What do shopping trolleys, bags and boxes have in common? That's right, they are used for transport, i.e. the temporary storage of things. An abstract thought, as it is completely logical for us to use these "tools" when we want to transport more than we can hold in our hands. The same actually applies to transport in the business sector. At least that's what people think. However, the reality in logistics is often much more one-sided. They often still work with individual items. But it would be much more effective if there was a way to standardise the components of a shipment. Because depending on the order, this can warehouse management complicate the logistics unnecessarily.
Of course, we are not the first to have thought about this. That's why the so-called "handling unit" (HU for short) exists. Handling units are the packaging material (e.g. a carton, but also a delivery consisting of several components) and the goods contained in the packaging material. The handling unit may contain one or more products. It is also possible that several HUs are nested within one another. For example, a container can represent an HU, but the pallets in the container can also represent an HU. This continues with HUs in the form of cartons. Each handling unit is labelled with its own identification number, which can be used to digitally retrieve the HU data (e.g. with a classic scan) and store it in systems such as ERP software manage.
Handling units as helpers in and across the company
What initially only sounds superficially practical is really efficient for logistics companies. Warehousing is made easier because stocks can be recorded, checked and relocated more easily. In the outbound delivery, the number of an order can be managed more easily using HUs. The company thinks and communicates in handling units instead of in individual parts. Since the individual components of the packaging and means of transport (e.g. pallet) still belong to the handling unit, these do not have to be booked separately.
The HUs also have advantages in logistics across companies. The components of a handling unit are already defined by the supplier. In this way, the company can transfer the data to the system without any intermediate steps. In addition to the reduced administrative effort, this also reduces the susceptibility to errors of such transfers.
You can find out more about logistics in this article read.
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