EFFICIENT UNIT LOADS - ECR Community

Efficient Unit Loads
This Report summarises the findings and
recommendations of the Efficient Unit Loads (EUL)
project team and provides a way forward to achieve
breakthrough results. Guidelines and recommendations
will be given, but no standards will be defined. The
Efficient Unit Loads team of ECR Europe was not
mandated to be a standards committee.
Chapters 3 and 4 examine the current unit loads
situation and identify the key driving principles which
need to be addressed to develop EUL. Chapters 5-7
review the different types of unit loads, Chapter 5 –
one-way secondary unit loads, Chapter 6 – reusable
secondary unit loads, known as Reusable Transport
Items (RTI) and, Chapter 7 – tertiary items. This
includes a review of current practices, advantages and
disadvantages of different types of unit loads, and
constraints and possible trade-offs, before developing
conclusions and recommendations or guidelines. The
potential benefits of Efficient Unit Loads – both
quantifiable and non-quantifiable – are presented in
Chapter 8, and Chapter 9 deals with achieving
tangible progress. Unit load terms and additional data
and information are listed in Appendix 10. A list of
contact names and addresses concludes this Report on
Efficient Unit Loads. Throughout the remainder of this
Report, dimensions will be given in millimetres (mm).
Figure 2: Mission of Efficient Unit Loads project
10
Primary product Secondary unit load Tertiary unit load
Source: A.T. Kearney
To improve efficiency and effectiveness in current and future supply chains by
promoting harmonisation and integration of transport and storage items; and to
consider how to establish a European framework to develop and manage reusable
transport and storage items.
The Efficient Unit Loads Report