Manual palletizing challenges<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nCapacity. <\/strong>Machines can stack pallets much faster than humans. Of course, you could call in the help of multiple people, but they would very soon start getting in each other\u2019s way. In addition, unlike machines, people get tired, so their capacity will decrease as the working day progresses. And finally: unlike humans, machines can work day and night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nQuality. <\/strong>The stability of a pallet will depend largely on how well it was stacked. This means that every product should preferably be stacked on the pallet with millimetric precision. People are much less precise than machines and their concentration decreases over time. Moreover, machines don\u2019t make stacking pattern errors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n\nCosts. <\/strong>Figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS) show that wage costs in the manufacturing and logistics sectors have increased by thirty to forty per cent over the past decade. At the same time, the cost of mechanisation and automation has dropped. This means that investing in a palletizer has become an attractive option for virtually any business, as shown in the rough calculation in the table below. The calculations do not include the costs of absenteeism due to physical problems.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nDeployment period<\/strong><\/td>Cost of manual palletizing per year*<\/strong><\/td>Investment cost palletizer<\/strong><\/td>Return time<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>One shift (8 hours\/day, 40 hours\/week)<\/strong><\/td>\u20ac60,000<\/td> \u20ac100,000<\/td> 20 months<\/td><\/tr> Two shifts (16 hours\/day, 80 hours\/week)<\/strong><\/td>\u20ac120,000<\/td> \u20ac100,000<\/td> 10 months<\/td><\/tr> 3 shifts (24 hours\/day, 120 hours\/week)<\/strong><\/td>\u20ac180,000<\/td> \u20ac100,000<\/td> 7 months<\/td><\/tr> 5 shifts (24 hours\/day, 168 hours\/week)<\/strong><\/td>\u20ac252,000<\/td> \u20ac100,000<\/td> 5 months<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>ROI of a palletizer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n* These costs are based on the deployment of one employee who costs 30 euros per hour.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn addition to all the benefits menioned above, manual palletizing simply isn\u2019t a fun job. along with the fact that motivated employees are increasingly difficult to find and retain. These are various good reasons to switch to a palletizer or robotic palletizer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n