Design really matters : Plastic pallets in food industry

Abstract

The world is increasingly more mobile than ever, the need to transfer products between producers and consumers is already on a rapid growth. There are many elements involved in the transportation of goods such as logistics, packaging, containers, and above all the pallets. Although 95% of the world produced pallets are made of wood-based materials, the other non-wooden pallets such as metal, and plastic pallets are growing as well. There is an actual need for plastic pallets especially in the food industry, the reason is that the wooden pallets are less hygiene friendly than plastic ones. To understand the customer’s need, the door should be opened for more developments in plastic pallets not only in material used but also in the design. The variety of designs in plastic pallets can allow customers to have more choices to meet their needs. There are many advantages to use plastic pallets compared to wooden pallets, one of them is the plastic pallets are lighter than wooden ones, but the case in food industry, the main reason is the plastic pallets is preferred over the wooden pallets, that plastic pallets are more hygiene friendly than wooden pallets. it is obvious to conclude that weight is not the main reason to switch to plastic pallets. The research studied two different plastic pallets with the same material. The result shows that change in design leads to different load carrying, also each design has its own advantages but thinking about better hygiene the study suggested one design over the other.