News - Category: Industry News
Litco’s Molded Wood Products Certified Biobased by USDA
Litco International, Inc. announced that Inca brand molded wood pallets and molded wood core plugs have been certified by the USDA’s BioPreferred program. Litco, as a USDA Biopreferred Partner, may begin labelling their products as Biobased.
“Molded Wood” Pallet Standard Created by ANSI
Litco International Inc. is pleased to announce approval of the first product standard for molded wood, “presswood” pallets as created by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI.)
Part 14 “Molded, Wood Based Composite Pallets” of the ANSI pallet standard, MH1 – 2016, “Pallets, Slipsheets, and Other Bases for Unit Loads” is now available free to the public at mhi.org/free/8956.
Nationally recognized product standards developed by ANSI help buyers and sellers of products, communicate. This standard represents the single best source of consensus specifications and information regarding the manufacture, use, and performance of molded wood pallets.
Pallets, Packaging and the Future of Materials Handling
Regular readers of our news section or subscribers to Modern Materials Handling should be familiar with Bob Trebilcock’s annual pallet use survey. Each year, we run a summary of Bob’s findings and include a link to the survey results in an effort to keep our readers informed on the latest pallet industry trends. This month, Pallet Enterprise did a fascinating interview with Bob that covers the MMH survey results and materials handling trends as they relate to the future of the pallet industry. In case you missed the article, we’ve taken the time to summarize the key takeaways.
2013 Pallet Use Survey Key Findings
According to Trebilcock, one of the key takeaways from the 2013 MMH survey is a greater emphasis on looking at how pallets fit into overall operations in an attempt to achieve greater efficiencies and lower costs. The data suggests some movement toward alternative pallet materials such as plastic and metal, but this change still represents a small chunk of the market. Increased demand for plastic pallets has been fueled primarily by the uptick in the automotive sector and the need to replenish pallet pools at Ford, GM, and Japanese manufacturers to keep up with demand. In the retail world, Trebilcock sees a movement toward smaller plastic pallets too. Retailers are taking more store deliveries on smaller, half-sized pallets instead of traditional 48 x 40’s to reduce handling costs.Continue Reading…
Best Pallet™ and Best Load™ Software Tools Improve Supply Chain Efficiencies
Dr. Mark White
Until now, packaging professionals, pallet users, and pallet suppliers had few tools to rely on to optimize pallets for cost efficiency. But with last year’s release of Best Pallet™, a stringer pallet design and analysis software program, optimizing the supply chain is now within reach. Conceived by Dr. Mark White, professor emeritus at Virginia Tech’s Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design, this new software helps logistics professionals better control costs and efficiencies associated with optimal pallet design. The program is a simplified, streamlined version of the industry standard Pallet Design System (PDS).
According to Dr. White, “Optimizing pallet design requires detailed knowledge of the demands of each unique system from production line through distribution, storage, and retail display. Best Pallet™ gives packaging professionals, buyers, end users and pallet manufacturers the ability to participate in the optimization process.”Continue Reading…
2012 Pallet Usage and Trending Survey
Each year, Modern Materials Handling conducts a Pallet Usage and Trending Survey. The results of the 2012 study are summarized in Bob Trebilcock’s recent Modern Materials Handling article, “The Pulse on Pallets.” In addition, MMH offers an hour long webcast that features comments from Trebilcock and Dr. Mark White, Professor Emeritus of Virginia Tech’s Center for Unit Load Design. This post highlights some the survey’s key findings and discusses the state of the pallet industry in 2012.Continue Reading…
Celebrate Manufacturing Day – October 5, 2012
Litco International is a leading provider of ISPM-15 compliant presswood export pallets that are accepted at destinations around the world. Although we play an important part in the export economy, the process starts with manufacturing….yours and ours.
To this end, we invite our customers and friends to join us in celebrating Manufacturing Day on October 5th. Manufacturing Day is a celebration of US manufacturing capabilities, designed to promote awareness of this vital sector of the nation’s economy.Continue Reading…