Last Updated on December 25, 2019 by Evan Retallack
Last month, our team was at the Fine Food Show in Melbourne, where the latest in food and trends were on display. While Eco Pallets was there to showcase the high hygienic standards of our pallets, there was also ample opportunity to talk with various industry players.
Time and time again, we spoke about how critical timing is for a good supply chain, which raised the question – can our pallets help in this aspect? Let's take a look why the answer to that question is yes.
Pallets for lean management
Perfected over the last 50 years, the Toyota Production System (TPS) has inspired a trend of lean management approaches. It notably introduced the notion of continuous improvement, referred to as kaizen, emphasising the fact that a supply chain can almost always be made more effective and efficient.
Leading from this, inventory management and transportation logistics have changed drastically over the years. Despite economies of scale driving price advantages, the notion of just-in-time (JIT) systems has shifted the daily operations focus to encompass the full lifetime cycle of any product. A new and growing challenge, therefore, is to remain efficient while being responsive to customer demand.
At the same time, the pallets industry is seeing growth in recyclable and expandable products in particular. A Technavio report on the global market suggests there's an overall surge in productivity and employment across multiple economies. This is set to increase the need for material-handling activities, something that pallets are ideal for tackling.
As such, organisations focusing on implementing kaizen in their operations can benefit from the practicality, sustainability and cost-effectiveness of plastic pallets.
Eco Pallets' operations
At Eco Pallets, we specialise in offering a range of high-quality, durable and flexible plastic pallets. Because of our experience and expertise in operations, we prioritise keeping costs involved with purchasing our products as low as possible.
This is reflected in our standard stock availability and transportation logistics. The average quantity available at any given point s 40 high cubes, with slight variations between product lines. Each state, therefore, has one to two full containers available, topped off with more heavy duty pallets split between each container.
Our strategic storage of inventory means we have the capacity, in most cases, to supply our clients immediately. Anything that can't be delivered straight away gets sent from headquarters, keeping lead times to a minimum- which, in turn, enables JIT processes to function well.
If you're looking to optimise lead times within your operations, get in touch with our expert team today.
