Hello, my name is Jim Tompkins, the President and CEO of Tompkins Associates and Tompkins International.
I am pleased to be with you today with my guest, Ralph Cox, a Principal here at Tompkins.
Ralph will help us today with the topic of packaging sustainability.
Let's begin by looking into how many people view packaging as just a part of manufacturing. How do packaging operations and packaging materials really involve the entire supply chain?
Ralph:
Packaging impacts both operations and costs throughout the supply chain and, as you know, has been a sustainability issue for years, well before the concept of carbon footprint was formed.
Packaging can be broadly divided into two areas: consumer packaging -- that which is found on retail shelves -- and distribution packaging -- that which is used to deliver it from suppliers to manufacturers to the retailer's distribution centers and finally to the retail store.
Along the way, the materials, construction, dimensions, impact and pierce resistance, stack-ability, re-closability, skid resistance and other features impact every link in the supply chain.
Jim:
Our listeners very well may respond to that by saying, isn't sustainability just a matter of using the most environmentally friendly materials and minimizing their mass?
Ralph:
If those characteristics are interpreted very, very broadly, that might be a satisfactory answer. However, for most people, more information is needed to see all of the ramifications of the two aspects that you mention.
For example, plastic film almost always has less mass than comparable packaging in paper, but what if the film had to be disposed of while the paper could be re-used multiple times? Or, what about the situation in which a rigid plastic container could be used for another purpose downstream in the supply chain while the corresponding paper-based container had to be disposed of after its first use?
Fibre drums have very interesting characteristics in this area. They are roughly 10 times more expensive per cubic foot than paper bags and have up to 100 times more mass, but can often be re-used downstream for storage unrelated to their original purpose. With rare exception, bags are not reused. As you know, one of our client's WIP inventory is entirely held in used fibre drums.
Jim:
Let's go back to the matter of impact. What are some examples of how packaging can impact warehousing?
Ralph:
There are a number of impacts, but the most obvious are dimensional and stackability-related. The best practice is to design packages around the unit load dimensions which are, of course, in turn coordinated with truck dimensions. That means that the consumer package dimensions are coordinated with the distribution package dimensions and unit load dimensions in a way so as to coordinate with the interior truck dimensions and minimize any loss of space. It also means that the overall layer dimensions are equal to or greater than the pallet dimensions and that there are no internal gaps within the individual layers.
In the warehouse, when the unit load footprint isn't utilized perfectly, or when the loaded pallet heights aren't consistent, more space is required than would have otherwise been needed. And, above and beyond the real estate costs, that means that more energy is required for heating and lighting as well as more building maintenance. In a more global sense, that can mean more land covered with concrete and less trees and grass. So ... packaging matters.
Another obvious example is in pallet construction. While the majority of pallet designs are somewhat fixed by pools or standards, when those situations do not exist, then wood -- that is to say board feet -- can usually be removed from pallets by having them analyzed structurally and designed around their loading requirements. Virginia Tech has had such a program for many years.
Many of the most board foot-optimized pallet designs have 4 stringers with thinner top and bottom boards than are usually found with 3-stringer pallets.
Jim:
Great, I understand that there are a number of relationships between packaging and transportation.
Ralph:
Along with cube utilization, which we mentioned earlier, the other aspect of major importance is minimization of in-transit damage. It's helpful to think of a trailer as a giant vibrating machine. Rail cars have similar characteristics, but they also have longitudinal impact.
There are two levels of packaging performance required. First, the unit load has to retain its stability and integrity in order to be handled easily at the destination and, second, individual packages have to be able to absorb energy without rupturing. That is why drop tests are commonly used for testing packages.
Unit load stability depends on several factors, but primarily on minimization of lateral shifting within the layer. Good layer integrity depends on both the layer pattern, ideally with a maximum overlap of multiple packages immediately below, as well as with resistance to lateral movement. The resistance can be provided through anti-skid coatings on the package or by external restraint, typically by stretch wrapping, or less commonly, by shrink wrapping or with dunnage.
The transportation demands on packaging are more difficult when the package is shipped by more than one mode, and especially so in eCommerce operations where the modes are very different. For example, if the product is shipped by LTL or FTL in full or mixed pallets from the manufacturer to the distributor, then the requirements are pretty straightforward. However, if the individual packages are subsequently shipped by a parcel carrier, then the requirements are very different.
Packages which perform well in full or mixed pallets do not necessarily perform at all well when shipped individually. The package designer needs to design a package which can perform well in all of the environments it will experience. Sometimes the awkward part of these situations is that the manufacturer does not understand the subsequent re-shipping requirements or doesn't see them as his responsibility.
One of our clients has had such difficulty in this area that they have to open the manufacturer's package, put in foam-in-place dunnage, and then re-close the package in order to be able to re-ship it successfully on an individual basis.
There's also a sustainability matter associated with dunnage. In recent years, dunnage has become more recyclable, reduced in mass and, in some cases, made re-usable.
Jim:
That's a very interesting point. So, who is responsible for packaging in an organization?
Ralph:
If the organization is a consumer goods manufacturer, then the package design is done by staff packaging engineers, or designers, or by specialized consultants as part of the product development process. Likewise, if the organization is a manufacturer, they can control the use of returnable or reusable packaging with some of their suppliers.
However, if the organization is a wholesale distributor, ecommerce firm, or retailer, they have much more limited control; but they do have some. They can control the re-packaging of individual units into repacked cases, the number of labels used on cases and pallets, the stacking of mixed pallets to minimize in-transit damage, the use of unitizing materials such as film or strapping and the use of dunnage in carriers when applicable.
Jim:
Thank you very much. The next installment of this sustainability series will be on transportation and supply chain issues. I look forward to speaking to you real soon.
