An Integrative Approach to Supply Chain Management

By optimizing the supply chain and operational activities of your business, you can expect to:

• Improve efficiency
• Increase customer value
• Optimize transportation & logistics
• See improvements in quality
• Build resiliency throughout the business

Supply chain optimization and packaging activities have a surprising amount in common. By using a few of these methods outlined below, you can expect to cut costs, while also improving efficiency.

Automation

At FlexPAC, we have found many different solutions for businesses to save money with the introduction of automation. In many cases, firms are able to save thousands of dollars and increase productivity considerably by the addition of machines. In one example, the number of bundles a dairy co-op produced per hour increased by 50%. This allowed the co-op to save around $316,000 a year. Read more about this savings here.

In another scenario, a new machine allowed for a manufacturer to reduce film use and wrap pallets more effectively, reducing damages. This new machine helped increase their throughput by 48% per hour, which helps save money, time, and specifically on labor costs.

Automation in the scheme of supply chain helps businesses to save costs in different stages of their operation. Automation can help your business produce at a larger scales as well, which allows you to produce at stocking levels that make the most sense for your operation. Although the upfront cost of machinery can be costly, in most cases it saves firms money over time through increased productivity, decreased damages, and a reduction in labor and materials costs. Learn what impact a machine from FlexPAC can have on your ROI with our free Cost Calculator!

Preventative Maintenance

Many businesses wait until it’s too late to provide maintenance to their machines. Instead of waiting for a major problem to happen, regularly checking your machines and consulting with FlexPAC’s Solution Providers to identify potential issues can save time and money in the long run. Preventative maintenance through our Solution Providers can help to identify bottlenecks, which saves your operation save by increasing speed and efficiency. Doing this will allow for equipment downtime and the number of repairs to drop. Preventative maintenance can also increase the life expectancy of machines, saving you from overinvesting in assets. Keeping your machines in prime shape can also help improve safety conditions for employees.

Each of these points will help your business save an influx of spending on machine repairs and replacements. Keeping track of preventative maintenance will help you keep costs low in relation to large-scale repairs and replacements, as well as in labor costs.

Vendor Consolidation

One key part of supply chain management is vendor consolidation. By purchasing supplies through one vendor versus several, you can save money on products and shipping costs. It costs around $700- $1,400 to maintain a vendor relationship per vendor. That number can add up significantly with each additional vendor. A large Indianapolis church was able to save around $10,500 – $21,000 by consolidating their 15+ vendors down to just one with FlexPAC.

Not only can vendor consolidation help save money and time, it also can be more beneficial to have a relationship with one vendor. FlexPAC Solution Providers help businesses find the right products for their operation, which helps improve productivity and efficiency. This also helps optimize materials and decrease unnecessary fees.

To learn more about supply chain optimization and how FlexPAC can help you, sign up for our free webinar on this topic here!