It is imperative for any supply chain or logistics department today to try and find as many ways to save money as possible without putting additional burdens on their existing personnel or utilizing too many of the often times too-scant resources at their disposal.One way for supply chain and logistics managers to generate savings relatively easily is by making subtle changes to the way they treat their company’s excess or damaged shipping materials. These small changes need not be the result of entirely new or out-of-the-box ideas. In fact, as most supply chain professionals already know, one source of savings may stem from their actual boxes!
Below are three ideas on how to save money by making small changes to your packaging processes:
1. Consolidate Your Purchasing Agreements
By doing something as simple as consolidating the number of companies used for purchasing the boxes your company uses for shipping, you should be able to negotiate lower rates with your consolidated supplier and lower your overall spend on packaging.
2. Reuse Your Used Materials
One way that you may be able to get away with reusing “ugly” boxes that still function properly but would normally would be rendered useless simply due to their appearance, is by adding a statement to your packaging labels that notifies receivers that the package has been made from recycled materials. You will spend less money on purchasing new boxes, and by letting people know that you’re trying to run a green supply chain, you will also allow your boxes to become valuable marketing tools (particularly if you ship any Earth-friendly products).
3. Create Your Dunnage In-House
In order to generate savings, take your remaining shipping materials that have been rendered useless and turn them into dunnage. By purchasing your own shredder for use in-house, you should be able to generate additional savings by no longer relying on an outside company to haul off your excess materials and tear them down for you.
I love the idea of using cruddy boxes that I would usually just throw away because of how they look. We ship a lot of organic items. Our customers would appreciate knowing that we recycled our packaging. We're designing a new "recycled box" sticker for our old boxes now.
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