Packaging: key to optimising industrial costs

How industrial packaging should be and in what areas we must work to reduce its cost

Industrial packaging is an essential part of the cost savings in the supply chain. We don't say it ourselves, since DS Smith Tecnicarton. Says Emin Atac, General Manager Parts & Material for Toyota Motor Europe.

Thanks to good industrial packaging management, companies can reduce costs. However, we must not forget that this packaging must comply with certain characteristics that safeguard the packed and transported product at all times.

What does the industry ask of a packaging industry? Of course, it must offer maximum protection to the product and must guarantee its safety, both stacked in warehouses and during the transit of the product during transport.

The industry is also asking packaging, and therefore the companies that produce it, to respond to the new challenges posed by new forms of production. The most pressing is Just In Time manufacturing, which obliges suppliers to continuously supply their customers without the possibility of stock. This means that packaging must be quick to deliver, returnable and ergonomic for operators.

Among these challenges is meeting the Lean philosophy of continuous improvement. Industrial packaging suppliers must be ahead of our customers' demands and offer them solutions for continuous improvement. This improvement can come in terms of costs, assembly, stacking, etc. and logistics.

And all this without forgetting the growing commitment to the environment, which is why we must work with reusable materials whose raw material is of recycled origin.

The aim is to reduce the costs of the supply chain. A good industrial packaging design should result in a reduction in the total cost of the product. This way we ensure that our client is competitive.

Where can we make an impact to obtain these reductions?We must look for packaging that allows a reduction in storage costs. At DS Smith Tecnicarton, we have achieved this with stackable packaging, which in turn optimises transport. Another area of work is the saving of internal costs: ergonomic packaging that reduces internal movements, or that reaches the assembly point.