Pleasing to the Pallet
Pallets made of rotationally molded polyethylene are among the most durable, and can have a significant economic impact on businesses will- ing to make a capital investment for the long term. “Plastic pallets last 10 to 20 years lon- ger than wood pallets,” explains Kensill. “A business that spends $200,000 a year on expendable packaging can instead spend $400,000 on plastic pallets and assume no additional capital cost for the next 20 years.” The real value of JECO’s service, however, is that it can customize plas- tic pallets to meet unique demands. Customers present specific application
pallets are safer than wood, because they are lighter and don’t splinter. They also offer greater product integrity, because stacking on smooth plastic pallets causes less product damage.” These types of efficiencies make Kensill’s sales job easier. “If a company always throws away the bottom quarter-inch of a stack of paper because it impresses on top of a funky pallet, it loses money,” Kensill says. “Some companies might accept that as a cost of doing business, but
“For all their simplicity, pallets are forcing companies to look differently at how they invest in the warehouse.”
JECO’s pallets eliminate that cost. “Plastic pallets make sense in terms of short- and long-term ROI,” he adds. JECO and other warehouse equip- ment suppliers realize that their businesses have evolved well beyond simply manufacturing a product, and that customers demand as much in the pre-bid and bidding process as in back- end support. “We have moved way past offering just materials handling and into con- sulting, including financial analysis of how customers operate their business,” Kensill notes. Pooling Resources Another cost-savings alternative is pooling pallets, which allows shippers access to higher quality and better- designed pallets–block and four-way entry designs, for example–as opposed to outdated stringer pallets. Other ben- efits include expedited loading and
and materials handling problems to JECO and it brings process and tech- nique to bear to develop custom designs using rotation or thermal form technology. Montreal-based printer Quebecor World, which maintains offices in North America, Europe, and Latin America, currently uses JECO’s cus- tomized pallets in many of its global operations. “We use a two-way, 50-inch x 36-inch customized pallet for work-in-process applications,” says Bob Behrans, plant manager for Quebecor. “Because we have a short cut-off period, we have to use a different type of pallet custom- ized to our specifications.” Aside from the up-front cost consid- erations, “after seven turns the plastic pallets have essentially paid for them- selves,” says Behrans. “And plastic
126 Inbound Logistics • July 2007
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