Introducing Paper Pallets to the IKEA Food Supply Chain - What is the Potential and Will the Temperature be Retained during Transportation?

Abstract

Title: Introducing Paper Pallets to the IKEA Food Supply Chain - What are the Potentials and Will the Temperature be Retained during Transport?

Contribution: This thesis is produced with equal efforts from both authors, where each author has been involved in each and every step of the process.

Problem description: Paper pallets with 50 mm feet have been used in IKEA Furniture for several years with both positive financial and environmental benefits. However, IKEA Food has up until today not implemented paper pallets. They are now eager to align with the rest of IKEA in this area. The main difference between IKEA Furniture and IKEA Food is however that the products in Food require a temperature-controlled environment. What remains to be investigated for IKEA is if this temperature- controlled environment can be retained during transportation with a full truckload of paper pallets or if the height of the pallets is too low to permit a sufficient airflow in a truck.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the potential of the paper pallet and investigate if the air circulation is good enough to uphold the right temperature during transportation when loading a full load of paper pallets in a temperature-controlled truck, as well as to propose a recommendation of whether paper pallets in current dimensions can be used in the IKEA Food supply chain.

Research questions:
RQ1: How will the usage of paper pallets, instead of wooden EUR-pallets, impact the temperature during truck transportations with chilled and frozen goods?
SQ1: How well will the temperature be kept within the products' optimal temperature interval during transportation with paper pallets and wooden EUR-pallets?
SQ2: What conditions affect the temperature during transport?
SQ3: How is the temperature maintenance connected to the cooling unit and its airflow patterns?
RQ2: What are the advantages and challenges with paper pallets in the IKEA Food supply chain?

Methodology: The chosen methodology was a combination of explanatory and exploratory since the aim was to both explore new ground and to create awareness and gain knowledge about an occurrence. An abductive approach was applied and the chosen research strategy was a combination of a holistic single-case study and an experiment. A literature review, interviews, archival data, observations, and an experiment are the five sources of data that have been used and the quality of research was assessed through the perspective of validity, reliability, and objectivity.

Conclusion: Based on the temperature measurements in the experiment, no significant difference in temperature measurements can be found between trucks loaded with paper pallets and reference trucks loaded with wooden EUR-pallets. This indicates that from the perspective of temperature maintenance during transport, paper pallets are equal to the traditional wooden EUR-pallets. The result however indicates that there is a general problem with maintaining the correct temperature since no truck, including the reference trucks, maintained the desired temperature for the majority of the time. Part of the issue seems to be connected to deficiencies in the handling of goods and measures should thus be taken to improve this. However, the potential of introducing paper pallets into the supply chain of IKEA Food is assessed as very positive and widespread among the different supply chain actors. Still, the implementation implies challenges in the high-complexity context of the IKEA Food supply chain. Due to the limited comprehensiveness of the experiment, it is critical to repeat the tests, preferably on a bigger scale, in order to increase the validity of the results. A further challenge is the required adaptations of handling equipment and method as well as defying skepticism and creating a unified belief throughout the supply chain.

Keywords: paper pallets, temperature-controlled transport, food supply chain

Popular Abstract

Changing a standard is difficult. IKEA wants to be seen as unique and leaders of change, a purpose which they have fulfilled ever since they introduced their flat packages in the beginning of their journey. Twelve years ago, they continued the trend by introducing paper pallets to their supply chain. The question is now if they can, and will be as successful, if they introduce paper pallets to IKEA Food?

Because IKEA Food has requirements of temperature in the supply chain, the purpose of this study has been twofold. First of all, it aims to evaluate the potential of introducing paper pallets to the IKEA Food supply chain. Secondly, it aims to confirm if it is in fact possible to use paper pallets, by investigating if the lower foot of the paper pallets will restrict the airflow during transportation or not. The answer to second part was given by an experiment using temperature measurements in truck transportations between Sweden and Italy. Even though IKEA plan on introducing paper pallets in some form, the experiment will be important in investigating their feasibility.

The result from the first part of the purpose is that introducing paper pallets bring many advantages, both financially and environmentally. For example, when IKEA first introduced paper pallets, the number of truckloads reduced by 15-30% due to increased utilization and eliminated return and repair flows. But despite the many advantages, the introduction of paper pallets faces many challenges.

What has been seen is that there is skepticism to change by the actors in the supply chain. Few of the people outside the IKEA organization were convinced about the use of paper pallets. In more cases than one, the negativity was directed to the many changes that would be required, both physically in the warehouses and to the processes that these will lead to. It is clear that there is a lot of change work needed to actually be able to introduce paper pallets in the IKEA Food supply chain.


Related to the second part of the purpose. The experiment shows that the correct temperature was not kept for any of the trucks, not even for those with wooden pallets which were used as reference. In fact, it was found that were many things that affected the temperature that was not related to the paper pallet at all. The main finding included differences in handling and loading procedures, which affected the temperature of the food products before, during and after transportation.

The findings from the experiment regarding handling procedures should be followed up, since this may be a problem which impact the entire supply chain of food products. Due to the many variations that these differences lead to, the experimental results must be completed with more testing, both by repeating the same experiment and broadening the investigation area and taking other concerns about paper pallets into consideration as well.

Finally, as in many other regards, IKEA aims to set a standard. Introducing paper pallets in their food supply chain will definitely put them in the front, considering this area and scope. Although the experiment does not give a clear indication of the possibility to use paper pallets in current dimensions, it does not contradict its use in the future either. Also, the financial and environmental benefits should not be any different from those gained in IKEA Furniture.

It is clear that there are many aspects related to the experiment that needs to be looked into and changes that needs to be initiated, but a future with paper pallets at IKEA Food looks bright. Paper pallets are just a proceeding of IKEA’s quest to dare to stand out and do something that they believe in. Because, as stated by Alexander Grosse, Quality Manager at IKEA Food:

“If you can have it in flat boxes, why not put it on flat pallets?”

• author: Bengtsson, Ellen and Johansson, Pernilla
• supervisor: Eva Berg
• organization: Engineering Logistics
• course: MTTM05 20221
• year: 2022
• type: H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
• subject: Technology and Engineering
• keywords: Paper pallets, temperature-controlled transport, food supply chain
• report number: 5976
• language: English
• id: 9088708
• date added to LUP: 2022-06-16 13:29:34
• date last changed: 2022-06-16 13:29:34