Packaging and the supply chain

Supply chain efficiencies are high on the agenda for many businesses and packaging solutions can deliver many benefits to our customers. To that end, the appointment of Steve Ward as Head of Supply Chain Improvement at Boxes and Packaging was to enable our customers to explore, with Steve’s expertise, that cost savings can be made in various ways, not by simply reducing the cost of the box.

Here, Steve explains how packaging supports supply chains and the work that Boxes and Packaging does to support companies in a variety of industry sectors.

Working with companies that are involved in significant UK and global supply chain requires a level of detail, expertise and personal service that many are not equipped to provide. However, Boxes and Packaging teams across the UK have worked hard to position themselves as leading suppliers of packaging solutions to a range of businesses ranging from automotive and agricultural to the prospering UK wine manufacturers.

This has been achieved by product and material awareness, a willingness to fully understand the requirements of our customers and a market appreciation of how packaging supports each element of the supply chain.

Several of our customers rely on us for time specific deliveries and line side deliveries to ensure production line performance is maintained. Intrinsically linked with this is their need and our desire to review their packaging, develop more sustainable solutions where appropriate perhaps eradicating the need for plastics, wood, polystyrene and metal thereby making the entire pack more recyclable and fulfilling company CSR and environmental policies.

Boxes and Packaging is focused on reducing the cost of the supply chain via better packaging design.
This could mean improving pack fill so that transport costs are reduced. It could be improving the assembly speed of the pack to drive down packing costs. It could be reducing the space that the packaging takes up in warehouses to reduce storage costs or it could be changing board grades to reduce the pack price. There are many ways of improving the supply chain and we tailor our solutions to each customer’s requirements.

Perhaps one of the reasons that people do not fully understand how corrugated can have such a significant impact on the supply chain is that the capabilities of it as a raw material and a designed product are underestimated.

Our expertise in challenging existing designs, creating innovative new ones and working with our customers to understand how packaging integrates into their supply chain places us as the preferred supply chain packaging supplier to many.

This is because we appreciate that packaging is not just about the box. It’s about the entire solution, the efficient and safe movement of product through the supply chain and how packaging can have a direct impact on sales, consumer choice and loyalty and therefore business success.

This is where the design functionality comes into its own. Good packaging can reduce the space required making transport more efficient. It can help with manual handling, staff training, staff numbers and other business matters of our customers.

Let’s not forget that the emphasis is on manufacturers to supply more recyclable packaging solutions and that consumers are a huge driving force behind that. They have had no choice but to respond and we are proud to be working with a wide range of customers across all industry sectors to facilitate more sustainable packaging solutions in the supply chain and beyond.