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As companies reevaluate their overall strategies, they’ll need new methods to optimize costs throughout their supply chains, which could uncover opportunities for packaging optimizations.
Optimizing packaging can lead to immediate savings in transportation costs through increasing product density per truck or sea container. Cost reduction methods such as right-sizing and right-weighting can help organizations slash costs and improve profitability.
“Instead of looking for nickel-and-dime savings on box prices, an optimized packaging program will generate greater savings,” says Johan Månsson, European Sales Manager at Trillora. “Especially now, with the potential for new tariffs and other supply chain disruptions.”
Learn more about cost-reduction methods in packaging and how they can save your organization money.
What Are Right-Sizing and Right-Weighting?
Right-sizing and right-weighting are two key processes to cut costs in packaging. Right-sizing ensures the optimal size of packaging for the product and supply chain, while protecting the product. Right-weighting optimizes the materials used in the packaging so the product is still protected while reducing overall weight. Both processes offer cost reduction, but there are other benefits.
Both right-sizing and right-weighting reduce packaging material, which impacts sustainability. Even designing small amounts of packing out of your program can make a big impact overall, along with introducing savings and efficiencies in other areas.
Why You Should Consider Right-Sizing and Right-Weighting
Right-sizing and right-weighting packaging can reduce packaging costs throughout the entire supply chain, which also means reduced transportation costs, increased space in distribution centers and reduced product damage. The cost benefits of right-sizing and right-weighting provide a ripple effect through organizations, with benefits that affect everything from supply chains to the end user.
Specifically, making changes to packaging sizes and weights can help:
- Increase customer satisfaction. Packages that are too large for their product can frustrate customers with extra paper, packing peanuts or bubble wrap. Properly packaging your item highlights your commitment to customer experience and environmental sustainability.
- Minimize carbon footprint. Sizing a package correctly eliminates excess material in production and waste. It also reduces extra space the package takes up during shipping and, as a result, reduces the shipment’s carbon footprint.
- Offer better protection. Large packages have more space to fill and increase the chance that a product will shift and be damaged inside a box. A right-sized package protects the product while using the least amount of materials.
- Reduce shipping costs. Dimensional weight measures the space a package occupies in relation to its actual weight. The higher the weight of your package, the more expensive it will be to ship via air freight. Using lighter-weight materials will lower your dimensional weight and save you money on air shipments.
How a Packaging Review Can Help Your Business
At a time when freight and shipping costs are still volatile, one key way to save money is by optimizing packaging. The savings we provide by optimized packaging might free up cash flow for companies that are coming out of a difficult few years and trying to keep up with consumer demand.
A packaging review or audit conducted by Trillora is a two-step process. Our audit provides the following functions:
- Review product packaging to identify areas of improvement
- Review customer supply chains through a physical visit to distribution center(s) to see how the product flows inbound to outbound.
To conduct this review, organizations will need to provide basic information such as annual product volumes, the number of products per case, and the number of cases per truck or container. After the audit, we provide honest feedback to the customer and advise whether or not we can help. If we identify potential savings, the timing of implementing those changes depends on the complexity of the project.
To see what kinds of information we collect for a packaging audit, review this Packaging and Supply Chain Audit Questionnaire.
Contact Us
If your organization is ready, contact us to request a packaging and supply chain review to discover cost-saving opportunities.
