01. Cost saving solutions
These are great ways to save money and reduce your packaging costs
Review your packaging designs. Just because you’ve always used a particular style of packaging it doesn’t mean that it’s still the best way of protecting your product. By taking a fresh look at your designs you can often reduce your packaging costs.
Rationalise and eliminate void space. Take a look at all of your packaging and see if products can be combined within a box rather than having separate boxes for each item. This will then reduce the number of boxes you need and may also eliminate void space in the packaging. At the moment you may be using plastic bags of air or bubble wrap which can’t be easily recycled.
A better design makes packing quicker. Changing the style of your packaging can lead to faster packing times for your product. By having boxes that are delivered flat packed, pre-glued and folded can result in quicker opening and filling times on a packing machine or by hand.
Reduce storage and delivery costs. With a better design then more products can be placed safely on each pallet. This will maximise space in your storage areas as well as reducing your overall costs for delivery (by being able to load more items on each lorry).
Prevent damage to your product. By designing your packaging to hold the product inside securely then there should also be less breakages. Corrugated packaging offers a great deal of protection to your goods and can be printed to enhance your brand.
02. Innovative designs that save money
Creating a solution that reduces your costs and protects the planet
Saving money and saving the planet almost seems too good to be true but they are complimentary. Taking the time to review your packaging more often than not leads to a more efficient design. In turn this also reduces your packaging costs.
For instance you may have changed the size of your product over the years but not the size of your packaging. So a new design using the latest technology can provide a solution that saves money and raw materials.
Atlas Packaging are specialists in creating cost saving designs for your packaging. Our highly skilled and experienced structural designers use the latest computer software to work out the best fitting for your product.
The next stage in the process is to plot out a 3D replica of the packaging on our design tables. We then pressure test the box using specialist machinery and work out the best board type and design to meet your requirements.
03. Design guides
Custom made designs or FEFCO standard packaging?
FEFCO is the name for the corrugated cardboard industry’s standard range of box types. A PDF of the FEFCO guide can be downloaded here which shows all the standard packaging sizes. The question is, though, would it be more cost effective to create a custom made packaging design which perfectly fits your product or buy a standard size box and use something to fill the void space?
Pros and cons of custom made versus standard packaging
Having packaging custom made can make the best use of the raw materials by reducing waste and using less cardboard to begin with. For example we worked with Kinder Chocolate to rationalise their SRP packaging.
As a result we were able to produce the tray and detachable hood from one complete sheet of cardboard rather than two. We also printed direct on to the cardboard instead of on to a separate sheet of paper (that is then glued to the board).
Custom made packaging also allows innovative techniques to hold the product securely using cardboard as well as creating hinges and carrying options if required.
However, a bespoke cutting tool is needed as well as allowing time for the structural design process. But while the upfront costs may be higher for custom made, there will be savings from that point onwards as less cardboard is needed.
