Picture a potato. On its journey from farm to fork, the average King Edward goes through a surprisingly involved logistics process. From being picked in a field to packed in a crate, shipped and unloaded, bagged and repacked, the potato is subject several touchpoints throughout the supply chain. Each of these touchpoints adds complexity and time to the handling process, resulting in higher costs for everyone.
Across the retail landscape, businesses are tightening their supply chains in response to mounting costs. Many find themselves having to do more with less and eke out efficiencies where they can. Meanwhile, retailers are also struggling with similar challenges. Lower footfall and the draw of online shopping mean in-store sales are down. To succeed, retailers need to demonstrate agility and responsiveness, using the right equipment to capture customer attention at the point of sale and help bring back stability in an increasingly disrupted sector.
Key to this will be reducing the number of touchpoints in the supply chain.
Thanks to our position as a key supplier of equipment and services, Schoeller Allibert is well placed to understand current challenges for logistics operators. Our customers have described the hurdles they have faced throughout recent months, and as we approach 2023, one thing is clear: fill at source, shop floor ready palletisation could be the answer many businesses are looking for.
Traditional logistics methods, like the journey our potato went on, demand a lot of time and work. Products are packed into boxes, loaded into delivery vehicles, unloaded at the destination, unpacked, and finally displayed on the shop floor. Throughout this process, there are numerous points where packs need to be manually handled, all of which cost time and money.
Shop floor ready trasnport packaging cuts the touchpoints out of logistics. In this process, once a product has been packed, it stays in the same container all the way through the supply chain, shipped from the depot straight to the retail floor. This streamlined method reduces the workforce hours needed to load and unload products, sparing the work and minimising costs.
With an extensive range of returnable transit packaging solutions including large foldable containers, plastic pallets, MaxiPac's and stack-nest boxes, Schoeller Allibert can provide a solution for every business need. Our durable, hard-wearing pallets stand up to the rigours of the retail supply chain, protecting vulnerable products as well or even better than comparable containers, keeping them display-ready right to the point of sale.
Using the right packaing solution, companies can even eliminate the need to unpack goods to be sold, placing the container into the merchandising area and exhibiting the products prominently in an eye-catching display. Schoeller Allibert pallets come in a variety of colours and can be emblazoned with company branding, helping maintain coherent a coherent aesthetic style.
MaxiPac have the added benefit of being lightweight, enabling simpler, safer handling. Many are designed to nest when not in use, such as during transit or in storage, leading to further efficiencies in terms of saved space. They also tend to be easier to clean than alternative solutions, encouraging future reuse.
Of course, if goods are kept in one container throughout the supply chain, it becomes more important than ever to know where that container is at any given time. Thankfully, having this robust oversight of every journey or movement of inventory is possible through Schoeller Allibert’s SmarkLink® platform. SmartLink® uses LPWAN technology to monitor assets on the move, creating a network than can be easily managed and controlled through a secure cloud-based platform.
Given the challenging economic situation we are in, some companies may feel dissuaded from investing in new packaging solutions. However, investing in the right products can help to truncate your supply chain, increasing volume and speed of delivery while accelerating your ability to make savings.