Palletizer Operator

About the role

Under the direction of the team leader, the palletizer operator is responsible to operate, monitor and adjust the palletizing equipment in a manner consistent with production needs and quality standards.

Responsibilities

• Maintains safe work practices at all times and participates in safety programs.
• Monitors line-flow rates; performs regular checks for proper feed of cases and pallets through palletizers and wrappers.
• Orders material (stretch wrap film) from storage as needed.
• Monitors palletizer; checks cases for quality-assurance standards; adjusts palletizer for different stack patterns; supplies with slip sheets and stretch-wrap film; ensures proper force to load for optimum stretch-wrap performance.
• Maintains supply of pallets (must be able to operate Hyster).
• Reworks bad cases sent to the hand palletizing station.
• Keeps floors clean of debris; ensures all packaging is clean and food safe; ensures proper container sizing.
• Records packaging machinery efficiencies, downtime and fills out reports accurately.
• Takes regular checks of seals, codes and other quality attributes to ensure complete package quality of product.
• Troubleshoots equipment operation; identifies mechanical and electrical problems and notifies appropriate personnel.
• Operates equipment with minimum waste; reworks product expeditiously, reusing fiber when appropriate.
• Gives other employees breaks as directed by the supervisor.
• Instructs packaging laborers, general laborers and temporary employees where and how to work to ensure efficient operation of the palletizing area as directed by the supervisor.
• Counts and identifies product and coordinates ticketing accurately.
• Operates terminal keyboard for tickets printed inbound/outbound bulk, inbound dry storage materials, waste product.
• Prepares and monitors paperwork including bay transfers, rework blending, waste reports, bulk reports, end-of-shift reports, drivers’ logs.
• Coordinates with lab personnel for proper dispositioning of held product.
• Communicates frequently with supervisors, leads, drivers, tote room attendants, etc.
• Follows detailed instructions; collects all necessary paperwork at end of shift and submits to warehouse for filing.
• Learns or has knowledge of lot numbers, catalog numbers, cut style, blending requirements and impacts.
• Ensures proper ticketing and coding of all product.
• Sets priorities with minimal supervision.
• Assists as needed in normal packaging duties such as rework and cleanup.
• May be required to work in cold temperatures for short periods of time.
• Capable of meeting functions of package laborer.
• Trains other potential palletizers.

Qualifications

• Understands and can demonstrate approved procedures for manifesting, bay transfers, inbound/outbound product and dry supplies, printing tote/pallet tickets, inspecting pallets of cased product, case counts per layer, printing rework reports, looking up bulk codes, interpreting case codes, separating days, restricting product, voiding tickets, blending tickets.
• Understands and can demonstrate approved procedures for palletizer parts, causes of pallet jams, clearing jams, correcting case counts, manual operation of apron, hoist and pushers, changing programs, locating photo eyes and describing their function, handling defective cases, interpreting errors, lockout/tagout requirements, single-line program and wrapper functions.
• Understands and can demonstrate approved procedures for wrapper parts, changing shrink-wrap rolls, starting up and manually operating the wrapper, auto-manifest printer startup, threading and cleaning print heads and rollers, troubleshooting printer malfunctions, interpreting OPTO 22 beacon signals, starting up and using the auto-manifest program, performing bay transfers, setting up lines, restricting pallets, editing tickets, setting production time offsets, switching between repack and lineflow, editing freezer bays.
• Demonstrates ability to perform daily and/or weekend cleanup procedures.
• Understands and demonstrates ability to work with chemicals.
• Completes checks and fills out required forms accurately.
• Maintains required job activity frequencies.
• Demonstrates ability to perform job functions independently and with minimal supervision.
• Demonstrates ability to communicate with team leaders, leads, mechanics and other processing and packaging personnel.

Basic & Preferred Qualifications

• Previous experience isn’t required, but helpful background includes recordkeeping, computer usage, lab experience to understand quality and blending impacts.

Language Skills

• Ability to read and comprehend simple instructions, short correspondence and memos in English.
• Ability to write accurate information on simple forms in English.
• Ability to effectively communicate information to co-workers and supervisors.

Mathematical Skills

• Ability to add, subtract, multiply and divide in all units of measure using whole numbers, common fractions and decimals.
• Ability to compute rate, ratio and percentage.

Work Environment

The office location is in part of cold storage and the palletizing area. Working conditions may include extreme cold, dust, constant vibrating noise from the freezer, working in confined areas, and exposure to fumes from certain forklifts.

Pay

A reasonable hourly estimate for this role is $26.75.