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5 tips to reduce you packaging costs
Any wise manager wants to scale back packaging costs everywhere the board. But your business’s supply chain is changing, whether you wish it or not. Customers are looking for faster shipping, ease of use and sustainability. All these changes mean reinventing the way you use in turn, making it harder to save lots of some money within the process. But despite of these changes, there’s one element that won’t change. No matter the business model, regardless of how demanding your customers are and regardless of what they expect, you’ll always need packaging.
The consistent demand for packaging means it’s an excellent place to seem once you got to start saving some money in your supply chain. In this article, you’ll see how to: reduce packaging costs, economize so as fulfilment and use custom packaging to release income. And as you’ll see below, there are many ways to release some cash. But the foremost effective thanks to save your packaging budget doesn’t involve your packaging at all.
1. Lean Management
Lean Management in short is the process of removing the unnecessary and doing more of what is working. Do You really need to have both a front and a back label for your bottles/containers? Having just one larger label can make you save both in the effective cost of the labels and in the setup time! Do You have many suppliers for different kinds of packaging? Maybe trying to focus on having 1 partner could be a wise solution both price-wise and time-wise.
2. Lower your assembly & packing time
Labour may be a cost that you’ll need to burden, regardless of what. But reducing the per-unit packaging time is an efficient thanks to reduce the packaging costs. When doing this though, many supply chain managers have a laser-like specialise in boxes. What’s surprising though is that assembling a box and filling it's often the quickest part. Studying packaging that folds and closes in less actions could be one of the most time saving experience. This is where the additional costs are often hidden, understand that you can apply lean management to any aspect of your business.
3. Maintain your machinery
Sure, it saves you money, but when it breaks, you’re without a plastic wrapping mechanism and a brush. From conveyor belts to lifting machinery to the straightforward tape dispenser, it all must be in perfect working order. If maintenance of machinery and tools are neglected, you’ll need to buy both the repairs then downtime when it does inevitably break. With the above two points taken care of, you'll make certain that any changes now made to your packaging design will reap the simplest rewards they will.
4. Train your staff
You can optimise processes and products until you’re blue within the face. Your staff has to be properly trained to efficiently work in the supply chain and fulfilment department. All staff must be thoroughly trained on all equipment that’s utilized in their job. Local laws can also state that various procedures with machinery and repetitive movements must be documented. Whether it’s for employee safety or not, thorough documentation should be utilized in all processes. Not only can help onboard new employees and convey them up to hurry quicker, but it’s also the primary place to seem once you want to form these processes more efficient. Shorter times for workers to integrate means you reduce delivery costs sooner.
5. Packaging isn’t just a box
Sometimes when you’re so laser-focused on saving money in packaging, you think that an excessive amount of about the foremost obvious product - a box. But your packaging costs are far more than simply the standard cardboard box. To lower your packaging costs, check out things like pallets, printing methods, return policies and warehouse zoning. When trying to scale back your packaging costs, sure, check out the raw materials like cardboard boxes. But don’t neglect to seem at the entire process to actually fine-tune your packaging costs.
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