We have the support specification. Drawing uses solid boxes everywhere. I'll have packaging mark the real load-bearing areas.

Does alternating have to stay, or can the layer pattern change?

Can change. Customer specifies the packed product and delivery conditions, not this pattern. We picked it for count.

I would compare an aligned arrangement before buying special tooling. Maybe it loses count. Maybe it saves a lot of awkward handling. You need packaging to assess the full load either way.

Has anyone priced a different tool opening direction? That might preserve count, if feasible.

Not yet. I have asked the tool supplier whether there is a suitable alternative. No proposed design back.

Show both ideas in the comparison, without assigning imaginary savings to either. The aligned pattern needs a load assessment; the changed tool needs an actual proposal and access review

Does dispatch move incomplete pallets too? Our last layer was the part everyone forgot when evaluating a very convincing full stack.

Yes, partial orders happen. Thanks Isabel, I'll include them in the handling conditions. The demo plan only described full pallets.

And who decides where the final few cartons go when the layer is incomplete?

Dispatch currently follows a manual packing instruction. We haven't defined the robot's partial-layer pattern. Another open item rather than leaving it to the operator.

Keep that instruction available to packaging. It may explain practical constraints the new drawing omitted.

Has the shared drawing come back with the tool open? I'd want to see that before assuming the proposed spacing fixes anything

Yes. Original pattern conflicts with the opening fingers at an end position. Lower-count candidate is now drawn. Neither has a full handling assessment.

Is the lower count reflected in your throughput estimate? People tend to remember the original attractive number long after its layer drawing is withdrawn.

Updated. Planner says it may still work for our demand, but wants the actual release and cycle review before settling that.

Any answer on the alternate tool, then?

Supplier can propose changed fingers, cost still pending. Packaging needs to see their effect on spacing. We haven't selected between the candidates.

Who owns keeping those revisions together? A changed finger can invalidate an earlier clearance picture.