Zach Gilbert, PLA's Chief Commercial Officer, was recently featured in the article Standing at the intersection of pallets & automated equipment in Modern Materials Handling magazine. An excerpt of the article appears below.
Zach Gilbert, chief commercial officer at PLA Solutions, says putting pallets higher up on the priority list during an automation implementation also helps companies address the various levels of specifications and tolerances that the equipment requires. Depending on the specific machinery, the pallet supplier’s manufacturing processes may need to be “similarly sophisticated to accommodate these needs,” Gilbert says.
With their pallet management provider involved in the automation design process, companies will know how the unit load—in this case, the pallet—performs within the system. Overlooking this important step can lead to system jams, downtime and even product damage. When the pallet is not considered, system efficiencies and savings can erode pretty quickly.
“It comes down to understanding how the overall unit load is going to perform within these automated ecosystems and the tolerances these systems have,” Gilbert advises. “More than two billion pallets are flowing throughout the supply chain—all made of various materials and with a variety of specifications and tolerances. Whether pallets are wood, plastic, metal, new, pooled or recycled, all have their unique challenges in automated environments.”
Read the full article here.