Are you feeling frustrated? Maybe you are more than a little perturbed? You’re seeing an unacceptable amount of defective products and packages on your packaging line.
I am willing to bet you are reading this article because you are looking for one of two things. One, ways in which you can reduce defective products on your packaging line. Or two, how to outsource your packaging line altogether.
Many companies end up outsourcing their supply chain to a contract packaging company. They do this so that they can focus on their core capabilities.
Are you looking for a contract packaging partner who can help you to reduce defects? Do you want someone to take all this supply chain management stuff off of your plate? Industrial Packaging may or may not be the right partner for you.
We have been helping companies of all sizes, even Fortune 500 clients, reduce defects for a while now. And, we can help you to do the same if you’re interested in exploring outsourcing versus trying to negate defects yourself.
In this article, we will explain how a contract packaging partner can help you to reduce and prevent defects, which will result in happier customers.
The Impact Of Defects In Your Manufacturing Plant
Are you running your own manufacturing plant? If so, you have probably run into issues with defective packaging and products at some point in time.
Defects come in many shapes and sizes. Bad date codes, blurred printing, wrong information, bad cuts on foil, leaking bags, and bad seals are just some of the common packaging defects that can occur in your manufacturing plant.
When doing all your packaging in-house, it may be harder for you to identify the source of the defects. And, you may find that many defective products went out to your customers before the source of the defects was identified. Defects equate to lost time, money, materials, and products. It can be very frustrating to lose these resources to defects. And defects can be due to a host of different issues.
This is where having a contract packaging company to manage your packaging lines and supply chain may greatly simplify your life.
A contract packaging partner can identify and track problems or defects BEFORE they reach your customers. Then, they can report back to you with details on the source of the defects to help you quickly remedy the problem.
Are you curious about contract packaging?
The Cost Of Defective Packaging
Are you continually running into issues with your defective packaging? Then you can see the cost of such a problem. Defective packaging leads to wasted time, money, products, materials, and labor.
And, it is not always easy to identify the source of the defects. Especially if you are running multiple packaging lines simultaneously. So, you will continue to bleed resources until you have located and remedied the cause of the defects.
Then, once you have located the source, you will need to work to fix it. This may include re-work, retraining, materials adjustments or replacements, machinery repairs, and a host of other costly and time-consuming elements.
Now, you could do all of this work yourself. Or, you could hand off all this responsibility to a contract packaging company.
How A Contract Packaging Company Can Help You Reduce Defects
Let's say you outsource your packaging to a contract packaging company. They are responsible for your packaging line. So, it is they who will likely first identify defective packaging in the first place.
When this happens, the contract packaging company will contact your manufacturing facility. And, they will help you to identify the source of the defects. Then, they will work with you to provide a solution to these problems.
This will identify defects in a more timely manner than if you were doing this yourself. The contract packaging company is a liaison between you and your customers. So, they will be able to better identify defects before they end up getting sent to your clients.
Other Ways A Contract Packaging Company Can Reduce Defects
Depending on your products, there may be trickier and more complicated defects. If you were to manage these yourself, they might slip through the cracks.
For example, when packaging candy, it’s possible that you have zero defects in the packaging of the product. But, the product itself is actually defective.
When using a contract packaging vendor, there will be regularly scheduled inspection protocols. These protocols include inspecting the product for the appropriate texture, shape, flavor, color and etc. Such inspections ensure that even properly packaged products are not, in fact, defective.
Here at Industrial Packaging, we have regularly scheduled taste and texture testing protocols. These make sure the consistency of things like candy products are correct. This ensures customer satisfaction with the product.
These tests allow us to identify batches of products that may be defective. And, we are able to identify other areas in which the product would be off-putting to your client.
Imagine that you are using a contract packaging vendor to manage your supply chain. In that case, you will have a conduit between you and your customer base. This conduit ensures only choice products are making it into the hands of your consumers.
Now you may think to yourself, "we could just do all this ourselves". And, you could. But, in that case, you would likely need to implement more labor, machinery and related dynamics that would result in a higher cost than outsourcing these elements of your business.
Sounds Great, But Is Contract Packaging Right For You?
Are you interested in learning more about contract packaging? Would you like to know the various ways in which a contract packaging company can help your business? If you are interested to learn more about contract packaging, you will want to check out this article, what is contract packaging, and how does it work?
With the information in this article, you will be able to identify if contract packaging makes sense for your business or not.
