Task:

Lindum were asked to explore ways to reduce the costs of waste charges for transit packaging, re-charged to Halewood by their retailer customers.

In addition, we were asked to look at pallet stability and downtime and to suggest how these could be improved.

Findings:

Existing cardboard layer pads were held in a magazine which needed to be replaced every 30 minutes. Replacement with four PAL-Cut automatic sheet dispensers and Caregrip™ anti-slip paper had a significant effect. Our new anti-slip paper was specially developed for the drinks industry to improve pallet stability:

• Cardboard layer pads were replaced with 180gsm anti-slip paper creating far less waste
• Caregrip™ anti-slip paper is delivered on 2,600 metre rolls which needed reloading every 4-5 hours instead of every 30 minutes
• The Caregrip ™ anti-slip sheet rolls took significantly less space to store than cardboard layer pads saving warehouse space and transport costs
• The anti-slip paper also provided better pallet stability PRIOR to wrapping, eliminating almost totally packs being dropped and downtime as pallets progress to being wrapped

Results:

• Less waste with “offsite” waste being reduced by 66% – that’s 21 tonnes at one site!
• Less cost through 90% reduction in waste charges and 85% reduction in man-hours re-loading packaging
• Less downtime with less reloading of packaging and also less packs being dropped prior to wrapping
• Less Stockholding and stock handling with 1,426 less pallets being delivered per annum a reduction of 91%
• Improved pallet stability in transit and improved pallet presentation

What the customer had to say:

“It was not necessary to make a full business calculation of the pay-back period. The ‘offsite’ waste reduction of 66% alone convinced the senior management …

Thanks to the Caregrip™ anti-slip paper, the stacked products remain on the pallet and the downtime is reduced. In fact, there have been no stoppages caused by dropped products since the shift to PAL-Cut and Caregrip™ sheets.

A welcome side-effect is the near elimination of fork-lift trucks in the packaging zone and that has been a wish for many years.”