People are often delighted to see a favorite childhood treat on the shelf of their local grocery store—and shocked at how expensive it is now. While factors like inflation, taxes, and regulations play a role in the prices of everyday food and consumer items, they are not the only forces at work. It takes a…
If you’re building a pallet fleet, it’s crucial to know how long your pallets will last in order to make the best possible choice for your company’s needs. You may seek out short-term options that have a low upfront cost, like stringer pallets. Or, you might invest in more durable block pallets that offer longer-term…
It is a rare warehouse delivery that isn’t shipped on a pallet. It is even rarer for a load to leave a warehouse unpalletized. The intake and throughput of pallets is a near-universal constant in the supply chain. At every stop along the way, a pallet inspection procedure should be used to ensure that incoming…
Efficiency is the key to protecting profit margins, especially in the high volume and narrow margin world of grocery and consumer packaged goods. Due to the nature of these industries, the companies working in them already pursue efficiency with an eye towards keeping their Total Cost of Business (TCOB) low and their profits as high…
Cross docking is a supply chain strategy that does away with the warehouse–at least in theory. An example of cross docking is when freight from incoming trucks is wheeled across the shipping dock and loaded directly on outbound trucks without entering a warehouse. In reality, cross docking as a supply chain strategy is generally more…
The years 2017 and 2018 were incredibly profitable for transportation companies, but the increasing transportation rates that made these years so profitable for carriers also tightened profit margins for manufacturers. Many increased product prices to cover the high cost of freight rates. The boom showed no sign of stopping at the end of 2018. In…