Global brands with product manufacturing in South and Southeast Asia (SEA) face multiple challenges with oversight and control of packaging. While these brands have internal personnel that are responsible for retail and transport packaging, determining whether these internal team members have sufficient resources to fully optimize packaging sourced thousands of miles away can be a difficult task.

Outsourced packaging solutions can supplement internal capabilities, provide local oversight, and improve control across the packaging supply chain.

Key Takeaways

  • Brands generally rely on factory-controlled, brand-managed, retailer-managed, or outsourced models to design, source, test, and manage packaging.
  • Outsourced packaging experts can provide additional capacity, regional knowledge, quality oversight, and packaging engineering services.
  • The true cost of packaging includes freight utilization, handling, product damage, distribution center labor, repackaging, and time to market.
  • Internal teams and external providers achieve better results when senior leadership supports the initiative and a designated project manager coordinates the work.

Alternative Models For Managing Packaging   

Companies based in North America or Europe use several models to manage retail and transport packaging for products manufactured by factories in South and Southeast Asia.

Each model offers a different level of control, visibility, and internal responsibility.

Factory-Controlled or Factory-Sourced Packaging

Many companies rely on their product factories to outsource packaging production. Package design, testing, and procurement may all be delegated to the factory.

In other cases, packaging is initially designed at the brand’s home office. Designs and guidance are then sent to the product factory in China or Southeast Asia, which finds a local packaging company to produce packaging that conforms to the brand’s standards.

The product factory may also test the packaging for compliance with those standards. However, the brand typically has limited visibility into the factory-selected suppliers, which can make auditing, quality control, and compliance oversight more difficult.

Brand and Retailer-Managed Packaging 

Under a brand-managed model, internal packaging teams develop the packaging, often working with outside companies to create prototypes and samples. The brand coordinates performance testing and appoints specific companies to supply the approved packaging to its Asian factories.

The product factories are then responsible for procuring that packaging from the brand-approved sources.

The process becomes more complicated when products are sold through retailers that maintain their own packaging standards. Retailers, warehouse clubs, and ecommerce platforms may require product factories to test packaging against retailer-specific requirements.

Coordinating the design, sourcing, and testing of brand- or retailer-managed packaging can be time-consuming and expensive. In a retailer-managed model, brands may also have limited control over packaging standards and testing procedures. These challenges also show why brands should consider retail and transport packaging together rather than treating them as separate systems.

Outsourced Packaging 

Under an outsourced model, brands work with packaging experts experienced in designing, sourcing, producing, and managing packaging in China and Southeast Asia.

These providers can use established regional supplier networks to strengthen strategic oversight, improve sourcing decisions, verify compliance with brand standards, and manage daily packaging needs.

Outsourced packaging solutions can therefore extend an internal team’s reach without requiring the brand to build an entire regional packaging operation of its own.

Why Packaging Deviates From Brand Standards 

Creating processes and metrics that drive accountability for the product factory to comply with packaging Processes, documentation, and performance metrics are necessary to hold product factories accountable for meeting packaging standards. Even when standards are clearly established, several circumstances can cause packaging to deviate from approved specifications:

  • Multiple product factories may interpret the same brand requirements differently.
  • Product factories operated by separate companies may lack centralized communication about current standards.
  • New raw materials may be substituted when specified materials are unavailable.
  • Packaging files may be changed without appropriate review or approval.
  • Local suppliers may use different material definitions or manufacturing tolerances.

When product factories are responsible for sourcing packaging, these changes may occur without the brand’s knowledge. By the time the problem is discovered, packaging may already have been produced at scale or entered the distribution network.

Local oversight and clearly defined quality processes can help brands identify deviations earlier and maintain greater consistency across suppliers, factories, and countries.

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Calculating the True Cost” of Packaging Decisions

Packaging costs extend beyond the raw materials, labor, and manufacturing required to produce a box, bag, insert, or label.

To understand the true cost of packaging, companies need to evaluate how packaging performs throughout the entire packaging supply chain. That journey may include transportation from the product factory to a consolidation center, distribution center, retailer, or individual ecommerce customer.

Several factors should be considered when evaluating total packaging costs.

Optimize Cube Density 

Packaging solutions should be designed to use the available space inside cartons, pallets, and containers efficiently. Better cube utilization allows more products to be shipped in each carton and more cartons to be loaded into each container.

Variables may include:

  • The number and dimensions of product SKUs
  • Product folding or nesting patterns
  • Pick-and-pack or cross-docking requirements
  • The number of factories producing the product
  • Carton stacking configurations
  • Pallet and container loading patterns

Improving carton efficiency can reduce the amount of unused space brands pay to transport.

Cardboard box w/ folded jeans wrapped in plastic inside.Apparel transport carton dimensions are specified to be fully packed to maximize cube density throughout the supply chain.

Design Packaging for Reuse

Inbound packaging used to transport products from a manufacturing factory to a distribution center may be designed for reuse in outbound shipments to retail locations.

This approach can reduce raw material costs, domestic packaging purchases, handling requirements, and repackaging labor. It can also prevent usable transport packaging from becoming waste after a single trip.

Trillora previously worked with an international apparel customer that reused much of its inbound packaging for outbound distribution, producing substantial packaging savings.

 

dc-carton-reuse_web

Specially designed cartons are marked as DC reuse. Cartons are first used to carry goods from factory to DC, and then used a second time outbound from the DC to retail locations.

Maintain Brand integrity 

Brands often invest in color management, artwork, print quality, sustainable sourcing, and other packaging elements that shape the customer’s perception of the product.

Maintaining those standards becomes more difficult when packaging is sourced from multiple suppliers across several regions or countries. Minor variations in color, materials, finishes, construction, or print reproduction can create noticeable inconsistencies.

An external packaging partner with a local team, documented quality processes, and established inspection procedures can help maintain brand standards across the supplier network.

Improve Distribution Center Efficiency

Right-sized packaging can improve the use of storage space within distribution centers. Packaging can also be designed to make products faster and easier to inspect, open, handle, repack, or prepare for outbound shipment.

These improvements may reduce labor requirements while allowing products to move through the facility more efficiently.

Reduce Product Damage and Shrink 

Packaging must protect products against the stresses they will experience during transportation and distribution. Those stresses can include vibration, compression, impact, humidity, and temperature changes.

Packaging engineering services can evaluate these risks and develop packaging suited to the actual distribution environment. Without appropriate materials, structures, and testing, product damage may occur before goods reach the retailer or customer.

Improve Time To Market 

Efficient packaging can reduce handling delays, repackaging, returns, and other interruptions across the packaging supply chain.

When products move through factories, transportation networks, distribution centers, and retail channels more efficiently, brands can bring inventory to market faster and begin realizing a return on manufacturing and distribution investments sooner.

Accurately calculating these costs requires a broader analysis than simply comparing supplier quotes. Experienced packaging solutions providers can evaluate how individual packaging decisions affect freight, labor, damage, inventory, sustainability, and speed throughout the supply chain.

How Industry Expertise Improves the Packaging Supply Chain

Packaging expertise develops through repeated exposure to different products, materials, suppliers, factories, distribution models, and failure points.

Teams that have designed and implemented packaging solutions across multiple markets can apply those accumulated insights to new challenges. They may recognize risks or improvement opportunities that are difficult to identify from within a single company or packaging program.

Cross-Functional Teams Provide More Complete Solutions

packaging-analysis-pdei

Packaging solutions providers can deploy teams with experience across multiple functions, including:

  • Packaging design
  • Package engineering
  • Performance testing
  • Quality assurance
  • Material sourcing
  • Procurement
  • Sustainability
  • Supply chain management

Team members may also have experience across industries such as apparel, footwear, sporting goods, outdoor equipment, and consumer electronics.

Combining packaging engineering services with sourcing and supply chain expertise makes it possible to develop packaging that accounts for the needs of multiple departments. Instead of addressing design, cost, quality, or logistics in isolation, a cross-functional team can evaluate how those areas affect one another.

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Experienced Providers Can Prevent Packaging Problems 

A deep base of industry and regional experience can help packaging partners anticipate problems and develop controls before those problems affect production.

Deviations From Approved Packaging Files

When packaging is produced domestically, a supplier may contact the brand when a packaging file contains an error or unclear instruction.

In a remote production environment, a supplier may instead make changes based on assumptions about the brand’s intent. Packaging can then be produced at scale with specifications that differ from approved files or fail to perform as expected.

Local coordination and formal approval processes help ensure that questions are resolved before production begins.

Unauthorized Changes to Raw Materials

A seemingly minor material change can affect appearance, performance, recyclability, or compliance.

In one example, a remote packaging manufacturer added a matte polypropylene coating to corrugated packaging because it believed the coating would improve the appearance. The change caused the finished packaging to deviate from brand standards and made the package non-recyclable, undermining the company’s sustainability goals.

A structured change-control process can prevent suppliers from making unauthorized substitutions or enhancements.

Geographic Variability in Material Standards 

Material standards, definitions, and availability can differ between regions. A material described in the same way by two suppliers may not provide equivalent strength, composition, appearance, or environmental performance.

Remotely sourced materials selected without sufficient quality oversight can therefore lead to inconsistent packaging or failures in the field.

Packaging engineering services, material specifications, testing, and local quality checks can help brands manage these regional differences.

Experienced Partners Can Identify New Cost-Saving Solutions 

Packaging supply chain partners with international experience can apply lessons learned across industries, factories, and suppliers to identify new cost-saving solutions for their customers.

For example, Trillora worked with an international consumer electronics company to develop lighter-weight packaging that reduced the weight transported by air. The resulting solution produced substantial airfreight savings of more than $3 million while continuing to protect the product.

Opportunities of this kind may not be visible when packaging is evaluated only as an individual component. They become clearer when the provider considers package weight, product protection, transportation mode, supplier capabilities, and distribution requirements together.

How Internal Teams Can Use Outsourced Packaging Solutions

Global brands face considerable complexity when managing production and distribution in China and Southeast Asia. Internal supply chain teams may be responsible for both daily operational requirements and long-term planning, leaving limited time for specialized packaging initiatives.

Outsourced packaging solutions can augment internal teams by:

  • Providing a global or regional packaging strategy that takes a holistic approach to packaging performance throughout the supply chain
  • Ensuring additional capacity when business needs exceed available personnel
  • Supporting packaging design, development, and testing
  • Adding regional sourcing and quality expertise
  • Coordinating suppliers and product factories
  • Assisting with new product introductions
  • Supporting entry into new markets or regions
  • Preparing packaging for new customers or distribution models
  • Maintaining continuity during staffing or organizational changes

External providers may also be able to mobilize specialists more quickly when a company faces an urgent packaging problem or needs to launch a new solution within a compressed timeline.

The objective is to give the internal team access to additional resources, expertise, and regional support when the organization’s needs exceed its current capabilities.

How Internal Teams Can Help External Providers Succeed

Successful outsourced packaging programs require active participation from the brand as well as the external provider.

Two levels of internal support are especially important.

At the senior level, leadership should clearly explain the business reasons for using outside resources. Visible executive support can build internal confidence in the initiative and clarify that the provider is there to support organizational goals.

At the operational level, a designated internal project manager should coordinate daily communication, provide access to relevant information, and keep decisions moving forward.

With this support in place, an external team can develop packaging solutions that improve efficiency, control total costs, strengthen consistency, and support sustainability goals across the packaging supply chain.

Identify Opportunities Across Your Packaging Program

Unsure where packaging costs, performance issues, or sustainability gaps may be hiding? Trillora’s packaging review evaluates materials, structure, graphics, and sustainability to identify practical opportunities for improvement.

Request a Packaging Review today to get expert input on your current packaging program.
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