COMPANY: International freight receiving and forwarding company

GOAL: Solve ongoing damage to palletized outbound freight, and reduce cost of materials

OPPORTUNITY: Create a total purchasing single source program

COMPETITOR’S SOLUTION: Replace current hand wrap with heavier gauge film
 

 
POLLOCK METHODOLOGY: Conduct an in-depth review of how freight is received, stored and then prepared for reshipment. Conduct audits in five locations across the country. Interview the associates who hand-wrap pallets, and examine current product for gauge and storage conditions. Meet with purchasing managers to discuss local and corporate level purchasing philosophy.

With the customer's original objective in mind, we developed the Pollock Solution to reduce damages, resulting in a cost reduction. Meanwhile, the customer enjoyed better stretch film performance, and a more secure and stable load on every pallet.

POLLOCK SOLUTION: The customer’s management told us automatic or semi-automated equipment was not the desired solution. The Pollock  Packaging team presented and developed a three-location product test using a very good quality pre-stretched hand film. One of the discussion points shared and documented was the amount of current suppliers’ film that was discarded because of damage due to nicks and damage from dropping the rolls of film. In one location, almost 50% of the film was wasted. The pre-stretched film not only was more efficient, it proved to be less demanding physically on the associates, and totally eliminated waste due to damage.

Once tested in the field and approved, the customer specified this pre-stretched film as the only film to be used by all units in the US. As a result of this success, management was now open to learning more about the benefits of equipment automation in a number of their locations.

By having corporate decision makers involved in the final solution, it became apparent that the current decentralized and very inefficient purchasing system had room for improvement. Together with Pollock Sales Professionals, the customer created a consolidated and improved order guide, considerably reducing the number of products and vendors. The savings at one location from the new pre-stretched film and the product consolidation created sufficient budget dollars to have a semi-automatic stretch film machine installed, saving even more money.