Press Report

Loading device management holds improvement potentials

(Logistik Inside 08.2006) Loading devices are ten a penny: from the beverage crate to the Euro-pallet up to the small loading devices according to the VDA-standard. And: many companies do not only possess many but they also possess many different types of loading devices within their logistics cycles.

Nevertheless, loading devices often lead a stepmotherly life because in practice the loading device flows mostly do not really get controlled systematically. The consequence: more loading devices than necessary are in circulation and these loading devices can be found exactly there where they are not needed at the moment. This disturbs processes and boosts costs. These are a few results of the "St. Galler Loading Device Management Survey" which was carried out at the Kühne-Institute for Logistics at the University St. Gallen. Also on board were the cooperation partners IMG, inet-logistics, Intellion and Microlog Logistics.

The St. Galler Loading Device Management Survey has found out that those people who do not only plan their demands but who also charge rent for their loading devices can reduce their stocks and therefore also their stock costs significantly. The fact that growth potential is assigned to the IT-support may be due to the fact that 34 percent of the interviewees manage their loading devices without IT-support. The programs mainly get used for the inventory management, the calculation of the demand for loading devices and their availability. Transport process controlling and cost input play a minor role.

At the moment the topic IT always gets associated with the topic RFID. It might be true that most people believe that radio tags bring about considerable advantages. However, these tags are hardly ever used. Even although RFID is said to possess many advantages. All in all the researchers of the St. Galler Loading Device Management Survey estimate that it is possible to reduce the stock of loading devices by up to 60 percent through a more intensive planning, monitoring and control of loading device cycles. Especially RFID could be the key to success here.