The Pallet

Behold the pallet...

We've all seen them at some point or another.  Probably at lots of points.  And I dare say that none of us ever gave them much thought.

That's a mistake.

The simple, nondescript wooden pallet has been called "the single most important object in the global economy."  Although I have not come across any books about it -- such as "The Box," with the containers -- if you Google you will find plenty of articles describing the history of the pallet and its importance in the global economy.

In a nutshell, there were two major advances in the early-20th century regarding logistics.  One was the development of the gas-powered forklift in 1937.  This enabled stuff to be moved, stacked, and stored with much greater speed than before.

The second was the pallet.  More specifically, the combination of the forklift and pallet, which played a crucial part in the U.S. military efforts during WWII.  As someone once allegedly said, "When amateurs talk of war, they talk about tactics.  When professionals talk about war, they talk about logistics."  Or something like that.

The combination of forklift and pallet gave the U.S. military a huge advantage in logistics, especially in the Pacific.  That combination greatly improved turnaround times in the logistics pipeline, and ensured U.S. forces were almost always as well-provisioned as they could be.  But there's more...

A Navy Supply officer by the name of Norman Cahners developed the so-called "four-way pallet."  He figured out a way to put notches on all four sides, so that a forklift could approach it from any direction.  This doubled material productivity per person, prompting one historian to say, "The use of the forklift trucks and pallets was the most significant and revolutionary storage development of the war."

Although the pallet does not occupy the center stage for a ship like the Atlantic Sky in the way a 40' container does, it is part of the story, and there were a number of pallets on our ship's deck attesting to that fact.

Here is a link to my favorite Internet article about the pallet...

The Single Most Important Object in the Global Economy

So the next time you see one, pause for a minute and reflect upon the profoundly important role it has had, and continues to have, in the global supply chain.