Northwest Pallet was contracted to pick up used pallets from the Kmart Stores and Distribution Centers. This included Pool Pallet Distributor pallets like CHEP, PECO and iGPS. Corrugated used for Pet Food shipments, corrugated Battery Boxes and plastic totes. White or Brown wood Grocery Manufacturer’s Association, or GMA pallet. The GMA pallets were graded by good wood or bad wood. Both types were assigned a dollar value. This amount was deposited into a bank that the Distribution Centers used to offset the cost of purchasing new GMA pallets.
I worked with Northwest Pallet to develop a web portal to create reporting showing the number of pallets picked up at each Kmart Store, the type of pallet, quantity by pallet type, and value of GMA pallets picked up. This also reported the number of pallets purchased by each Distribution Center.
Reporting was created monthly from data extracted from the Northwest Pallet portal. This reporting showed the total number of pallets picked up, totaled by pallet type, the value of GMA pallets picked up and the value of GMA pallets purchased.
Data blocks were created to show the value of pallets purchased by all Distribution Centers. The value of GMA pallets picked up at the store. A comparison of purchases to the pallet bank deposit to calculate the actual cost of GMA pallets purchased. Through the program pallets were locked at a set value for the term of the contract. The actual paid for pallets offset by the pallet bank deposit reduced the cost of the pallets by an average of 50%.
Analysis was done by store. This showed the total number of pallets picked up by pallet type, Pet food corrugate and corrugate Battery Boxes.
This data was presented to store operations. The last pick up date and the total number of pickups completed. Store operations could monitor Stores not participating in the program or who had not completed a pickup in several weeks.
Each month the Distribution Centers were surveyed to determine their GMA pallet purchase needs for the next 12 months. Without this forecast, there were times during the years that pallets were not available. This was provided to Northwest Pallet so they could schedule the purchases. This avoided the possibility of not having available GMA pallets for the Distribution Center’s needs.
Year to date, comparison to the previous fiscal year was presented monthly. This allowed the Distribution Centers to analyze their budget to control spending.