Chocolate manufacturing is a competitive market, and one key factor to success is getting products to market on time and at the right time.
For almost 100 years Adelaide’s Haigh’s Chocolates has managed to balance the high demand for its sweets, especially during peak periods, with logistic efficiency.
However, the process has not always been smooth. The company recently found it was receiving pallets from suppliers, but the pallets weren’t always being transferred onto its account.
The company’s distribution centre was receiving from 600 to 800 pallets, with 100 to 120 transfers through the warehouse every week – twice that at Christmas and Easter.
Keeping track of the movement of pallets in and out of the warehouse was a challenge, says distribution centre supervisor, David Elliot.
Haigh’s enlisted the help of packaging solutions provider CHEP to reassess its pallet management processes.
“[W]e found we had more pallets than what we were being invoiced for. In warehousing terms, it’s just good governance to ensure the stock you hold matches your invoice,” Elliot said.
CHEP asset management consultant, Rachel Silby, who worked with Haigh’s to resolve their pallet management problems, said that every business strives for optimum efficiency. However, notes that a small issue can become a big drain on company resources, if not addressed quickly.
To reduce the administration workload for Haigh’s on an ongoing basis an asset management system was set up. CHEP also conducts a pallet count each month for Haigh’s, checking what has come in against the dockets and sorting out any discrepancies immediately.
Elliot said that priority was to make sure the company could deliver its chocolate to retail shelves. Simple strategies, such as tagging and tracking pallets were also suggested to help the company to locate its assets and make its logistics process more effective.
“We’ve also started using the Portfolio+ Plus system for ordering pallets, doing transfers, making corrections and keeping track of paperwork,” Elliot said.
“We now always know there are enough pallets in our manufacturing warehouses to cater for our demand of our outgoing goods.”