The Pallet Design System™ (PDS) is a product specification tool, an engineering design tool, a professional marketing tool, and an educational tool – all contained in an easy to use software package developed for the wood pallet industry. Since its introduction in 1984, PDS has developed a highly respected reputation throughout the material handling industry.

When NWPCA released PDS Version 5.1, it marked the 33rd version of PDS over its 29 year history. The major new feature in Version 5.1 is its integration with LoadSync™ - software recently developed by NWPCA that will enhance the communication of pallet and unit load design information between wood pallet manufacturers and their customers.

Each new version of PDS incorporates the latest data, engineering, and technologies which result from NWPCA's continuous program of research and development. Millions of dollars have been expended on PDS, not only for software development, but on research toward increased understanding of the relationships between the design and performance of wood pallets and the entire unit load.

PDS enables wood pallet manufacturers to assist their customers in:

- significantly reducing costs

- significantly reducing product damage

- significantly increasing safety throughout the unit load handling system

PDS has been meeting these objectives since its first release in 1984. And PDS is getting better and better at this process, due to NWPCA's continuous investments in software improvements and in research and development. It's a good thing since customers continue to look for greater and greater reductions in their unit load handling costs.

Pallet manufacturers produce the key component to successful unit load material handling – the pallet – the interface between the equipment, forces, and impacts of the material handling environment and the customer's valuable, sometimes fragile, unitized product. And PDS is the key tool in designing this key component. Increasingly, pallet manufacturers are finding they can't do business without it.

 

The PDS pallet specification sheet and drawings, unit load specification and drawings, and engineering analysis allow very impressive and useful presentations to customers. All PDS materials clearly display the company name, address and other contact information for both the PDS provider and the customer. Any special or custom notes you wish to add can be displayed on the pallet specification sheet. To make PDS even more effective as a marketing tool, guides to the PDS specification and analysis have been created for PDS Users to give to their customers.

• A guide to the PDS Specification Sheet clearly explains all parts of the pallet specification, and helps convey the importance of a properly specified and constructed pallet. After reading this, customers should certainly realize a pallet is not just a pallet.
• A guide to the PDS Structural Analysis clearly explains all parts of the analysis results, and helps convey the importance of a properly designed and engineered pallet.
• A document entitled Safety Levels in PDS provides an easy to understand explanation to a complicated question. It is intended to satisfy the needs of either the merely curious purchasing agent or the serious and highly trained packaging engineer.

PDS enables pallet professionals to assist in selecting the most cost effective and efficient pallet design and construction to meet their customer's needs, whether the goal is the lowest initial price or (in the case of closed loop or return systems) lowest cost per use.