“We knew we had to do something quickly to get the damage under control, because it was becoming very costly,” says Green Bay Packaging scheduling and planning manager Todd Keckhaver. “There were times when the entire load had shifted and sustained some sort of damage.”
Fortunately for Keckhaver, who was working as production manager at the time, there was no need to look too far for a solution. In fact, the solution literally arrived to his doorstep.
“One day I saw some incoming material from one of our suppliers packaged in a way I thought could work for our large rolls,” he recounts, “and I just took down the name of it.
“It was a fiber roll cradle from Rollguard.”
Located only a 30-minute drive away in Appleton, Wis., Rollguard quickly responded to Keckhaver’s inquiries by shipping a few trial samples of its cradle products.
“We looked at the pressure-sensitive label material produced by Green Bay Packaging, how it was being shipped, and the resulting problems they were experiencing,” recalls Rollguard account manager Gary Lawell.
“We determined the best solution was our full-roll RF-40-FRS cradle product,” Lowell states. “It’s a standard inventory item for us, which is specifically designed to accommodate rolls up to 40 inches in diameter.
“Because we have one of the broadest selections of stock sizes of roll cradles,” he notes, “we were able to provide them with a cost-effective solution immediately.”
Adds Keckhaver: “Rollguard brought in product samples, which we took out to the floor and used right away to ship a couple of rolls.
“Everything shipped just fine from the very first time.”
Steady Ship
Since conducting that first test shipment back in November of 2005, Green Bay Packaging has not experienced any more product damage that could be traced to load-shifting during transit, according to Klima, despite shipping anywhere between 4,000 and 5,000 rolls of label materials per year.
“It’s been just fantastic,” Klima states. “As far as product protection goes, we ship over 4,000 rolls by rail each year to Mexico using the Rollguard cradles and we have not had a single report of damaged product.
“We also ship by rail to Canada, Los Angeles and some other major U.S. cities using these cradles and, again, there has been no damage.”
Made from recycled corrugated molded pulp, Rollguard’s full-roll-support cradle—measuring 37-inches-wide by 47-inches-long—is less dense, and features less dusting, that similar cradles made from traditional honeycomb-patterned material, according to Lawell.
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