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Improve Order Fulfilment Efficiency and Reduce Costs with Foodservice Solutions
Solving the Complicated Puzzle of Foodservice Logistics
Efficiency is paramount in the foodservice industry. Suppliers aim not only to fully leverage resources, eliminate unnecessary costs, and minimise costly errors but also to comply with strict food safety regulations. Inefficient processes can lead to valuable time and labour wasted through intensive, hands-on sorting.
Multiple handling touchpoints increase the risk of product damage and spoilage. Furthermore, transportation costs can soar due to inefficient pallet configurations, resulting in extended distribution timelines and unnecessary journeys. TGW Logistics’ warehouse automation solutions offer tailored order fulfilment systems that reduce costs, free up workers for higher-value tasks, optimise efficiency, and minimise risk.
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How Inefficient Palletising Increases Order Fulfilment Costs
As the foodservice sector grapples with workforce challenges, automating as many systems as possible can help bridge the gaps caused by chronic understaffing. Relying on inefficient palletising and manual labour adversely affects your bottom line in several ways.
While implementing new automated order fulfilment solutions may appear costly upfront, manual sorting—especially within a disorganised system—is far more expensive over time. Having staff manually sort and reconfigure pallets at distribution centres and delivery points prevents them from performing higher-value tasks at both ends of the supply chain. Moreover, with labour shortages worsening and other suppliers falling behind, automated palletising provides your company with a crucial competitive advantage.
Upgrading your palletising system offers additional benefits beyond better utilisation of employee time. Suboptimal methods often lead to unnecessary fuel and freight expenses during delivery. Traditional pallet configurations make it much harder to ensure full truckloads, resulting in wasted space. Naturally, underutilised space means more shipments and miles travelled to meet your clients’ demands on time.
The risk of product spoilage and damage is even more concerning, increasing with every handling stage along the supply chain. Once again, outdated methods of stacking and organising pallets can lead to losses, whether through crushed, damaged, or contaminated products. Furthermore, facilities must adhere to strict food safety guidelines,such as those set by the FDA, which emphasise safe palletising to ensure food products remain safe until they reach their destination.
The USDA’s Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) requirements apply to meat and poultry facilities and primarily focus on pathogen reduction, including during storage and distribution.
The bottom line is that reducing handling touchpoints through innovative automation solutions leads to a safer and more compliant foodservice facility overall.
Destination-Based Palletising Is the Solution
As the National Restaurant Association highlights, adopting and implementing new technological solutions streamlines operations across the foodservice industry. Innovation is rapidly transforming how everyone—from suppliers to restaurants—conducts business, enhancing efficiency and reducing risks.
TGW Logistics’ warehouse automation solutions are tailored to meet the specific needs of clients in the foodservice sector and tackle the pain points most affecting your business.
Destination-based palletising is a warehouse automation strategy that groups orders according to their final destination, whether that be a store, distribution centre, restaurant, or regional hub. Organising pallets in this way helps ensure that only full or optimally loaded truckloads are dispatched, thereby cutting fuel consumption and costs. It also saves time, labour, and unnecessary handling upon arrival, as there is no need for additional sorting. You may even free up space in your facility following a system upgrade, increasing your overall storage capacity.
Reaping the Benefits of Destination-Based Palletising with TGW Logistics
Destination-based palletising is a straightforward three-step process:
- Step 1: Orders are grouped by their delivery route or final destination through an automated system. This reduces handling touchpoints and manual input, eliminating the need for further sorting upon delivery.
- Step 2: Pallets are assembled and stored with maximum truckload efficiency in mind. By utilising all available space, you can maximise the volume of product shipped in each load and avoid unnecessary journeys.
- Step 3: Automated handling decreases the risk of product damage. Since the chances of spoilage, contamination, and damage increase with every handling touchpoint, minimising manual handling through automation helps reduce product loss.
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The Benefits to Your Foodservice Business
We’ve established that TGW Logistics’ warehouse automation solutions provide foodservice businesses with a significant advantage in fulfilling orders efficiently, safely, and cost-effectively. For example, by automating the three-temperature zone facility of one of our customers, TGW Logistics was able to reduce their delivery stop times from 45 minutes to 15 minutes, increase the number of stops per delivery by 35 per cent, and cut warehouse labour by two-thirds. Now, let’s explore these benefits in more detail.
Destination-based palletising can slash labour costs, with less worker time dedicated to re-sorting orders upon reaching their destinations. Automating your pallet organisation system reduces payroll expenses by decreasing your company’s reliance on manual labour to perform easily automated tasks. By automating these tasks, skilled workers are given more valuable time to dedicate to tasks requiring manual input or supervision.
A streamlined order fulfilment system will lead to more efficient use of trucks and fuel during the delivery phase. The optimised pallet configurations made possible by TGW Logistics’ automation solutions ensure fully maximised truckloads and, therefore, fewer, more targeted shipments. Fewer unnecessary trips mean big savings in fuel and freight costs, as well as worker time.
Automated palletising decreases potentially costly delivery errors, as orders are already pre-sorted by their route or destination before distribution. This pre-sorting and more efficient delivery system gets orders where they’re going faster. It cuts down the time needed to unload at each stop, reducing instances of spoilage and food waste for perishable goods.
Proper pallet stacking is essential to minimising cross-contamination risks following FDA and HACCP food safety requirements. Automating this process guarantees that your business complies with these regulations without additional effort. By sticking with consistent, regimented pallet structures, your facility can increase overall stability and decrease the risk of damaged products during transport due to faulty storage.
Why TGW Logistics’ Automation Solutions Lead the Industry
Taking your facility to the next level in efficiency, cost-effectiveness, speed, and safety is easily within reach with the implementation of TGW Logistics’ warehouse automation technology. Our solutions enable smart, customisable palletisation to suit your business’s unique needs and tackle the specific challenges the foodservice sector faces.
You'll maximise each truckload by doing away with disorganised, unstable palletising, eliminating the fuel and freight costs associated with unnecessary deliveries. And pre-sorting will reduce payroll costs and increase efficiency amid staffing shortages, freeing workers to take on more complicated tasks.
You can also expect a smoother fulfilment process and fewer potentially costly mistakes. TGW Logistics’ advanced software guarantees precise order fulfilment by lessening the likelihood of human error and ensuring the same efficient processes every time. We also offer integrated food safety compliance features to make it simple to meet regulatory requirements, including those of the FDA and the HACCP, without sacrificing speed.
TGW Logistics does not take a “one-size-fits-all” approach. These solutions are tailored for your business and easily updated when necessary. There’s no reason to settle for how things have “always” been done or to be left behind as the rest of the foodservice industry leverages new technologies.
Contact TGW Logistics today to explore how we can help streamline your order fulfilment process.
TGW Logistics is a foundation-owned company headquartered in Austria and a global leader in warehouse automation and warehouse logistics. As a trusted systems integrator with more than 50 years of experience, we deliver end-to-end services: designing, implementing, and maintaining fulfilment centres powered by mechatronics, robotics, and advanced software solutions. With over 4,500 employees spanning Europe, Asia, and North America, we combine expertise, innovation, and a customer-centric dedication to help keep your business growing. With TGW Logistics, it's possible to transform your warehouse logistics into a competitive advantage.
