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Why Pallets for Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems Should Be Plastic
The pace of business in the grocery and pharma industries is relentless. Meeting the standards of consumers and regulators means constantly refining processes to increase efficiency. But sometimes maintaining the required productivity and accuracy is beyond the capabilities of mere mortals, particularly in the warehouse. For this reason, many companies are choosing Automated Storage and…
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How to Increase the Average Fuel Mileage for Semi-Trucks
Lately, as you pay the fuel bills for your shipping fleet or negotiate with your carriers, you may find that the prices leave you with a headache. Transportation costs are rising across the supply chain and are higher than they’ve been in a long time. In the transportation industry, there’s currently a perfect storm of…
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Standard GMA Pallet Dimensions: Why 48″x40″ Uniformity Matters
If you work in logistics you know how important standardization is. It allows equipment separated by thousands of miles to handle the same materials without difficulty or downtime. Standards across markets are quite literally what make global trade possible. If your company is operating in North America, then you likely use a 48-by-40-inch pallet that…
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Sustainable Supply Chain Management: The Case for Recyclable Plastic Pallets
In the 1960s, when the environmental movement first began, environmentalists and businessmen were mortal enemies. After all, the modern environmental movement coalesced when Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring pointed a finger at the chemical industry. Today, sustainability is a common topic of discussion around conference rooms in nearly every industry. The plain fact–one that companies…
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Cold Chain Logistics Management and Shipping: Why Plastic Pallets Are Best
Products shipped through cold chain logistics are diverse. They include steaks, salads, and life-saving vaccinations. One thing they have in common is enough value to justify the expense of maintaining the cold storage and refrigerated vehicles required to ship them. With each product, a mistake as simple as taking too long to load or unload…
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How to Optimize Food Supply Chain Management for Safety and Sustainability
Consider the taco. Rarely does anyone stop in their local grocery store to think about what it took to get meat, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, sour cream, and tortillas to their neighborhood grocery store. All of these products are grown and prepared in different places and shipped long distances through the food supply chain. Without the…
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How Hygienic Plastic GMA Pallets Can Increase Safety
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that for every 100 workers in the warehouse and storage industry, five suffered a work-related injury or illness in 2016. Of these, 1.7 had to miss days of work as a result, and two were restricted from performing their regularly assigned duties for a period. Considering that in December…
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Why Are Transportation Costs Increasing for Supply Chains?
Consumers are likely noticing that some grocery items–a box of Honey Nut Cheerios, for instance–now cost more than they used to. They’re also likely to find that these price increases aren’t confined to the cereal aisle. The culprit is higher transportation and logistics costs in the U.S., which have caused industries across the board to…
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Fresh Food Logistics: How Plastic Pallet Pooling Simplifies Safe Distribution
Recently, consumers were told to avoid romaine lettuce from Yuma, Arizona due to E. coli contamination that made 98 people ill. Since it’s difficult for consumers (and sometimes even for grocery stores) to be certain where their lettuce is from, as a result, most people completely avoided romaine lettuce for a time, which affected the…
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The Top 5 Pharma Supply Chain Challenges in 2018
In 2009, Johnson & Johnson made several recalls of their popular over-the-counter pain reliever Tylenol after a musty odor was reported by consumers. The company was continually forced to make larger recalls over the next couple of years, with the final one in 2011. The origin of the musty smell consumers had been reporting was…
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How to Overcome Logistics Challenges in the Pharmaceutical Industry with Plastic Pallet Pooling
Of all the products that move through our supply chains, pharmaceuticals are some of the most sensitive and expensive. Vaccines and other injectables need temperature-sensitive environments to remain safe and effective, and even the tiniest sign of damage to a pharmaceutical’s bottle or blister pack means a loss of product. Damage caused by mishandling or…
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How to Reduce Logistics Cost on Transportation with Industrial Plastic Pallet Pooling
Anyone in business knows that sales numbers sometimes seem like staggering amounts of money. A million pounds of apples sold at $1.68 per pound would appear to yield a princely $1.68 million. However, this number is deceptive because it doesn’t take into consideration the wholesale cost of the apples and what was spent getting them…