Getting packaging right can sometimes feel like an incredibly complex balancing act, with companies having to weigh up functionality, cost, and environmental impact across their entire supply chains. How can the industry get this balance right? Mark Patterson, vice president of global packaging solutions & clinical logistics at DHL Supply Chain, gives us his thoughts.
As global scrutiny over packaging sustainability intensifies, brands face difficult decisions balancing functionality, cost, and environmental impact across interlinked supply chains. Materials choices, manufacturing processes, secondary and tertitary packaging, procurement practices and end-of-life considerations all play a pivotal role.
By examining packaging in the context of the whole supply chain, brands and manufacturers can make better-informed decisions to deliver more meaningful improvements.
The interplay of manufacturing and operations
Complex global supply chains make packaging decisions equally complex. One small change can have dozens of consequences and a seemingly obvious idea for a packaging reduction could require a highly expensive manufacturing reconfiguration and manifold changes to supply chain processes, transport and handling.
But that’s not a reason not to try, it just means that you need to assess packaging in the round and examine the entire changeover process.
Will different materials substantially slow down automated lines and affect output? Do storage and downstream picking processes need to be adapted to new package sizes or dimensions? Will transport be freed up and if so, what are the cost benefits?
By taking a bird’s eye view, businesses can see the true impact of the change and avoid unforeseen costs, as well as any potential negative consequences that could undermine the sustainability goals.
Likewise, taking this view has the potential to reveal simple wins that might not have been in consideration.
The impact of secondary and tertiary packaging
While a lot of public scrutiny is directed at primary packaging, secondary and tertiary packaging used throughout the supply chain should be a significant focus for businesses that are serious about reducing their environmental footprint.
Boxes in boxes in boxes might have seemed practical in times when we were less aware of waste, but brands need to examine whether their supply chain packaging is still fit for purpose or even necessary.
Developments in materials and processes have opened up opportunities for replacing materials such as single-use cardboard boxes with reusable pallet boxes.
Equally, changes in factory transport packing could eliminate whole layers of waste, not to mention the financial cost of warehouse operators opening and disposing of boxes only to repackage and replate products for onward distribution.
All of these changes are possible, but require businesses to rethink secondary and tertiary packaging configurations across end-to-end processes to make them happen.
The same holds true for transport packing at the point of onward distribution. Taking time to find where the inefficiencies exist throughout the downstream supply chain can deliver significant financial and carbon reduction gains.
Circular perspectives
Packaging optimised for recycling is now a minimum expectation and crucial for meeting expanding regulations, but reusable packaging, which was once considered too expensive and logistically too complex, is gaining momentum.
In the life sciences industry and automotive industries, for instance, reusable packaging is starting to gain traction. For most manufacturers, it will be necessary to have access to a global logistics network, to leverage not only the network itself but also the resources and facilities to make a circular packaging ecosystem operate: buying the boxes, tracking, returning shipments, managing shipping labels, refurbishing boxes and bringing them back into circulation.
Navigating change while balancing cost and stability
For many manufacturers, the impact on profits from two years of steep and sustained inflation is still being felt, but by taking a step back to critically assess whether packaging is being approached strategically and cost-effectively, businesses can not only find savings but potentially fund environmentally driven changes.
Supply disruption and demand volatility over recent years have magnified the challenges around packaging procurement and inventory planning and has highlighted the need for better procurement processes - not only to find the best, most sustainable and innovative suppliers and materials, but to optimise the process to avoid over-ordering and generating more waste.
By leveraging advanced IT analytics and decision support modelling, manufacturers benefit from more resilient packaging supplies, having the right quantities at the right time, as well as accessing the best costs for the most sustainable materials.
Where to start?
To drive impactful but practical packaging changes, brands should leverage a supply chain view, spanning implications for manufacturing, distribution, sourcing and reuse. This systems perspective will provide the insight needed to ensure packaging change is less bumpy, less costly and more effective.
However cost-effective and sustainable packaging solutions - that boost a brand’s visibility and allows for flexibility and scalability - requires integrated, end-to-end operations that drive speed to market. By working with an expert logistics partner, businesses will be able to implement robust packaging solutions to successfully deliver value and competitive advantage.
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