Large volumes of frozen poultry travel from the United States to Russia each year, much of it exported from the Gulf and South Atlantic regions. SSA Marine operations experts in New Orleans, Tampa, and Charleston looked at the established method for handling this cargo, saw the potential to dramatically improve the process, and devised a completely new patented approach. The cargo would be shrink-wrapped, de-palletized place on a specially developed landing platform to load into the hold of the ship, and then moved by forklift into the exact stow position. This new process had tangible results. The quality of the cargo is greatly preserved, minimizing damage to the integrity of the package. Productivity has increased more that 40%, and these new efficiencies have resulted in ship-turnaround times being cut dramatically. In addition, the stow factor is considerably better, maximizing the valuable space available on each ship. Most importantly, the operation is undergoing continual improvement, so while the product is still frozen, our innovative solutions aren't.