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Kaizen Ideas for the Warehouse That Will Improve Productivity
ARTICLE UPDATED ON JANUARY 31, 2024 The journey of Kaizen business strategies has been remarkable since Toyota pioneered them in Japan’s post-war reconstruction in the late 1940s. It was Toyota’s integration of Kaizen into its foundational “Toyota Way” principles that many believe set the gold standard for lean manufacturing. Kaizen approaches not only center on waste reduction…
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Pallet Industry Trends and What They Mean for Your Supply Chain
There is little doubt that our world is changing. Technology has made a lifestyle that would have been unimaginable a decade ago an everyday reality. Films and communications are available wherever we happen to find ourselves, and the furnishings, food, and devices that we fill our homes with are ordered online and delivered with just…
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5 Supply Chain Improvement Opportunities That Can Lower Costs
Logistics is often the most expensive part of running a business. That broad term covers the processing, storage, and transportation of not only your products but also the components or ingredients used to make them. If any one of those elements isn’t perfectly coordinated with the others, your Total Cost of Business (TCOB) can needlessly…
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Pallet Requirements for Export: What to Know
ARTICLE UPDATED ON AUGUST 11, 2023 Discovering a new overseas market for your product can be truly exhilarating. While establishing a niche market domestically contributes to a successful business, venturing into foreign markets elevates your brand to a global scale, even if that market happens to be just across the border in Canada or Mexico.…
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How to Improve Food Traceability with the Right Shipping Pallet
On the 13th of March in 2018, the first illness in what would become a national outbreak of E. coli linked to romaine lettuce was reported. The outbreak went on for four months before ending in June and 210 people in 36 states were affected. Even though the outbreak was traced back to farms in…
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Shipping Pallet Market Analysis and Trends
Key Takeaways It is challenging to analyze the shipping pallet market, and even more difficult to draw conclusions regarding future trends. The major pallet pools that use multi-use block pallets are comprised either of wood and plastic pallets, each with their own set of advantages in terms of cost, durability, and sustainability. Wood stringer pallets…
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Plastic vs. Wood Pallets: Choosing a Shipping Pallet Material
Executives paid more attention to the supply chain in 2018 than they have in decades. One big reason was increasing transportation costs, which will continue to threaten profit margins into 2019 as contributing factors, like the truck driver shortage, persist. There is a silver lining to all this, though. Logistics operations have been conducted for…
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Optimizing the Grocery Supply Chain
Most of the attention-grabbing headlines around the grocery supply chain have to do with Amazon, Whole Foods, and the future of grocery delivery to the home. It’s a tricky model to get right, and even Amazon hasn’t quite managed to make home grocery delivery safe, profitable, and attractive for the general public. Yet, in spite…
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Pharmaceutical Warehouse Requirements: How to Design Pharma Storage and Retrieval
In the intricate world of pharmaceuticals, logistics hums in the background as a silent hero. Yet, this behind-the-scenes player deserves center stage for countless medications to reach patients safely and on time. As industry practices evolve to include increased automation, logistics becomes the orchestrator of efficiency, ensuring a seamless and timely delivery of critical medications…
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Building a Safe, Efficient Egg Supply Chain
Growing up, my grandfather was famous for his sneer of disdain whenever he was presented with a chicken dinner. It resembled Elvis’ own sneer and to this day is the purest expression of distaste I’ve ever seen. The reason for it was that as the youngest son of the family, my grandfather was tasked with…
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How to Increase Warehouse Efficiency
The order is due out by 5 pm. Two of your forklift drivers are out with the flu and the rest are coming down with it. Your warehouse has slowed to a crawl, your employees have just started their lunch break, and the future of the company depends on shipping out this order on time.…
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Warehouse Pest Control: Preventing and Managing Common Pests
In the intricate web of global supply chains and logistics, warehouses and fulfillment centers serve as crucial hubs for storing and distributing goods. These vast spaces, packed with valuable inventory, are susceptible to a range of challenges, one of the most persistent being pest infestations. Warehouse pest control is not only essential for preserving the…