Palletizing and Depalletizing are two of the most essential processes for how your operation manages product. Your palletizing and depalletizing systems serve as gatekeepers that bookend the time that product spends in your warehouse. Finding ways to improve these creates a compounding efficiency boost felt throughout the warehouse, providing greater productivity for your other systems throughout the supply chain. On one hand, the way pallets are loaded can affect the speed and efficiency by which logistics teams get product to its final destination. A breakdown in the palletizing process backs up the entire supply chain. On the other, unloading pallets quickly and accurately starts the supply chain off on the right foot and keeps the system flush with product. A breakdown in the depalletizing process slows the whole operation down.
Palletizing and Depalletizing automation solutions have become increasingly more and more popular in recent years. This is primarily due to inventory technologies that allow businesses to be more accurate and expansive with their inventory management. Thankfully, in this day and age there is a nearly unlimited number of SKUs that can. Further compounding the problem is the industry-wide labor crisis. These two factors are driving companies to find solutions that are both flexible enough to handle more and more complex systems and save on labor costs, overall improving the efficiency of the supply chain elsewhere.
Expanding on the complexities facing businesses in the modern supply chain world, mixed-case palletizing has risen to the forefront as a leading area of palletizing tech. Mixed-case pallets are pallets that include boxes or parcels of all different sizes and weights. Typically, building mixed-case pallets is tedious, repetitive and manual. With the evolution of robotic mixed-case palletizing, companies can now leverage robotics and smart software to build mixed-case pallets quickly, efficiently and accurately. The technology is even advanced enough to load a pallet in the exact sequence in which associates will need to unload it, down to the cases in each layer. The effect these mixed-case pallets have on labor productivity down the line is significant and a major draw for warehouse operations.
Downtime needs are going to become more and more prevalent as the labor crisis continues and we work to resolve the global pandemic. With this in mind, smart palletizing and depalletizing solutions are a great place to focus capital expenditure budgets to drive returns both in the warehouse and at the point of sale. In the end, better palletizing means lower costs and increased throughput.
If you’re considering robotic palletizing in your warehouse, CCS could be the right fit for your operation. Please reach out to Jason Noble at jasonnoble@cartercontrols.com or 301-698-9660 x250 for more information.
