Common Pallet Wrapping Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Pallet wrapping is essential for carton stability and security during transit. Ensuring every pallet is optimised when being prepared for shipment requires efficient planning, attention to detail, and the following of proper procedures. Mistakes can still occur simply because of human error or incorrect machine settings, but some steps can be taken by warehouse owners, managers, and operators to guarantee that packages never escape the pallet or damage other stock when on their journey from storehouse to consumer. Wrapping pallets and parcels effectively can improve profitability, reduce stock loss, lessen damaged cartons, and lower the chances of workplace injuries. BiGDUG has coagulated a list of common pallet wrapping mistakes and how to avoid them to help verify that your warehouse doesn’t waste money on unnecessary replacement costs and increases the company’s productivity.

Using the wrong type of stretch film for your business can not only result in wasted materials, stock and efforts, but it can also cause injuries, unstable loads, impairments and countless other occurrences that are easily avoidable. It is important to analyse the different stretch films on the market and decipher which one is best for your warehouse. Examples of the varying wrapping options include understanding that value pallet wrap is economical and useful for heavy loads, and black security wrap is incredibly useful for valuable cartons, and you want to make it hard to identify to prevent theft. Incorporating the correct type of stretch film increases pallet stability, helping keep packages organised and upright, along with keeping damage to a minimum during transit. The right type of stretch film guarantees that cartons are bundled tightly and securely, inducing optimised palletisation processes.

In continuation of this, the wrong type of stretch wrap doesn’t just mean the material of what your warehouse is using; it also means the size of the film. If your staff is applying the incorrectly sized pallet wrap, several problems can arise. These issues include wasting stretch wrap and, in turn, money, whilst lowering storehouse productivity, and wasting time, alongside causing improper load containment. This will lead to similar problems as mentioned previously such as product loss and impairment. The size of your stretch wrap should be decided by the shape and size of your products, as well as the width and height of your pallets. Once you have totalled this calculation, you are well on your way to efficiently wrapping your pallets.

A further way of verifying an effective pallet wrapping procedure is by consistently checking that the machine settings being used by operators on high-quality wrapping technologies are correct. A basic pallet wrap tool can only bond the cartons, but cannot stretch the film. The manufacturer that builds the machines often sets the tools to a standard programme, rather than a programme focused on the customer’s needs. Strapping machines are usually end-of-the-line products and companies that buy them don’t have the resources available to them to learn the information needed to know which machine is best suited for their warehouse. This requires technical specialists to be employed to partake in the wrapping process when using the tools.

The more specialised wrapping machines that have more optimal wrapping settings can be adjusted to stretch the film. If your pallet sizes differ, you can change your settings as many times as needed to efficiently cover parcels. If you are constantly checking machine settings and if they need to be changed for the pallet being wrapped, it can have negative effects on the cartons and wrapping quality. If your stretch wrapping technology is missing the correct containment force throughout the load or is dragging film tails, this can result, again, in impairment occurring during shipping. How to further avoid machine inefficiencies and wrap breakages is to check to make sure the stretch wrap is threaded properly and that the film tension is set correctly. Check the film clamp on the tool for any cuts on contact surfaces and ensure that the air pressure is correct for vacuum clamps.

This seems like a silly tip to have within this blog, but as a warehouse owner or manager, you need to ensure that your operators are over-prepared when wrapping pallets. There must be enough material to make parcels stable and secure. To do this, you will need enough stretch film to wrap around the pallet at least five times. This is especially important if your staff are not using wrapping machines, as they cannot take an easy route out when doing the wrapping process manually. If you do not want to incorporate different technologies into your warehouse, it is recommended that you allow your workers to use a stretch film dispenser, as it means your staff will work more efficiently and productively, and will improve the whole morale of the warehouse, as fewer injuries will be caused through having to wrap cartons on pallets manually. It will further mean that operators do not take shortcuts when applying the stretch film on the pallet, as it makes the job a lot easier. However if you do decide to let your staff cover pallets by hand, a useful piece of advice is to twist the wrap every other rotation to increase the durability.

Wrapping pallets is one of, if not the most, important procedures to ensure that the load is secure and will uphold any pressure during transit. Following the advice given in this blog will help significantly reduce damages or product loss during the wrapping process and when the stock is out for delivery; both preventions will increase profits and customer satisfaction rates. Ensuring your covering material is properly sized, your warehouse operatives are using efficient wrapping machines, and overpreparing your storehouse with the material are the three most important guidelines to follow to guarantee your warehouse reaches complete wrapping optimisation. You can also find countless more tips on our BiG BLOG where we continuously share advice on improving the effectiveness of your business.