Packaging specifications: a staple activity for most packaging technologists. For some it’s an administrative bane left to the final possible moment at the end of a busy week. For others there is a systematic pleasure in outputting the perfect piece of packaging documentation – writes Richard Beckett, packaging project manager at Swedish cosmetics brand Oriflame.
Having spent most of my career developing cosmetics and toiletries within the novelty-driven segment of direct sales, I’d say I am at some point towards the middle of that continuum. Specification writing for me is pleasurable, given the time and the tools.
So, the golden question: where is the power in a good packaging spec? To answer that one, I need to start with a short narrative. I work within a small yet dynamic team of packaging technologists who deliver a high volume of products against a changing and dynamic marketing narrative. In short, we work hard and we’re doing well. However, we were using outdated tools with resulting symptoms being a significant case of portfolio blindness, inconsistency, duplication and a big drain on resource. To quote myself from four years or so ago, “Microsoft Word is for book writers – it isn’t the tool to sustain our packaging team through 2020 and beyond.” We could bring more value to the business and our customers with efficiency and quality to boot.
Thus, my rumbustious mouth led me off the mouse wheel of new product development into a position that included amongst other things sourcing and developing a specifications system. Setting up and implementing that system has been my passion for several years now.
Henceforth ensued a process of preparation, system specification and assessment until we found a provider that suited our needs, preferred cost base and matched the amount of resource our business was prepared to throw at such a project. The resulting journey accrued many positives. I will try to highlight the key ones below.
Supplier portfolio
First things first, you need to understand your component suppliers. Drilling down into their best practices, testing and QC protocols assists the benchmarking process and contributes significantly to defining acceptable componentry baselines. In our case an added benefit of this phase of the project was to recalibrate and standardise our componentry classification of defects and AQLs, aligning internally and with our supply base. From a package testing perspective, we also used this research to support a gap analysis of our form and function protocols. The resulting snowball effect included upgrades in our equipment and implementation of a new laboratory with the aim of remedying any problem areas. Last but not least, reassessment of suppliers outside of the usual audit and NPD cycles brought focus upon required points of development and in some cases underlying challenges.
Understand your filling automation
It’s vital that you have clear understanding of your automation when specifying attributes, variables and the supporting documentation that will underpin your work and ultimately your product quality. This means getting into your factory and fillers, talking to your engineers, understanding production speeds, bottlenecks, design for manufacturing requirements and other equipment-based nuances. The aim here is simple: packaging that can be filled, labelled and closed at an appropriate output and quality level with minimal fuss or efficiency impact.
Appropriate attributes and variables
Now you understand your suppliers, automation and cost base you are ready to specify fit for purpose packaging. Attributes in my world are the inherent characteristics of a part – for example structure, shape, colour. A variable has a numerical range or criteria and is usually accompanied by a test or method of measurement. During this phase, depending on the maturity of your organisation you may well find some further gaps in protocols, package tests and measures. Treat this as a good thing rather than a failure. Uncovering one’s faults and putting a plan in place to remedy them increases your team’s knowledge, competences and develops qualitative output. Don’t underestimate the people development aspect of putting good specs and standards in place. We also used this phase of our project to pull in areas traditionally outside our umbrella of responsibility, such as high value tooling and secondary packaging, with further positive benefits to the business and personal learnings.
The benefits
So, you’ve increased your knowledge, defined your attributes and variables and have plans in place to fill any gaps in supporting protocols. What are the benefits you can you now expect to reap?
Starting with new supplier introduction you have an identity. The specification is your consistent point of reference and standard. You can categorically state your expected quality levels, protocols and expectations. You have your own baseline and are not governed by suppliers’ defaults. This identity will eventually filter through every part of your quality system, providing one consistent thread for activities such as certificate of conformance and facilitating a journey towards a more vendor assurance-based quality narrative if desired.
The resulting baselines will allow your organisation to more pragmatically take on cost vs quality-based scenarios. Clarity of cost drivers and functionality criteria will also combine to give your customer a much more consistent product experience, both functionally and aesthetically vs brand tier and finished good cost.
You will now have a powerful searchable tool. Not only will this save you many work hours. The resulting detailed documentation of materials usage can be a powerful measure of where you are and where you want to be in terms of sustainability, reduction, waste and compliance remits.
Good, consistent component specs will also provide the launch pad for good product specs. The next logical stop along the journey, in my opinion, followed on by logistics efficiencies at a tertiary level.
If you make it that far, you will likely reach what I see as the holy grail of this exercise. A position whereby you know your packaging commodities so fluently that generic component specs, finished good specs, quality documents and test protocols intersect to a point that for a new product you are literally only defining the unique attributes and variables. You have then found product nirvana and can either retire happy or start all over again.
