the design
should look like, work with materials
handling engineers, and talk to
logistics people about how the load
will work in the trailer. We’re the link
between these multiple disciplines.
Modern: Has packaging become a
higher priority among end users,
especially with the increasing
number of packages shipped
because of e-commerce?
Horvath: Yes it has and not just
because of e-commerce. I recently
talked to an engineer from a large
electronics company at a transport
conference. He talked about
2 0 1 3 / M O D E R N M AT E R I A L S H A N D L I N G
how packaging was always an
afterthought. They designed great
products, then they just threw them
in a giant box with a lot of protective
packaging and shipped it to the
customer. Two years ago, they hired
a packaging engineer who has found
ways to shrink their packaging to a
fourth of its previous size and still ship
it safely to the customer. E-commerce
is having an impact because you have
to ship so many products. Companies
are realizing that shipping a trailer
load is relatively easy. LTL and parcel
shipments are a whole different ball
game. It’s forcing them to think about
packaging. 䡺
mmh.com
YOU HAVE TO LOWER OPERATING COSTS.
THEN YOU HAVE TO LOWER THEM AGAIN.
WITHOUT SACRIFICING PRODUCTIVITY.
Lowering operating costs is what
the Hyster® Fortis line does best.
Hyster Company is proud to be
ranked #1 by current customers in
Total Cost of Ownership.* And when
you purchase a Fortis® lift truck,
know that each one comes with
the Hyster legacy of building tough
lift trucks. Lower costs. Better
ROI. Tougher trucks. Bring it.
For more information, visit
hyster.com/TCO.
*Peerless Media Research Group, 2011
12HST5682
© 2012 Hyster Company. Hyster,
and Fortis are registered trademarks of Hyster Company.
hyster.com