How to Repalletize Your Shipments for Maximum Efficiency

When it comes to shipping, a lot goes into making sure everything runs smoothly. From the initial order right through to the final delivery, various steps impact the efficiency of your shipping process.

One operation companies often overlook is repalletizing.

This simple step may be necessary for a few reasons. Whether you need to move items between pallets for storage, to comply with freight regulations, or for another purpose, you'll want to repalletize your products as efficiently as possible.

The problem? Automating a repalletizing process can seem complex. Conventional automation solutions can be rigid. The items you need to repalletize may change daily so an inflexible solution just won't work.

There is a way to repalletize shipments quickly, efficiently, and easily. Read on to find out about it.

What is repalletizing

Repalletizing is the process of removing the contents of one shipping pallet and moving it to another. It is the combination of the tasks of palletizing and depalletizing. It can be performed manually or automatically with a robot or other autonomous solution.

There are various reasons you might need to repalletize your shipments.

These include:

• Changing shipping requirements — Imagine you had to change your shipping container or vehicle. You may need to change the shape of an already loaded pallet to fit more pallets into the new container size.

• Legal regulations and requirements — Sometimes, the local freight requirements specify particular pallet sizes or types.

• Quality inspection — You may need to move items between pallets so you can perform quality checks on each product. Here, you would perform these checks in the middle of the repalletizing process.

These are just a few reasons. We introduce even more below.

Why is repalletizing important for you?

Whether or not you have a pressing need for repalletizing, there are some significant benefits to adopting the process.

There may be opportunities for you to repalletize within your facility that you hadn't considered before.

Here are 3 reasons palletizing is so important for many businesses…

Repalletizing helps reduce inventory costs

One common benefit that companies sometimes overlook is inventory management. Repalletizing can reduce your inventory and storage costs by reducing the negative effects of partial ordering.

Over the years, partial pallet ordering has become more and more popular. This is the practice of only ordering the exact amount of a particular product that you need to fulfill your orders, reducing "just in case" inventory building up in your warehouse.

The problem with partial ordering is that it means you have to store pallets that are not full. Repalletizing allows you to combine orders onto the same pallet for more efficient storage.

Repalletizing improves shipping efficiency

Another benefit is fewer shipping delays. When your pallets are not full, it can take longer to load and unload them. This can cause delays in the shipping process, making it more costly and inefficient.

Repalletizing can help ease this problem by providing a consistent way to ensure all pallets are full and ready to ship.

Repalletizing reduces shipping damage

A final benefit is for quality control. When you ship items on partial pallets, there is a higher risk that those items will move and be damaged.

By repalletizing the contents of your partial pallets for shipping, you increase the stability and structural integrity of your entire order. It's easier to secure the pallet contents. Full loads are what pallets are designed for. This means your shipments are less likely to be damaged in transit.

How repalletization affects your bottom line

You may wonder whether repalletizing your shipments will be an extra cost that eats into your profits.

The good news is that repalletization can save you money.

By consolidating your inventory, you reduce storage costs and the space needed to store products and raw materials. Repalletization also reduces the need for manual handling, reducing the impact of human error and the resulting costly damage to products.

You also reduce the labor costs associated with picking, packing, and shipping products. These operations account for over half of warehouse labor costs so the savings you can make here are huge.

5 compelling benefits of using a cobot to repalletize shipments

The question is… how do you repalletize efficiently?

Collaborative robots are increasingly used for palletizing and depalletizing tasks in a range of industries. Their ability to be quickly reprogrammed makes them a perfect solution for fast-moving companies with changing repalletization needs.

5 compelling benefits of using a cobot to repalletize your shipments are:

• Consistency — Cobots can place items onto a pallet in a far more consistent manner than human workers.

• Flexibility — Redeploying a cobot to a new task is quick and easy. This means a cobot can easily keep up with the changing needs of your warehouse.

• Cost-effective — Cobots are not as costly as other palletizing automation solutions, making them very accessible even for small companies.

• Safe — Unlike conventional automation solutions, cobots are designed to work safely around humans, making them ideal for busy warehouse environments.

• Easy to use — Almost anyone can reprogram a cobot with very little training. This reduces a lot of the friction associated with conventional robotic automation.

Why one UK logistics company needed to repalletize their shipments

One of our clients at Robotiq is a UK logistics company. They needed to repalletize their shipments because their current European pallets were not compliant with current UK norms.

This was causing the company problems. They were experiencing issues with damages to products. There was also difficulty loading and unloading pallets onto trucks.

To solve these problems, the company decided to repalletize their freight to conform to UK standards.

With the help of the Robotiq Palletizing Solution, the company saved time, money, and a lot of work by repalletizing with a cobot.

Find out about the Robotiq Palletizing Solution on our product page.

What would be the benefit of repalletizing in your business? Tell us in the comments below or join the discussion on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or the DoF professional robotics community.