Waste Not, Want Not: How to Increase Your Packaging Efficiency

With the rise in cost of… well everything… it’s becoming increasingly important to look at how you can improve packaging efficiency in your supply chain. But when your supply chain is as complex as a Rubik’s Cube, it’s hard to know where to start. Thankfully, we’ve created this handy step-by-step guide showing how you can improve your supply chain efficiency through cardboard packaging.

How Packaging Inefficiency Can Lead to Extra Costs

Before we start however, it’s important to understand how inefficient packaging can lead to extra costs, and why this is not only bad for your business but also the environment.

When choosing your cardboard packaging, it’s easy to think that the cheaper the cardboard box is, the better. After all, it’s only going to go in the bin once the shipment arrives in the warehouse. However, while this can seem like the best solution in the short-term, when looking at your wider supply chain using low-quality, standardised cardboard boxes that aren’t tailored to your specific product could cause issues. From excess money being spent on plastic fillers such as bubble wrap, to an increase in damaged goods because the cardboard boxes are disintegrating at the first sign of humidity. Low-quality cardboard boxes are losing you money.

On top of this, businesses’ approach to using cardboard boxes is also causing excess harm to our environment. In 2020, over 32.7 million tonnes of paper and cardboard packaging was wasted in the EU, making it the highest packaging waste material from 2009 to 2020, even beating out plastic and glass. This is because companies tend to view their packaging materials as necessary by-products of the production line, rather than an opportunity to create a more efficient supply chain.

So with this in mind, how can your packaging become more efficient?

1. Perform a Packaging Review

In order to make your packaging more efficient, you need to know where to start. That’s why we always recommend a Packaging Review service to help you understand how best to increase your efficiency.

Starting with a consultation, our in-house expert team will gain an in-depth understanding of your business’s packaging needs and challenges, which will then be evaluated during our comprehensive assessment of your packaging supply chain. The results from this service will then be analysed to create tailored recommendations and proposed actions to revolutionise your packaging procedures.

2. Reduce Time and Materials

Once you have undergone our free Packaging Review, it is then time to get your packaging materials working harder.

As previously stated, using standardised cardboard boxes can lead to more money wasted on excess filler and padding. That’s why we always recommend using bespoke boxes in your supply chain in order to increase efficiency.

Bespoke boxes are made to specially fit your products and your supply chain needs with the aim of reducing not only the level of extra filler needed to keep products secure, but also the overall number of cardboard boxes to ship an order. Here at Greyhound Box, we specialise in creating custom cardboard box solutions that will enable you to make every shipment as efficient as possible. From specially developed cardboard inserts that snuggly keep even the largest product securely in place without plastic fillers, to unique brand details or instructions printed on the cardboard box’s exterior that allows for correct usage (either to repack or recycle). Bespoke cardboard boxes are one of the easiest ways you can decrease packaging times and materials within your supply chain.

On top of this, our boxes are made from high-quality cardboard which are durable meaning we can even design your box to be re-usable. Giving a significant boost to your sustainability goals while increasing efficiency as fewer boxes will be wasted when shipping between locations, especially if your supply chain model is circular.

3. Stock Management

The final step in assessing areas of low efficiency within your supply chain is your inventory management. Using the results from the Packaging Review, we take a look at your stockroom and average order rates to see where you might be hosting too much or too little packaging stock. This will then allow us to see where delays are likely to happen as a result of improper packaging levels. After all, you can’t sell a product if you can’t ship it.

Unfortunately though, sales are hard to predict especially with the current state of the world’s supply chain pressures. Therefore, it’s important you can be flexible in order to maintain an efficient supply chain.

Here at Greyhound Box, we can collaborate with you to house a proportion of your cardboard packaging in our Leeds-based warehouse and work with you to increase your supply when you need it most. Giving you more flexibility within your own space without sacrificing stock levels.

To see how you can increase your packaging efficiency within your supply chain, get in touch with our expert team today.