Why should packaging design be considered earlier during the design stage of vehicles and components?
Packaging tends to be specified after components have been designed and sourced and are ready to go into production. Often pre-production build is delivered in a temporary solution adding costs. We work closely with OEMs and Tier Suppliers to evaluate how your parts are going to be transported through your supply chain. By adding packaging design
into the vehicle planning process, it enables you to design for logistics, ensuring as many components as possible fit into standard packaging. Therefore, avoiding the need for ‘special / non-standard’ packaging that is less efficient to transport to and from your plants.
Over the vehicle lifetime, this will help to plan for and realize transport savings both inbound (full) and outbound (empties), and deliver space saving packaging. ‘Design for packaging’ represents early consideration allowing packaging to be designed concurrently alongside a component. This allows you to test, review and refine to ensure a packaging solution is fit for your purpose. Selecting a packaging platform that covers as many of the parts as possible, from lightweight bulk parts to finish trim components and heavier parts enables you to reduce the number of special packaging types in your supply chain.
Packaging should not be an afterthought. Treating packaging as an investment and calculating the ROI it delivers ensures appropriate resources are invested in planning and design so you can realize efficiencies from cost, sustainability and quality.
Areas to consider when implementing ‘Design for logistics’
How are you going to transport automotive parts?
When transporting parts across continents on Inbound to Manufacturing material flows it is vital to evaluate which freight is most suitable. Whether it’s sea containers, trailers or rail in order to maximise capacity and minimise costs.
Any company implementing returnable folding packaging solutions needs to understand which containers are required. This ensures space utilization is maximized so you can transport in bulk safely while reducing costs and carbon emissions.
Do you require a bespoke packaging solution?
If components are bulky or heavy you may require a bespoke packaging solution in order to securely and efficiently transport components from Tier Suppliers to OEMs. Considering packaging as early as possible allows your packaging partner to understand specifications and begin to design a solution.
It is important to challenge the existing packaging status quo and identify synergy opportunities to consolidate the number of packaging applications and reduce costs. Are you able to utilise the same returnable containers across multiple vehicle product lines? eg Body in White or Chassis or Drivetrain.
Reducing the number of packaging types through your supply chain can significantly reduce your costs, remove waste from your operation and create a sustainable supply chain. A bespoke returnable foldable container can present OEMs and Tier Suppliers with multiple challenges. Selecting the EuroBin as your durable container family allows you to use it as both your bulk container up to 900 kgs as well as your bespoke container when fitted with durable dunnage designed for the parts.
Add the Extended length EuroBin and you have covered 90% of the parts you need to deliver inbound to lineside with one standard family of containers. This will reduce your complexity in repair and maintenance as the containers can be re-tasked between bulk and bespoke. Should the volume mix change, all are fully recyclable and you remove the need for one-way packaging across most of your supply chain.
With a 900 kilo weight capacity, the EuroBin can be used to ship large, heavy parts as well as lightweight plastic parts without the need for multiple returnable packaging options.