Logistical unit

What does logistic unit mean?

In logistics, the term "efficient unit loads" refers to the consolidation of individual goods. The consolidation of individual unit loads (unitization) is intended to achieve greater efficiency in the logistics chain by ensuring that the logistical unit remains in place throughout the entire transport process, thus eliminating the need for counting or weighing.

Since the companies involved only aligned their unit loads to their own dimensions of cartons or pallets, this resulted in additional time and financial expenses. This led to necessary adjustments by other companies in the supply chain to adapt the unit loads to their internal storage and packaging systems. The solution to this problem was the development of the strategic concept of the logistics unit.

Logistics concept: Efficient unit loads

Efficient Unit Loads represents the grouping of individual goods into a logistical unit. This involves, for example, packing individual items in cartons that are layered on a pallet. This procedure facilitates both the transport and the storage of the transported goods. Thus, the term Efficient Unit Loads refers to more efficient handling and conversion of individual goods into logistical units that remain in place throughout the entire transport chain. This is achieved, among other things, by standardized sizes of transport packaging or uniform labeling of loading units with barcodes. A typical example of successful implementation is the Euro pallet. In Germany, GS1 Germany ensures the standardization of transport packaging sizes.

Advantages of the logistic unit

For companies, the logistical unit has the advantage of reducing transport costs and making optimum use of capacity.

- Increased turnover of goods
- Facilitated automation
- Coordinated units with the means of transport
- Reduced storage space requirements due to stacked units
- Reduced material flow costs

However, the implementation of the logistical unit (unit loads) leads to additional costs due to the organization and return transport of the necessary loading aids such as Euro pallets, ISO containers or skeleton containers. By using loading aids, individual goods are grouped into a common unit in containers to facilitate transport or enable compact storage.