Pleasing to the
Materials Handling Update:
T oday’s warehouses and distribu- tion centers are hubs of activity where product is picked, packed, shipped, sorted, and stored via laby- rinthine networks of conveyer systems and storage and retrieval mechanisms. With all the bells and whistles of highly automated materials handling installations, the importance of pallets is often lost in transshipment. The evolution of pallets and their application in warehouse and distri- bution facilities – more specifically, the way pallet manufacturers custom- ize their products to meet niche client needs – is important for two reasons.
rials handling logistics, both for storage and for shipping, it does have its limitations. The introduction of the invasive Asian-long horn beetle into the United States, and its devastating environmen- tal impact on healthy tree populations, has been largely attributed to wooden shipping materials imported from Asia. As a result, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) requires wooden pal- lets to be chemically or heat-treated
First, businesses are seriously consid- ering investment in pallets as a major materials handling strategic initia- tive–and, in some cases, even a capital expenditure. Second, for all their sim- plicity, pallets are forcing businesses to look differently at how they invest in their warehouse from the floor up. One new consideration, for instance, is choosing between plastic and wood pallets. While the iconic wood pallet remains an enduring part of mate-
124 Inbound Logistics • July 2007
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