RESEARCH BRIEF: US Pallet Industry Update in US Market

Leslie Scarlett Sanchez, MS Candidate
Department of Wood Science and Forest Products
Virginia Tech
 
 
Pallets in the U.S. Market

The growth of international trade in the last decades created the need to improve not only transportation infrastructure and technology, but also the elements used during transportation process such as handling, loading, unloading, warehousing. One of these elements is the pallet. Pallets and containers play an important role in the movement of goods from place to place. They are not only used in warehouses or commercial centers, but also in all those activities that require an efficient way of transportation. Pallets allow reducing time and cost in an efficient manner, facilitating handling and transportation of raw and in-process materials, or finished products from the supplier to the manufacturer, from the manufacturer to the wholesaler, and then to the retailer. About 450 million new pallets are manufactured in the US each year, 1.9 billion are in use in the U.S. each year, and 300 million pallets are recovered by pallet recyclers each year.

Pallets definition

Pallets are the interface between packaging and the unit load handling equipment (White & Hamner, 2005). Another simpler definition is that pallets are “portable platforms”, which facilitates the movement and storage of unitized goods (Kator, 2008).

Unit loads are also important to define, as the system comprised of pallets, packaging materials, and unit load stabilizers (stretch wrap, tie sheets, corner posts, load adhesives, and strapping). Figure 1-1 shows two examples of pallets and unit loads.

 

Figure 1-1. Pallets and Unit load

Wood Pallet and Containers Imports in the U.S. Market

According to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), the Wood Pallet and Container product class is represented by the following sub-classes which show percentages, representing the average share of each sub-class on the total value of shipments for years 2002 to 2006. Wood pallets and containers, and wood-metal combinations made up 62% of the total product class’ value of shipments.

 

Figure 1‑2. Share of Product Sub-Categories on Wood Pallet and Container Manufacturing Product Class (based on value of shipments, Census Bureau 2009)

U.S Domestic Production

The U.S. domestic production is showed in the figure 1-3 bellow. It is evident from Figure 1.3 that exists an increase over the years. In 2000 the domestic production was $ 4,8 billion and for 2007 was 7,2 billion representing a 49% of increase in 7 years.

 

Figure 1-3. U.S. Pallet Domestic Production (Census Bureau 2009)

U.S. Imports

Figure 1-4 shows the total imports and value of shipments (domestic production) of wood pallets and containers, and the share of imports over total domestic consumption. The later was obtained by adding imports and value of shipments. The value of product shipments (domestic production) has grown from about $5 billion to $7.2 billion over the 8-year period. Imports have stayed almost constant throughout those years. As a result, the share of imports on the domestic consumption of wood pallet and containers, has decreased, from 7.7% in year 2000 to 7.1% in year 2007; a drop of 8%.

Figure 1-4. Wood Pallets and Container Imports and Domestic Production (Census Bureau 2009)

Regarding countries of origin for imports, Figure 1-5 shows the ten major exporters of Wood pallets and containers to the U.S. from year 2000 to 2008.

 

Figure 1-5. Ten Major Country Exporters of Wood Pallets and Containers to the U.S. in the year 2008 (Census Bureau 2009)

WORKSHOP: Process Improvement Frameworks

Presented by

 

Workshop Description:

Strategic frameworks are a set of ideas and guidelines to increase the efficiency of your internal business processes and to raise customer satisfaction levels. Strategic frameworks can be classified into three different categories: process improvement, organizational management, and process automation. Process improvement frameworks focus on the improvement of internal processes in a firm such as manufacturing, procurement, human resources, financial, and distribution. Organizational management frameworks aim to help a firm to better organize the company’s overall strategy. Automation frameworks are related to the implementation of information technology solutions to increase the productivity, communication, and synchronization of all internal business processes with external entities such as customers and suppliers.

The business process improvement framework by the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC)

Process improvement frameworks such as Lean Thinking, Six Sigma, Supply Chain Management, and Theory of Constraints have been commonly adopted in many manufacturing and service industries. In this workshop, we will give you the basics of each of the most important process improvement frameworks. We will also introduce other strategic frameworks such as Value Chains, Business Process Management and Enterprise Resources Planning to help you develop a strategy to implement your process improvement framework. We have carefully selected a list of speakers that bring academic credibility in combination with industry expertise.

Workshop outline (subject to change)

  • Strategic Frameworks, Henry Quesada, Operations Research Assistant Professor,  Department of Wood Science and Forest Products
  • Six Sigma, Johanna Madrigal, Six Sigma Green Belt and PhD Candidate,  Department of Wood Science and Forest Products
  • Lean Thinking, Earl Kline, Operations Research Professor,  Department of Wood Science and Forest Products
  • Supply Chain Management, Jaime Camelio, Operations Research Assistant Professor, Department of Industrial Systems Engineering 
  • Business Process Management, Henry Quesada
  • Enterprise Resource Planning, Roberta Rusell, Business and Information Technology Professor, Pamplin School of Business
  • Roundtable discussion

Workshop Objectives:

  • Understand the basic concepts of the most important process improvement frameworks.
  • Learn how to integrate different process improvement frameworks using Business Process Management.
  • Understand which process improvement framework is a better fit for your own business.
  • Discover the impact of automation frameworks to increase your internal processes productivity.

Who should attend:

  • Plant Managers, Quality Engineers, Process Engineers, Procurement Managers, Supplier Chain Managers, Purchasing Managers, Plant Engineers, Small and Medium Enterprise Managers.
  • Anyone interested in learning the basics of Process Improvement

Unique value of the workshop

  • Attendants will have the opportunity to understand the main advantages and disadvantages of the most common process improvement frameworks.
  • Participants will be given details to understand what process improvement framework could best fit their own firm’s business model.
  • Participants will be given examples and practical applications to better understand the process improvement framework concepts.

Location, date and registration:

  • Date: October 22, 2010
  • Time: 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
  • Location: Brooks Center, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
  • Investment: $35. Includes coffee breaks and workshop materials.
  • REGISTRATION: Please click here http://www.cpe.vt.edu/reg/pifw/

Further information:

Please contact Dr. Henry Quesada at quesada@vt.edu or at (540)231-0978 if you have any questions.

WORKSHOP: Supply Chain Management: Trends, Opportunities, and Challenges

THIS WORKSHOP HAS BEEN CANCELED

 
Presented by

Workshop Description:

Supply Chain Management (SCM) has been critical to ensure that manufacturing companies deliver their products at the right time and location. A supply chain of operations can be divided into three sections: suppliers, internal operations, and distribution section. The first section of the supply chain oversees all activities related to the procurement of the raw materials with special emphasis on supplier development, supplier relationships, and supplier reliability. The middle part of the supply chain focuses on the transformation of raw materials into added-value products. Internal operations such as inventory stocking and material handling are carefully designed and planned in this section. The last section of the supply chain concentrates on the distribution of those goods to the firm’s customers. The goal of the last section is to make sure the firm’s goods are delivered on time, at the right price and without any mechanical damage. As expected, managing the whole supply chain of operations of any company is a critical task that consumes a great portion of the firm’s resources, therefore only by understanding the internal and external elements that affects the supply chain can a company compete in today’s market place.

A Supply Chain Management Model
This workshop will focus on the basic concepts of SCM as described earlier. We will begin with a review of SCM definitions and what the new trends and challenges are for today’s firms in regards of the supply chain. After this, attendants will have the opportunity to learn about third party logistic partners, SCM technologies, and global transportation issues related to the supply chain. Also, the participants will know what best practices can be used in order to better manage their supply chain through lean thinking. We have arranged a selection of presenters that combine academic and industry expertise with emphasis on practical applications.

Workshop outline (subject to change)

  • Supply Chain Management: Trends and Challenges, Jaime Camelio, Assistant Professor at the Department of Industrial Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech
  • Third Party Logistics and Global Transportation Issues. Harry Sink,  Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management, North Carolina A & T State University
  • Lean Supply Chain: Best Practices. Earl Kline, Professor at the Department of Wood Science and Forest Products, Virginia Tech
  • Supply Chain Management Technology. Henry Quesada, Assistant Professor at the Department of Wood Science and Forest Products, Virginia Tech
  • SCM and the Wood Products Industry: A Case of Study. Omar Espinosa. Post Doctoral Researcher at the Department of Wood Science and Forest Products, Virginia Tech
  • Supplier Development. Jaime Camelio.
  • Final discussion

Workshop Objectives:

  • Understand the basic concepts of Supply Chain Management, trends and challenges
  • Learn about how third party logistic partners can help my company
  • Discover how to apply Lean thinking tools to improve the supply chain
  • Learn and understand how information technologies can help your firm to improve the performance of your supply chain
  • Understand basic aspects to develop your suppliers

Who should attend:

  • Process Engineers, Procurement Managers, Supplier Chain Managers, Purchasing Managers, Plant Engineers, Small and Medium Enterprise Managers.
  • Anyone interested in learning the basics in Supply Chain Management.

Unique value of the workshop

  • Workshop will give the trends and challenges to consider when developing high performance supply chains
  • Best practices in how to combine lean thinking tools with supply chain management will be addressed
  • Participants will be given examples and practical applications to better understand supply chain management concepts

Location, date and registration:

  • Date: November 12, 2010
  • Time: 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
  • Location: Institute for Advanced Learning and Research. Danville, VA
  • Investment: $35. Includes coffee breaks and workshop materials.
  • REGISTRATION: Click here. Also by phone at (540) 231-0978 or by email at quesada@vt.edu

Further information:

Please contact Dr. Henry Quesada at quesada@vt.edu or at (540) 231-0978 if you have any questions. Download a brouchure in a PDF format SCM brochure

RESEARCH BRIEF: Defining and Measuring Innovation

By Johanna Madrigal, PhD Candidate
Department of Wood Science and Forest Products
Virginia Tech

 

 
 

What is Innovation?

Innovation as a concept was first introduced in 1934 by Joseph Alois Schumpeter, a Harvard University professor of Economy, and since then has been defined as fundamental driver of wealth creation in the world, bringing value with economic importance to the market. The Oslo Manual, defines innovation as “the implementation of a new or significantly improved product (good or service), or process, a new marketing method, or a new organizational method in business practices, workplace organization or external relations”.

How is Innovation measured?

There is more than one indicator to measure innovation, however one of the most common indicators is to measure the contribution made by Reserach and Develpmetn (R&D) to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country. Using this indicator the US Government, though the Census Bureau, ranks the states and its contribution. By 2008 the overall contribution of R&D to the GDP 2.6% and only the states shown in the following chart reached this value as its individual contribution.

Ratio of Research and Development Expenses to total GDP by State

Which industries innovate?

According to National Science Foundation (NSF), the economic activities in the country are divided by sectors, where innovation is also measured based on the total investment performed by each sector. This chart shows a comparison of the Wood Industry to the largest industry sectors. It is observed that the major investment is done at the Computer and Electronic billion business sector ($56.8 billion), followed by Pharmaceutical and Medical business sector ($38.9). Meanwhile the lowest investments are done by Wood Industry ($2.365 billion), which ranks its business sectors at the bottom of the R&D measurement scale indicating a large gap to close in order to place Wood Industry as an innovative business sector.

Research and Development Investments by Industry (NSF 2008)

WORKSHOP: Energy Savings Using Lean Thinking

Lean thinking is a philosophy or process improvement framework that it was coined early in the 1980’s by Jim Womack when he was working with Toyota Motor Company in Japan. Japanese engineers were working on several process improvement initiatives with the common goal to increase assets utilization, reduce waste, and increase customer satisfaction.

Presented by

Workshop Description:

Lean thinking is a philosophy or process improvement framework that it was coined early in the 1980’s by Jim Womack when he was working with Toyota Motor Company in Japan. Japanese engineers were working on several process improvement initiatives with the common goal to increase assets utilization, reduce waste, and increase customer satisfaction. When Womack was asked for his advice to name these efforts he immediately understood that Toyota basically wanted to go Lean. After this moment, a revolution was born and today millions of companies around the World continue their efforts to turn their organization into lean organizations, where the emphasis is placed in eliminating or minimizing any activity that does not produce value from the customer point of view.  

U.S. primary energy consumption,1980-2035 (quadrillion Btu) (http://www.eia.doe.gov/)

Besides helping a company to increase customer satisfaction levels, decrease manufacturing cost, and increase profitability levels, lean thinking is also a philosophy that can help your company to drastically decrease energy consumption, affecting not just the manufacturing cost, but also contributing to protect the environment by decreasing the firm’s carbon foot print. There are a variety of efforts by several organizations that have created resources to help industries to save energy by implementing lean projects. This workshop will review those efforts by introducing the basic concepts of lean thinking, and how those concepts can be translated into practical applications so your firm might start looking at important energy consumption reductions in a short time. Also, the workshop will give information on special information technology platforms that you can use to monitor your energy consumption along with current efforts in the industry in energy savings.

Workshop outline

  • Energy Consumption in the Industry. Mark Webb. Director of Policy and Business Evaluation. Alternative Energy Solutions
  • Review of Lean Thinking. Earl Kline. Professor of Manufacturing Systems, Virginia Tech
  • Lean Energy Audit Toolkit. Henry Quesada. Assistant Professor of Business and Manufacturing Processes. Virginia Tech
  • Quantifying Energy Savings Through Lean Thinking. Earl Kline. Professor of Manufacturing Systems, Virginia Tech
  • Energy Management Application Platforms. Tyler Gill. Senior Business Development Manager. Enernoc
  • Case of study. Shannon Walls. Continous Improvement Coordinator. Masco Cabinetry Division.
  • Roundtable discussion

Workshop Objectives:

  • Understand the impact of energy consumption in manufacturing
  • Review the basic concepts of lean thinking and how those could be related to energy savings
  • Discover a toolkit you can use to audit your energy consumption
  • Learn about information technologies that are available to monitor and control your energy consumption.

Who should attend:

  • Plant Managers, Quality Engineers, Process Engineers, Procurement Managers, Supplier Chain Managers, Purchasing Managers, Plant Engineers, Small and Medium Enterprise Managers.
  • Anyone interested in learning the basics of Process Improvement

Unique value of the workshop

  • Attendants will have the opportunity to understand how the implementation of a lean project could potentially lead to significant energy savings
  • Participants will learn how to apply a lean energy audit toolkit to identify the main sources of energy waste in their processes.
  • Participants will be given examples and practical applications to better understand how  a lean thinking process can result in potential energy savings.

Location, date and registration:

  • Time: 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
  • Dates and Locations:
    • September 10, 2010. Riverstone Energy Center. South Boston, VA.
  • Investment: $35. Includes coffee breaks and workshop materials.
  • Registration: Click here. If you wish to pay by check just let us know so we can reserve your seat.

Further information:

Please contact Dr. Henry Quesada at quesada@vt.edu or at (540)-231-0978 if you have any questions. Click HERE to see a brouchure in PDF format.