3 Ways to Optimize Bulk Bag Warehousing

Running out of warehouse space?  Increasing production and wondering where you will store the additional filled bulk bags?  Need to increase warehouse optimization to make room for additional equipment?

If any part of your warehouse is used to store filled bulk bags there are three ways to significantly optimize your warehouse utilization... and increase profitability!

Optimize Bulk Bag Warehousing

1. Stacking
2. Reduce pallet storage space
3. Just In Time (JIT) bulk bagging

Stack Bulk Bags

Yes, bulk bags can be safely stacked two and even three high.

Qualification: Your product must be capable of being densified, quickly enough to meet your bulk bagging rate, to the extent necessary to support stacking.

Primary benefit: Reclaim 50 - 66% of warehouse space currently dedicated to bulk bags.

How: The ability to successfully stack bulk bags relies on equipment.  Bulk bag design can play a role with unique features that aid bulk bag stability.  However, the primary determinant of stacking success is the ability of your bulk bag filling equipment to densify your product to its packed bulk density - in the time necessary to meet your packaging rate.

Critical factors: SAFETY! Bags MUST be densified to the maximum extent possible while ensuring that the top of each bag is flat and solid.

Additional benefits: Reduced packaging cost - the maximum densification required to ensure safe stacking will almost certainly increase product compaction resulting in shorter, less expensive bulk bags.

Reduce pallet storage space

Replace wood pallets with plastic pallet replacement channels or ship bulk bags without bottom support.

Qualification: End users should have forklifts available to handle the bulk bags.  Bulk bags with pallet replacement channels cannot be moved using a pallet truck unless a 'mule' wood pallet is used.  While this is rather simple it adds another step in package handling.  Bulk bags shipped with bottom support must be handled by their loops therefore mandating the use of a forklift. 

The other consideration is racking: if an end user stores filled bulk bags in racks designed for wood pallets, bulk bags with pallet replacement channels or bulk bags without bottom support likely won't fit in the racks.

Primary benefit: Using plastic pallet replacement channels, reclaim 90% of warehouse space currently dedicated to wood pallets.  Reclaim 100% of current wood pallet storage space by eliminating bottom support.

How: Procure specialized bulk bags and plastic pallet replacement channels.  Or, modify your bulk bag design for use without bottom support by modifying the lifting loops to stay open and adding a flap to the bottom of the bag to prevent contamination.

Critical factors: Bag and channel design.  Channels must be robust to ensure they do not fail under the load of a stack.  Bag and channels must be designed to work together to prevent channel shifting or misalignment and the channels must be easy to insert.  Bags shipped without bottom support must have protective flap across the bottom to minimize contamination and must have special lifting loops that 'stand up' and provide a large target for forklifts.

Additional benefits: Reduced logistics and documentation overhead from not using wood pallets. Reduced shipping costs - replace pallet weight with product weight.

Just-In-Time (JIT) Bulk Bagging

JIT bulk bagging refers to a concept where filled bulk bags are taken from the packaging line and loaded directly into trailers and shipping containers - there is zero storage space required for filled bulk bags.

This requires a high-speed bulk bagging system that has enough throughput to support continuous shipping trailer/container loading (60,000 - 80,000 lb/hr).

JIT bulk bagging can be accomplished by feeding a high-speed bulk bagging system continuously from your process if your process runs at a high enough capacity.

Or, if your process cannot produce at a high enough rate, it is often financially advantageous to store product in silos and then rapidly fill bulk bags using a high-speed bulk bagging system.  For example, 24 hours of production could be bulk bagged from silos in 8 hours.

Qualification: Silos exist or can be installed.  Ideally, bulk bagging will occur directly under silos or conveying distance from silos to packaging area is short (to minimize capital cost).  If silos must be installed, and perhaps a conveying system to feed the bulk bagging line, the required capital only makes sense in a circumstance where a new building or a building extension would be required to store increased production in bulk bags.

Production capacity is such that increasing the bulk bagging rate allows high enough throughput to support JIT truck/container loading. 

Primary benefit: Reclaim 100% of warehouse space currently dedicated to bulk bags or increase production capacity without having to increase warehouse space.

How: Production is stored in silos (silos are much more efficient than storing bags in a warehouse) - bulk bagging with a high-speed system may occur infrequently to package previous period's production.  

Or, a high-speed bulk bagging system is used to match production capacity at a rate suitable for JIT bulk bagging.

Critical factors: Bagging line must produce stable and accurately weighed bulk bags with minimal labor.  The bulk bags must be sufficiently densified to be safe and the weighing system employed must at the least maintain current weighing accuracy if not improve it.  Also, site access is required to stage trailers/containers.

Additional benefits: Improved profitability - a higher bagging rate means less packaging labor per lb of product.  Also, if maximum densification and high-accuracy systems are used,  additional savings can be achieved from reducing packaging cost and reducing the amount of product overfill per bag.