Most businesses use automation to stack pallets. But if you’re packing all or some of your pallets by hand it often can seem like a game of “Jenga”, the tabletop game in which wooden pieces are carefully stacked until one wrong piece causes the whole thing to come falling down.
Even companies that usually use robots to stack and load pallets sometimes need to resort to hand-to-hand stacking in special circumstances.
Whether your pallet stacking is automated or manual, how your pallets are stacked can have a significant impact on your bottom line. Costs such as packaging, shipping, and even payroll can be affected.
Then there’s the human factor: How high can workers safely reach? How many times must the twist and turn while holding heavy objects? Are workers at risk from imbalanced pallet loads?
Optimal Pallet Loading
The objective of pallet loading is to get the maximum amount of products on a single pallet within defined height and weight limits. The size and weight of your pallet are limited by where it eventually will go. Pallets that are too large may not be able to fit into the back of a cargo container or trailer truck or get through the door of a rail car.
A second objective is the pallet’s stability. Pallets need to be as stable as possible in order to protect the products they contain. In some instances, a single pallet may pass through many different portions of the supply chain.
Your job is to make sure the products on that pallet are in the exact same condition when they are unloaded as they were when they were originally packed.
A third consideration is bar code scanning. Boxes, bladder bags, and other packaging should have their bar codes facing outward so that automated or manual scanners can easily capture and store this information.
What Happens When Your Pallet Gets Where It’s Going?
Then there’s the ease of picking or de-packing of the stack by the customer to consider. Is it going to be easy for the end user to unload the pallet and the pieces it contains once it reaches its ultimate destination?
The standard pallet measures 1 X 1.2 meters, but there are endless variations. The size of the pallet you use will depend on the size of the packages that will be loaded onto it, the type of equipment that will be used to move it, and the space of the vehicle in which it will be shipped.
Holding It All Together
Finally, there’s the binding to be considered. In many instances, industrial-grade plastic wrap will be enough to secure the pallet throughout its journey. But other loads may require wire or plastic banding or even a lockable encasement that is water- and light-proof.
Pallets come in all shapes, sizes and materials and can be packed an infinite number of ways. But there’s only one safest way to pack your pallet, whether you are using a machine to pack it for you or doing it by hand.