Facilitator's question

What are some pictures that can illustrate the term CONVENIENCE in logistical packaging and its positive impact to storage & material handling?


Packaging make it convenient to pack the products together into bulks for easy storage. It even make it easy for customer to handle the product.





















With packaging, the products can move at a greater quantity of hoods per journey and have a better usage of the warehouse space.

A video on Eco-Friendly Packaging

Cost Calculation

Before making a decision on which package type to introduce it is wise to analyse costs and benefits.

The packing costs will depend on:

- The type of the crate.

- The size of the crate.

- The design of the crate.

- The quantity of crates purchased.

- Transport and import costs and duties.

- The container assembling costs (carton boxes).

- The need for internal packaging materials (liners, pads, dividers).

Also factors such as acceptance by the customer, pilferage, possibility to repair, local manufacturing and availability should be taken into account when calculating the cost of a crate.

The importance of the characteristics of packaging will depend on the situation in which the packages are used. However, it may be difficult to estimate cost benefits from reduced losses, increased goodwill of consumers, increased marketing efficiency, better quality of the produce and reduced handling time.

Building Block Concept

The building block concept is the whole transformation process from a individual product becoming a unit load through unitisation and then being loaded onto containers for shipping.

We shall now look more detail into the building block concept by looking at each individual processes. Basically there are only two main processes in the building block concept. One is the process of unitisation and the other is the process of containerisation.

Containerisation

This process occurs after the process of unitization. Containerisation is the process of unit loads carried and loaded aboard a trailer, railcar or ocean- going container.

While the creation of the best container for shipping of newly created product is also called "Containerization", the term also applies to determining the right box and the best placement inside that box in order fulfillment. This may be planned by software modules in a warehouse management system. This optimization software calculates the best spatial position of each item within such constraints as their ability to stack and crush resistance.

What are the types of containers

Various container types are available for different needs.

- General purpose dry van for boxes, cartons, cases, sacks, bales, pallets, drums in standard, high or half height

- High cube palletwide containers for europallet compatibility

- Open top bulktainers for bulk minerals, heavy machinery

- Open side for loading oversize pallet

- Flushfolding flat-rack containers for heavy and bulky semi-finished goods, out of gauge cargo

- Platform or bolster for barrels and drums, crates, cable drums, out of gauge cargo, machinery, and processed timber

- Ventilated containers for organic products requiring ventilation

- Tank containers for bulk liquids and dangerous goods

What are the issues regarding containerisation

Hazards
Containers are often used to smuggle contraband. In addition, due to the large numbers of essentially identical items, the vast majority never subjected to scrutiny, there are worries they might be used to introduce terrorists or bombs (including nuclear weapons) into ports undetected.

Empty containers
A social cost arises as a result of the high cost of transporting the empty containers back to the original shipping point by agents. This cost is often greater than that of containers themselves and because it is not often done, it results in large areas in ports and warehouses being occupied by empty containers left abandoned at their destination. However, empty containers may also be recycled in the form of shipping container architecture, or the steel content salvaged.

Loss at sea

Containers occasionally fall from the ships that carry them, something that occurs an estimated 2,000 to 10,000 times each year. For instance, on November 30, 2006, a container washed ashore on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, along with thousands of bags of its cargo of tortilla chips.

Containers lost at sea do not necessarily sink, but seldom float very high out of the water, making them a shipping hazard that is difficult to detect. Freight from lost containers has provided oceanographers with unexpected opportunities to track global ocean currents, notably a cargo of Friendly Floatees.

Unitisation and standardisation

A unit is a certain quantity or volume chosen as a standard. Several units can be combined to one larger unit (e.g. pallet) or divided into smaller sub-units (e.g. consumer packages).

Unitisation is the process whereby a unit load is being formed. A unit load combines packages or items into a single "unit" of a few thousand kilograms that can be moved easily with simple equipment. A unit load packs tightly into warehouse racks, containers, trucks, and railcars, yet can be easily broken apart at a distribution point, usually a distribution center, whosaler, retail store, etc.

Most consumer and industrial products move through the supply chain in unitized or unit load form for at least part of their distribution cycle. Unit loads make handling, storage, and distribution more efficient. They help reduce handling costs and damage by reducing individual handling.

In order to create the best unit for the product, we must first know how to design our unit load. There are three kinds of unit load design: Component based, systems based, and standards compliant. These have different applications.

Component Based Design
Component based design is the outmoded ad-hoc method of unit load design. Components are sometimes over specified to get assured performance, or tested to get inexpensive economic performance.

Considerable knowledge exists regarding the design of each of these components: their interactions have more recently been studied. When packaging, pallet, and handling systems are designed separately at different locations by different teams, the result might be inefficient unit load systems.

The consequences of independent component based design:
- Unsafe Workplaces
- High Packaging Costs
- Reduction of Environmental Quality

Systems Based Design
Systems Based Design is a proven process of unit load component cost optimization based on an understanding of how the pallet, packaging and material handling equipment interact during product distribution and storage to design the unit load component parts.

Factors considered in unit load systems based design:
-Unit Load Deflections
-Interfacial friction and load stability
-Compression stress and product protection
-Vertical and horizontal stabilization

Standards-Compliant Design ( BEST)
Standards permit a unit load to be designed and tested once, and thereafter work well for the life of the unit load design.

Unit loads move by an unpredictable mix of many types of vehicles and storage areas, the exact set is difficult to predict. Standards provide institutional memory of the many conditions in real logistic trains, and collect the best practices for design and testing unit loads. Standards also describe load requirements, so that logistic providers can plan to meet them.

Material based standards describe proven designs for particular circumstances. These are often used to describe unit load components such as pallets, strapping, seals, caps, retaining rings and battens. Performance standards describe needs and allow flexibility in the choice of matierials. These are applied to particular unit load designs.

Temporary corrosion protection

The stresses occurring during transport, handling and storage are much greater than those occurring at the place of use. Such stresses may be manifested, for example, as extreme variations in temperature, which result in a risk of condensation. Especially in maritime transport, the elevated salt content of the water and air in so-called seasalt aerosols may cause damage, as salts have a strongly corrosion-promoting action. The following are the main temporary corrosion protection methods:

1. Protective coating method
2. Desiccant method
3. VCI method

Permanent corrosion protection

The purpose of permanent corrosion protection methods is mainly to provide protection at the place of use. The stresses presented by climatic, biotic and chemical factors are relatively slight in this situation. Machines are located, for example, in factory sheds and are thus protected from extreme variations in temperature, which are frequently the cause of condensation.

Examples of passive corrosion protection methods are:

- Tin plating
- Galvanization
- Coating
- Enameling
- Copper plating

Passive corrosion protection

In passive corrosion protection, damage is prevented by mechanically isolating the package contents from the aggressive corrosive agents, for example by using protective layers, films or other coatings. However, this type of corrosion protection changes neither the general ability of the package contents to corrode, nor the aggressiveness of the corrosive agent. This is why this approach is known as passive corrosion protection. If the protective layer, film etc. is destroyed at any point, corrosion may occur within a very short time.

Active corrosion protection

The aim of active corrosion protection is to influence the reactions which proceed during corrosion. It is possible to control not only the package contents and the corrosive agent, but also the reaction itself in such a manner that corrosion is avoided. Examples of such an approach are the development of corrosion-resistant alloys and the addition of inhibitors to the aggressive medium.