** An article written for DS Smith as the e-commerce Design Manager **
How making small changes to your packaging design can have a big impact on sustainability
Sustainability is a critical topic and a key priority for everyone, but how much difference can packaging make? At DS Smith we offer packaging solutions that are created following our Circular Design Principles, aimed at designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and material in use, and regenerating natural systems. In this article I explore five key areas, where millimetres can make a difference.
Fixing the problem at source has always been the best approach, so designers can have an even greater impact on the overall sustainability of a product, by designing out waste at the start. These small changes can affect many areas from energy and raw material usage, to waste and CO2 released. Furthermore, they may not just have an impact on the environment now, but could have a long lasting effect for many years.
Designing packaging for a changing world means we need to do more than be a creative designer; no longer is it acceptable for the design to be a good solution fulfilling the customer brief, it also needs to be an end-to-end supply chain efficient solution.
Materials
From the very first thought about your design, understanding the life cycle is critical to choosing the right material and ensuring no more is used than required. I was asked to investigate a complaint from a customer that was supplying a twin pack of hand soap refills through e-commerce, but sometimes leaked. By understanding the supply chain, I not only removed the complaint about leakage, but also reduced the volumetric shipping size by 40% and material usage by over 50%. Complaints do not always have to result in being a pain and certainly not being solved by adding further material.
Manufacturing
Understanding your internal supply cycle means that not only is the design efficient on every machine for optimum run speed and minimal waste, but also choosing the right design style to increase production sustainability. In a test of two popular e-commerce designs, the waste was reduced from 26% to 9%, ran 19% faster in die cutting, had a reduced blank size and provided a 50% increase in performance during supply cycle testing. This highlights that sustainability does not have to increase costs, or reduce performance.
Design
Attention to detail when developing your design can provide additional performance, all of which help to improve sustainability. After previous local optimisation, a customer with sites in the UK & Germany was unaware that there was a 24% difference in performance of their machine erect trays due to the flute direction. I have even seen compression performance improved by 20% on an e-commerce flower case, through the use of a offset slot by 3mm.
Transit & Storage
Whilst analysing a global supply chain for a confectionary brand, I found that by removing 3mm off the length and width of a case gained a 13.3% increase in pallet optimisation. This not only equates to reduced costs in transportation, but less pallet movements internally, reduced storage and CO2. How many times have you challenged a customer or design brief on the sizes provided? Removing a few millimetres from a case size is not radical and has been carried out for many years, however pallet optimisation is not always a clear indication of true performance and there are other methods that can bring even greater efficiencies in the supply chain. This alternative methodology increased supply chain optimisation by an average 10% across sixty product lines, some of which had already been audited locally.
Packing
During an e-commerce customer audit, I noticed a packer upsizing a box when there was a specific pack designed for the product. When questioned, they explained that they felt it packed quicker and the smaller one seemed too tight. Approximately every ten minutes a pack was upsized, which may not seem significant, but it resulted in a 20% uplift in pack price, along with an increased risk of damage. Multiply this by thirty pack benches over five days and two shifts, resulting in many thousands of pounds or euros lost every year. What link does this have with a designer? Have you checked if your design is intuitive, easy to pack, or provided packing instruction videos or training for the customer? All of these and more can lead to a reduction in waste, CO2 and improve sustainability.
Take Five
Take Five means taking five extra minutes for an end to end review of these five key areas, especially if you did not take the project brief. This methodology can be applied to all enquiries, no matter how large or small and best practice should always be applied .The more you use it, not only does it become quicker, but it will become a way of life. Our decisions are far more reaching than we can ever imagine, one small change on the CAD screen can have a significant effect in the supply chain.
Next time you create a pack design, instead of thinking big, maybe it is the time to start thinking small and see where you can lose a millimetre. However, any changes made from taking five should never result in a loss of performance, as experience, insights and the right tools will ensure these improvements bring benefits.
“A good designer will always be able to fulfil the customer brief. However a great designer will not only create an innovative design, but one that is also efficient to manufacture and sustainable.”