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Sustainable Freight Transportation Can Reduce Emissions
According to the World Bank, the number of people living in extreme poverty—less than $1 per day—went from 1.9 billion in 1990 to around $700 million in 2015. This drop has largely been possible due to the globalization of trade and manufacturing. It is a stunning accomplishment that deserves far more attention. It has not,…
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The 3 Best Supply Chain Optimization Tools
Investing in supply chain optimization tools such as automated storage and retrieval systems and palletizers is a major step for most organizations. These tools can increase efficiency, reduce human error, and ease the burden on employees of handling products and pallets. Yet, despite their benefits, they can be challenging to implement and to keep running…
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Why Black Plastic Pallets Are a Green Logistics Choice
UPDATED June 19, 2023 Color matters quite a bit for recycling plastic. The reason is that when different colors are recycled together, the result is either unreliable coloration—with the tint or hue being off—or an unattractive shade of brown, gray, or black. For this reason, the color black in HDPE plastic can be an indicator…
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Pallet Level Tagging: Using RFID to Track Pallet Loads
Pallet-level tagging via radio-frequency identification (RFID) sparks a tug-of-war within the supply chain. While retailers and distributors see it as a game-changer for visibility and efficiency, manufacturers remain apprehensive. However, market research from IDTechEx, a leader in the field for nearly two decades, suggests a bright future for RFID despite current challenges. Their report, “RFID…
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Warehouse Automation Best Practices: Setting Your Automation Up to Succeed
Some are predicting that by 2025, the warehouse automation market will double in size, reaching $27 billion in value. The primary driver of this is the massive ROI that automated systems provide. Many managers see the benefits of using equipment like automated picking equipment, robotic palletizers, and automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS) that reduce…
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The Future of Wood Pallets: Is Wood Here to Stay?
Sustainability is an increasingly important topic in the supply chain, which could spell trouble for the future of wood pallets. For decades, wood shipping platforms have been the go-to for transporting products (and at one time, wood was the only type of pallet material available), but wood pallets don’t fully support a circular supply chain…
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Why Food Traceability Is Important
Food traceability isn’t just important. It’s required to stay compliant with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Under the act, the ability to pinpoint the stops that a product made on its journey through the supply chain is imperative. Tracking can help prove compliance with food hygiene requirements and can support other measures necessary to…
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The Benefits of Responsible Supply Chain Management: How an Ethical Mindset Supports Your Business
Carbon emissions from a company’s supply chain are four times as high as those from direct company operations. That surprising statistic is driving some supply chain managers to look for ways they can reduce their carbon footprint. But the benefits of responsible supply chain management aren’t just environmental. Responsible business practices bring benefits like cost…
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How to Get Rid of Pallets
The modern supply chain is built upon the use of pallets. They provide a platform that allows consumer goods to be easily moved by heavy equipment, and without them it would be impossible to transport raw materials, food, and consumer goods with the speed and in the amounts needed to make modern society possible. It…
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Warehouse Automation Problems: How Plastic Pallets Can Solve Common Automation Issues
Warehouse automation problems are frustrating because, if unresolved, they end up exacerbating the issues they were implemented to deal with in the first place: product damage, slow throughput, and shipping errors. Each of these problems can result in massive production delays that lead to lost revenue and an increased total cost of business (TCOB). Proactively…
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How to Increase Warehouse Storage Space: A Guide to Optimizing Your Storage
Space on the warehouse floor is valuable real estate. Every inch taken up by items that aren’t necessities reduces the amount of overall inventory that can be stored and cuts into profits. For warehouse managers wondering how to increase warehouse storage space, though, the solution is not quite as simple as just improving a facility’s…
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How to Ensure Pallet Load Stability
Product losses during transit are so common and seemingly inevitable that retail managers generally assume that some products will be damaged during transportation. Part of management training for most grocery and consumer goods retailers involves learning how to properly record, sort, and store products that arrived damaged so the retailer can get replacements or credit…