Both retailers and manufacturers can improve their cost position by using effective onsite pallet management services. Here's what to expect in an onsite services program.
True pallet management goes far beyond pallets. While pallets are a critical part of businesses' daily distribution center (DC) workflows, the pallet supply chain touches multiple operational layers. Many companies – particularly retailers and manufacturers – find they need a customized solution to realize the full value of their pallet use.
[Short on time? Download a copy of our quick guide to onsite pallet management services for later.]
We manage 110 million pallets across a wide variety of industries each year. We use our expertise to bring tangible value to pallet programs through managed onsite services. In this post, we’ll share more about what to expect in an onsite services program. In our next post, we’ll discuss what these services can do for your business.
What Are Onsite Services?
Onsite services are hyper-personalized solutions that keep distribution center operations running efficiently and bring value to both retailers and manufacturers by improving their cost position. Unlike traditional pallet services, onsite services are custom made solutions that fit the unique scope and needs of a business.
Onsite services include:
- Pallet sortation, repair and reuse, and “sharking”
- Labor services: processes and returns, freight handling, yard hosteling, Return to Vendor Platform Processing (RTV)
- Reverse Logistics Centers (RLC)
- Recycling services
- Pallet return & repair
- Janitorial services
- Trailer stripping
- Salvage dock management
- Management of captive platforms or totes
How Do I Know If My Company Needs Onsite Services?
This can be a difficult question for retailers and manufacturers alike because, quite simply, you don’t know what you don’t know. That's where 48forty comes in. We evaluate your current operation and identify specific improvements to your current pallet management program. These enhancements work to lower the cost of your pallet program. Oftentimes, we find there is plenty of hidden value waiting to be unlocked.
[The value of recycled pallets is on the rise. Here's how to make sure you're maximizing your income from pallet retrieval transactions.]
To identify opportunities for efficiency, 48forty completes the following steps:
- Learn: Before we can present solutions, we have to understand your specific infrastructure. We visit your locations and identify recommendations tailored to your facility design, annual volumes, hours of operation, and space requirements.
- Analyze: Based upon our findings in the learn phase, we conduct a detailed analysis that could include facility layout improvements, proposed activities, and more. We’ll present the best solution for your situation.
- Implement: Once we've discussed our recommendations, we agree on an implementation plan — including the start date and expectations.
- Report: Finally, we determine your reporting requirements, including structure and frequency.
Examples of these improvements include setting up a pallet repair station so staff can complete repairs in-house, implementing an odd-size pallet inspection program, or replacing fork-sort behavior with a hand-sort program. Together, operational adjustments such as these mitigate pallet purchases and lead to increased cost savings for the customer.
Overall, this process gives us insight into your current operation and you a detailed understanding of our services, and more importantly, how they will improve your pallet management. In our post next week, we’ll review the benefits of onsite services.