If quality control is not one of your corporate pillars, you might want to take a fresh look. Trends toward automation and rapid-paced material handling processes mean there is less tolerance than ever for delays or disruptions to throughput – including those caused by pallet quality.
Consider that your A-grade pallets might not be good enough. At least not all of them. A vision-based pallet inspection company salesperson told me last month that his biggest inroads have been with Fortune 500 pallet users. One retail big box customer said that as many as 10-15% of the recycled pallets it was purchasing as A’s weren’t good enough to run its automation system without causing jam-ups, and hence their need for an automated inspection solution. Increasingly, customers are demanding consistent quality.
While such AI and vision system inspection technologies are touted as the future, however, much of the industry still relies on humans to perform quality control. As such, quality control is the topic of this month’s training article.
One thing that was made obvious while investigating this story, without a clear-cut, well-articulated quality control program, you can’t have clear-cut QC training for your frontline personnel. Some companies talk about quality, but there is a lack of consistency among various players in their processes. If you ask the CEO, the sales manager, a forklift operator and two different pallet builders, they would all give you different answers when it comes to quality standards. Clearly defined quality requirements provide the clarity needed for effective training.
Below, we look at why quality control is becoming increasingly important for pallet companies and offer best practices for making sure that your employees are on their “A” game when it comes to differentiating between the A’s and the B’s.
Four Reasons Why Quality Is So Important
Consistent quality matters. Consider the following benefits of an effective QC program:
Customer Retention: Customer retention is becoming more challenging with erratic quality. When a defective pallet results in product damage, there is some limited financial pain, but when a defective pallet results in a whole automated installation grinding to a halt, the cost can be enormous, potentially running into tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per hour.
Brand Reputation and Sales Growth: A reputation for consistent quality can set you apart from the pack in terms of orders and pricing. As one veteran national pallet broker told me at the recent Western Pallet Association Annual Meeting, there is still a degree of variability among pallet grades from one recycler to the next. The ones known for having the most robust quality are their preferred suppliers and can command a degree of premium pricing.
Higher Yield and Less Waste: Quality defects can cost you money for different reasons. In a recent NHLA webinar, Dana Spessert, NHLA Chief Inspector, pointed out the importance of consistent QC in hardwood lumber production. Small variations in board thickness and kerf can have a significant impact on yield. Likewise, incorrectly graded pallets can affect profitability. And quality defects identified after production can result in unanticipated costs such as extra handling to remove from stacks, not to mention potential delivery delay.
Liability Considerations: A robust quality control system helps reduce product liability risks by ensuring that defective or improperly repaired pallets—such as those with structural damage, missing fasteners, or non-compliant repairs—do not enter circulation. By implementing rigorous inspection protocols, companies can verify that every pallet meets industry safety and performance standards, minimizing failures that could cause product damage, workplace injuries, or transportation hazards. Additionally, maintaining detailed QC documentation, including records of sampling, testing, and corrective actions, provides documented proof of compliance. This not only strengthens legal defense in liability claims but also enhances customer confidence and may reduce insurance costs.
Best Practices for Quality Control Training
Based on conversations with several companies, here are some best practices for quality control training.
Simplify the Quality Requirements
Pallet recyclers often have two or three grades of recycled, but some have as many as eight! That’s a lot for any repair worker to navigate. Steve Mazza of S&B Pallet reduces this complexity by sticking with three grades, making it easier for staff to understand the specifications of each. Of course, special customer requirements can complicate matters. S&B has one customer who demands near-new condition pallets. Rather than introducing a customized sort, S&B provides them with rebuilt pallets, instead.
Clear Communication, Visuals, Refreshers
Effective communication and coaching are critical to accurate and consistent grading of pallets. In an earlier installment of this series, we talked about the importance of hands-on training with a co-worker or supervisor, and the need to bridge language barriers through other like-language-speaking employees and instructional materials.
Visual aids can also be useful. For example, some pallet recycling operations have posters at their repair stations that outline pallet requirements. Such posters are popular for pool pallet repair.
Ongoing training refreshers also help. “Production managers will, on a monthly basis, train in small segments,” explained Simon Kelly, co-CEO at UK-based Junction 4 Pallets (J4). “The training will vary, it might be in toolbox talks, within a daily meeting, it might be a half-day formal training session, or it might be where we’ve got external training coming in. So, it’s a huge part of quality control for us, where we’re cascading information down from the level above.”
Multiple Points of Inspection
Many companies, including S&B Pallet and Pallets of Texas, use a multiple inspection approach to make sure no misgraded pallets leave the facility. Tiered inspections typically involve the builder, forklift operators and supervisors. This speaks to the importance of quality control training for all of these roles.
“Making sure our pallets meet quality standards is a team effort,” said Zach Dorflinger, co-founder of Pallets of Texas. “We check every pallet three times—before it’s stacked, after it’s banded, and once more as it’s loaded. This way, three different people collectively ensure the pallets are up to par. It’s a challenge, as the builders move quickly – but everyone knows that regardless of the pallet build; whether its repaired, remanufactured, or machine built – quality standards apply.”
Recycled pallets are generally inspected more intensely than new ones due to the number of potential variables. Likewise, for new machine-nailed pallets, some lines will generate more defects than others, and will dictate the level of monitoring required.
Early Detection of Quality Issues and Timely Feedback
The earlier a defect is detected—whether in raw materials, initial processing, or assembly—the easier and cheaper it is to correct. Catching defects late in the process, or worse, after pallets have been delivered, can result in costly replacement and potential damage to the company’s reputation.
“Maintaining high lumber quality is critical for automated pallet production,” explained Dorflinger. “To prevent bad boards from disrupting the process, we’ve set up systems that let operators mark out-of-spec pallets (of components) with spray paint. This allows production to keep running smoothly while faulty materials are removed and addressed.”
The cost of uncorrected quality defects can quickly compound, especially as we migrate to automated, high-speed pallet production. From a hardwood lumber perspective, Spessert pointed out that mills too often prioritize output versus consistent quality. However, if your quality control isn’t robust, high-speed production can just mean that you are losing money faster.
“They’re doing stuff faster all the time,” Spessert said. “I’m seeing production rates that were unheard of for hardwood. But the problem is that they never fixed the core problem, which is getting more out of your raw material, which is 80% of the cost.”
Similar principles hold for pallet production. Increasing output is important, but poor quality can make it unprofitable. That is why ongoing quality inspection and prompt feedback to the pallet builder are crucial. Barcode labels, stickers, or other marks help the supervisor trace the off-grade pallet back to the builder for additional coaching. Faster feedback means that problems should be corrected more quickly.
Gamify It
One way to help solidify your quality control program is to make it fun. For your next team lunch or function, how about setting out several recycled pallets and holding a pallet grading contest? Or at a pre-shift meeting, have one or two challenging pallets to look at and come to a consensus. Likewise, if production defect metrics are recorded, ongoing pallet builder performance can be tracked and reported regularly to provide additional motivation.
Ongoing Customer Engagement
Frequent communication can be critical in the early days of a new sales relationship to ensure that all parties are on the same page. For S&B Pallet, one of their best practices is to have a salesperson on hand when the first load is delivered to a new customer. That enables the opportunity for dialogue and establishing a mutual understanding regarding pallet requirements.
Junction 4 Pallets takes a similar approach and noted that getting in synch with customer quality requirements can take some time. They look at it as a 13-week introductory process. J4’s Kelly pointed out that a range of issues might not initially come up, such as the number of stacks or the number of pallets per stack the customer requires. For used pallets, sometimes customers counter-intuitively want lighter, less sturdy pallets because of the reduced weight.
“Each operation will have its own tolerances and the more specific a criteria is, the more expensive the product will be to supply,” he said.” We collectively must understand the tradeoff between customer requirements and what J4 is delivering.
“With used pallets it’s about understanding the grades,” he continued. “Then you’ve got to start supplying on what you think you’ve understood and then turn that understanding into a reality.”
A Holistic Approach
Looking to the future, we are likely to see an increased emphasis on formal quality control systems, including statistical process controls, such as those championed by Spessert, as well as automated inspection. For recycled pallets in particular, given the complexity of pallet grades, we can anticipate more AI/vision technology solutions in the years to come. Dorflinger from Pallets of Texas said his company has already moved in this direction for its recycled pallet program.
Bottom line, if you have four pallet builders and five different opinions about why a pallet is an A or a B, it might be time to take a sober second look at your quality control program and the training necessary to make it work.
Outside Expertise, Leadership Support
If you are looking to establish a robust quality process, consider outside expertise. For example, Spessert and the NHLA offer SPC (Statistic Process Control) short courses. Likewise, colleges and universities across the country offer relevant Total Quality Management (TQM) and Lean Six Sigma courses that can help take your program to the next level.
Ultimately, a successful approach to quality control is a team game. It starts with leaders at the top who make it a priority. They are the ones who provide the resources to establish and maintain the quality program and the ongoing training required to support it. Instruction must extend beyond pallet builders to forklift operators, QC people, supervisors and salespeople who subsequently check pallet quality. In Spessert’s work at NHLA, he encourages leaders to get involved.
“I’ve learned firsthand,” Spessert said, “If an emphasis on quality doesn’t come from the top down, it’s not going to happen. Leaders don’t need to get into the nitty gritty. But they do need to know that an emphasis on quality can make them more profitable.”
