Money Sat in your Packing Area
Plus Packaging representatives so far this year have spent over 4,480 hours in warehouses around the UK – and over 1,000 hours in exhibitions or packaging training events.
Why the stats?
We thought you might be interested to see our take on the top three most significant waste of money we see daily. Maybe there’s one in your warehouse…
This article doesn’t end up as a list that directs you back to our products and you won’t find yourself rolling your eyes when surprise, surprise, it’s our product that saves the day. These are simply the top three things that make us roll our eyes because the savings are so simple.
Just use thinner pallet wrap… please.
Thick pallet wrap is the most significant waste of money we see daily. A misguided belief that the thicker the wrap, the higher the quality leads companies to wrap pallets in unnecessary and very thick plastic shrouds.
Pallet Wraps, both machine-run and hand-operated, have developed – significantly. The world has moved on. And the savings are generally over 30% on new, thinner wraps from 8mu to 15mu.
You probably have those savings available too if you:
- Are using a pallet wrap that is over 17mu.
- Haven’t changed the specification of your pallet wrap for over three years.
- Haven’t done a cut and weigh test within the last year.
Bubbling over…
There are very few reasons left to use plastic bubble wrap these days without wishing to be needlessly dramatic.
There are several paper alternatives, and they are usually around 10% metre cheaper per metre. That’s saying nothing about using vari-depth boxes, suspension packaging or paper alone!
Bailing or binning boxes and using void-fill.
Based on the perception that shredders break up the paper into small chips or flakes, which is useless for void-fill. We have news – proper packaging shredders will shred a carton into a mat for you!
Two savings here – no more baling up cardboard or refuse costs. And, of course, you don’t have to buy void-fill anymore.
Decent quality shredders are available from £2,500 to £5,000, depending on your requirements.
Why does this happen, and what can you do?
For a variety of reasons:
Sometimes the alternative items seem more expensive. Thinner machine or hand film costs more per roll and metre than standard machine or hand films. You use much less on the pallet! This usage is easily proven via a cut and weight test, which pretty much any packaging company will offer.
Operators are left out of the loop and just given items to use. They don’t know it’s a cost-saving and may perceive thinner items, such as paper or shred mat, to be less quality if not informed.
Some options involve an upfront spend – like the shredder. A simple calculation would give you a payback time for this.
The next time you are looking to purchase packaging materials, be sure to compare the cost of thinner pallet wrap, paper bubble wrap alternatives, and packaging shredders. You may be surprised at how much money you can save by making a few simple changes.