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Packaging Digest Magazine, May 1993
Clorox is the first user of a software program that cuts the time
required to configure pallet loads of a mix of several products.
Display-ready case is another plus for stores.
Value-added service is a sure route to better customer relations and, often,
increased sales. Just ask The Clorox Co., Oakland, Calif., which found that
important retailers were especially partial to modular pallet loads. As
contrasted with a standard load comprising just one product, a modular load
is made up of a mix of several products. But a modular load has to be
planned, assembled and built by hand.
"The trial and error approach was time-consuming," says Steve Cherry, a
packaging development project leader at the company's research facility in
Pleasanton, Calif., about 25 miles east of company headquarters in Oakland.
Clorox approached TOPS Eng., which had supplied it with software programs
for years. One was a program to optimize stacking patterns for regular
pallet loads. Clorox felt that a program that worked well for standard loads
could be
adapted to run modulars.
"We saw an opportunity in TOPS providing us similar programming for this
application," says Cherry.
Clorox began shipping modular loads to customers in the Fall of 1990. In
August '91, Clorox signed a contract with TOPS for development of a software
program. In April '92, it received copies of the Mixpal™
Version 1.0. The
software
has greatly reduced the time required to produce modular loads.
Strong rationale
A modular load contains just the right case count and ratio of different
products to match a chain's or even an individual store's particular sales
philosophy for each stock keeping unit (SKU). For instance a modular load
might contain three cases of Formula 409®
Cleaner in 22-oz size, three cases of the cleaner in 32-oz size, four
cases of 32-oz Clean Up®,
12 cases of 32-oz Liquid Plumr®,
10 cases of 22-oz Pine Sol®,
five cases of 26-oz Soft Scrub®
and eight cases of 16-oz Tilex®.
Not only must the pallet contain the correct case count, it must also be
stable and presentable, especially if it's used as an end-of-aisle display.
It's not hard to figure why store chains like the modular concept. "It saves
them money because we're shipping a load that's ready for them to distribute
to their various units instead of having to go into a picking situation,"
Cherry points out. "Now they don't have to build loads for shipment to
individual stores. It's already picked. It can be direct tuck-to-store
delivery."
One customer estimates that about 50 cents in labor is saved for every case
that moves through distribution on a pallet. For a chain with dozens or even
hundreds of stores and using thousands of pallets, savings multiply rapidly.
Modular loads are applicable for Safeway, Kroger, A&P and other stores. They
could be called filling orders to order. "For example, a Safeway store will
receive a full pallet of the correct number of cases of each product," says
Cherry, suited to that store's specific needs.
Cherry says all of Clorox's household consumer products plants nationwide-ll
plants-are involved at one time or another in producing modular loads. He
can't disclose numbers but says that modular pallets represent a
"significant volume of product."
Exceeds expectations
Clorox is well-satisfied with its investment in modulars. "The amount of
resources and time it takes to execute these promotions is greatly reduced,"
says Cherry.
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