PUSH/PULL & SLIPSHEET HANDLING MANUAL Global Solutions in Materials Handling PUSH/PULL & SLIPSHEET HANDLING MANUAL Table of Contents ■ INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND & REVIEW What You May Not Know About Slipsheets . .4 Palletless Load Handling–Is It Your Future? . .6 Put It On A Slipsheet . .12 Push/Pulls Global Progress . .15 Slipsheets: The Pallet’s Successor? . .21 Are Packagers Ready For Slipsheets? . .24 Making A Case For Slipsheets . .28 Slipsheets Save Weight And Cost In The Air . .31 Germany Says No To North American Pallets! . .34 US Tells Importers: Pests Are Unpalletable . .36 Freight Processing Centers: Logistics’ Missing Link . .38 ■ COST COMPARISONS Slipsheets & Pallets: A Cost Comparison . .41 Why General Foods Converted To Slipsheets . .47 Cost Comparison Worksheets (Examples and Blanks) . .50 Slipsheets vs. Pallets – The Decision Making Process . .61 ■ CASE HISTORIES & INDUSTRY UTILIZATION Slipsheeting The World – Apple Computer . .67 Cascade Plays Key Role – Apple Computer . .68 Slipsheets Generate Hyper Savings – Apple Computer . .70 You Must Use Slipsheets – Home Depot . .74 Lift Truck Attachment Eliminates Pallet Use – Quaker State Oil . .79 Prior To Slipsheets – Speech By Jim Chase, President Jewell Foods, Inc. .84 Unitizing 30 Lb. Cans Saves 75% Labor – Pik'd Rite, Inc. .88 On-The-Job Application Report – Simplot . .89 On-The-Job Application Report – Northern Fruit . .94 Industries Using Push/Pulls . .95 1 Table of Contents (cont.) ■ CONVERTING TO SLIPSHEETS Slipsheeting – From Team To Reality . .101 Slipsheeting – Making It A Success For Suppliers . .103 Do’s & Don’ts Of Converting To Slipsheets . .111 Recommended Guidelines To Follow For Successful Push/Pull Test . .114 Slipsheet Specifications – Apple Computer . .115 Home Depot's Conversion Spurs Interest In Slipsheets . .120 ■ OTHER INFORMATION Load Push/Pull Equipment & Operator Guide . .Cascade Insert U.S. Slipsheet Suppliers . .125 Cascade Field Organization & Customer Support . .Cascade Insert ■ ELECTRONIC CUSTOMER SUPPORT Brochures/Advertising Materials . .Cascade Insert 2 PUSH/PULL & SLIPSHEET HANDLING MANUAL Introduction Background & Review The palletless handling of unitized There are two main components at In the following sections, potential goods through the use of slipsheets the heart of the Cascade Push/Pull users of the push/pull handling and push/pulls can save money and Handling System: system will find helpful information reduce damage. This manual will 1. A load push/pull attachment including magazine articles provide you with the information mounted on the front of an collected over many years, case you need to assist you in deciding lift truck. histories, brochures, and slipsheet whether the Cascade Push/Pull 2. The slipsheet used in the specifications. Handling System would be an push/pull handling system is advantageous and cost-effective a thin, corrugated, solid fiber alternative to the use of traditional or plastic sheet used in place pallets. of the traditional pallet. Specific application or supportive data can be obtained by contacting Cascade Corporation @ 800-CASCADE (227-2233) 3 Slipsheets WHAT YOU MAY NOT are cheap enough to be discarded times that required for the fork/ KNOW ABOUT SLIPSHEETS after each trip. The costs of tracking, pallet method. recovering, and repair or disposal, There is no low-cost lift vehicle for Applications for slipsheets are which are characteristic of the the horizontal transport of slipsheet growing at a steady rate. Has reusable wooden pallets, are not unit-loads that is the equivalent of the information about their savings required for slipsheets. In keeping inexpensive low lift manual pallet reached you yet? with present-day environmental truck or jack. Slipsheet loads can be By C. W. Ebeling concerns, the used sheets are easily placed onto pallets for in-house assimilated into the wastepaper mar- handling, but the transfer process is To the vast majority of shippers, ket for recycling into new products. another cost to be justified. wooden pallets are synonymous with The tare weight of a slipsheets is unitized shipping and handling. In typically two to three pounds each or APPLICATIONS recent years, outside of an occasional 20 to 30 times less than the tare What then are the applications for article in a trade magazine, little weight of wooden pallets in a carload slipsheets in which the advantages information has been disseminated or truckload shipment. The space it outweigh the drawbacks? about the continued use of slipsheets. occupies under a unit-load is The earliest applications of the slip- It is no wonder that a new generation insignificant compared to the 10% or of shippers and logistics managers sheet method took place in the mid more taken up by a typical pallet. 1940’s, several years before the has grown up not fully aware of what Most net payloads of unitized product a slipsheet is, let alone why and beginning of unitized shipping in the can be increased 10% or more with U.S. The sheets were used to reduce where slipsheets are used as an slipsheets. Putting it another way, the alternative unitized shipping method. the costs of long term storage of unit- same amount of freight that requires loads on pallets for products such as Meanwhile, new applications for 100 semi-trailers for shipments on canned fruits. The inexpensive sheets slipsheets continue to appear pallets can be shipped in 90 semi- avoided huge investments in pallets worldwide. The manufacturers of trailers when unitized on slipsheets for the buildup of inventory during paperboard slipsheets report steadily (see T&D, Feb. ‘92 Slipsheets Save the short harvest seasons. increasing annual sales of 10% or Weight and Cost in the Air, p.53). more. Currently over 150 million With palletized shipping expanding Slipsheets can be used economically rapidly throughout the food industry paper slipsheets are produced to provide a unitized loading and annually. Further indication of the in the 70’s, a number of large manu- unloading method for lightweight facturers began converting to slip- extensive use of the slipsheet method products that cannot economically be comes from the manufacturers of the sheets for their long haul shipping shipped on pallets due to lightweight operations to get out of the costly and handling attachments. Approximately transportation penalties. 18,000 push/pull attachments are in difficult-to-control pallet exchange The disadvantages of slipsheets are operation in the U.S. Of the top 100 program. The problems of pallet usually related to the cost and per- industrial corporations listed in the repair and the sanitation of reused formance concerns of shippers in 1991 Fortune 500 list, 33 were using pallets gave further impetus to the comparison to the pallet method. slipsheets somewhere in their logis- manufacturers’ changeover to slip- These are: tics operations. sheets. During the conversion The cost of a lift truck push/pull process it was found that the thin Slipsheets, like pallets, have their attachment to handle slipsheets is lightweight slipsheets made higher advantages and their disadvantages. $6,000 to $8,000 compared to about density payloads in many shipments Applications in either case are found $400 for standard fork truck tines. possible, which resulted in reduced where the advantages outweigh the transportation costs. disadvantages. The main advantages The lift truck operators require for slipsheets are: special training to effectively operate In 1988 Apple Computer introduced the push/pull attachments. The time slipsheets to the electronics industry Most slipsheets are made of light- required to become proficient in the with the first ocean container ship- weight paperboard, which averages a operation of the equipment is several ments of cased computer parts from dollar or less each unit-load. They 4 Slipsheets Home Depot developed this battery powered, push/pull-equipped dock vehicle in cooperation with the Raymond and Cascade Corporations to improve the unloading of slip- sheeted unit loads at its store docks. Home Depot has implemented a pro- gram encouraging all its suppliers to convert to slipsheets. overseas suppliers in the Far East and A semi-bulk container carries the space. Pallet loads speed unloading Europe. Pallets were unaffordable for equivalent of an entire pallet load of but require the eventual disposal of ocean container shipments due to smaller containers. In 1982 General thousands of used wooden pallets. their cost along with the cube loss Foods introduced the use of semi- According to Matthew Pitts of Home that would reduce payloads. bulk containers with built-in slipsheet Depot, each pallet received at their Consequently, the goods had to be bases for the transport of coffee Northeast stores results in a disposal hand stacked case by case in the powders from supply locations in cost that averages $2.50 each. ocean containers. The replacement of South America to coffee packaging To facilitate the unloading of slipsheet the hand-stack operations with lift plants in the U.S. The slipsheet method unit-loads at the store docks, Home truck slipsheet loading and unloading increased handling productivity more Depot developed a special battery saved the company millions of dollars than ten times that of the traditional powered, push/pull equipped dock annually and speeded the turnaround methods of packaging and shipping vehicle in cooperation with Raymond of ocean containers at the shipping coffee powder. Today the slipsheeted and Cascade corporations. Home docks for improved