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says. “The alternative is rolling the dice, trying to do it yourself, and coming up with the wrong answer.” That wrong
answer may result in damaged product or an unstable load.
In addition to reducing damage, testing can help companies achieve their sustainability goals.
Simulations and tests allow them to
make informed decisions about reducing packaging or fitting more product
on a pallet.
There can be some hassles involved,
however. For example, if products are
high-value, companies will have to create
a “dummy load” for the testing process
rather than risk damaging actual goods.
This can be time-consuming and expensive, Blanck cautions.
Of course, all the simulation and testing in the world won’t do you much good if you don’t apply
what you learn and share the data you collect. Blanck recalls
working with one client that was experiencing problems
with product damage. The client came up with several new
packaging designs and asked Chainalytics to run some performance tests. What Blanck and his team found, however,
was that the company did not need to change its packaging.
Instead, it simply needed to do a better job of following its
existing packaging requirements and best practices. (For
some steps you can take before embarking on full-blown
testing, see the accompanying sidebar.)
Indeed, Pat Lancaster, chairman of stretch-wrapping
equipment maker Lantech, goes so far as
to say that the problem is not so much
that the industry lacks information about
how to create optimized unit loads, as
that the knowledge is not being applied.
Instead of just focusing on creating
the perfect load, Lancaster urges companies to establish a “feedback loop” that
ensures that information about damage
levels gets back to the plant or DC.
“If plants understood the damage level,
they would be able to implement fixes,”
he says.
Either way, getting packaging right will become an
increasingly high-stakes endeavor as supply chains amp up
their efforts to run leaner and with less waste. “Supply chain
a good engine.”
