Design as a Service Helps You Optimise Your Product Packaging

How Design as a Service Could Benefit  Your Brand?

DaaS can help you quickly ideate, design, and scale packaging production for your new product launch or brand refresh. Here are some scenarios that might make DaaS a good fit for your brand:

New Product Launch

A new product launch is just around the corner. With a realization that the team's efforts have been singularly focused on product development and commercialization, you suddenly realize that a customized packaging solution is still needed for your product. In lieu of starting package design from scratch, DaaS can help you quickly design and prototype an optimised package for introducing your product.

Internal Packaging Team is Overcommitted

You have a great internal packaging team. However, a combination of factors including other product launch commitments, personal leave time, or other organizational needs have team members maxed out. DaaS can provide additional workforce capacity at a time you need it most.

Product Expansion into International Markets

Your product, sold domestically, has experienced exponential growth. Leveraging this strong product demand, you are now going to launch your product internationally. This extended transit journey will increase the stress your packages endure enroute to distribution centers (DCs), retail outlets, and consumers. You need to ensure that your transport cartons have adequate strength to endure the rigours of international shipment.

Additional Production Capacity in Southeast Asia

Strong product demand requires you to increase production capacity beyond your current domestic borders. You have begun to explore production capacity in Southeast Asia (SEA). You need help to make sure that the product factory you select will choose a packaging vendor that can design transport cartons strong enough to protect your products during their extended international journeys. 

What are the Benefits of Using Billerud’s Design as a Service (DaaS)?

Billerud has a deep bench of experienced packaging design professionals. Our collective expertise includes structural designers and graphic designers who hold designations  as a Certified Packaging Professional (CCP) or as an ISTA Certified Packaging Laboratory Professional (CPLP). 

We have been successfully designing customized packaging solutions for global brands since 1995. With our help, brands frequently achieve significant cost savings, reduce their carbon footprint, have products arrive in pristine condition, and provide a delightful brand experience to DC's, retailers, and consumers. 

Packaging Designers Available on Three Continents

Billerud’s experienced team of packaging designers work in SEA, Europe, and North America. This cross-cultural team can anticipate when regional practices may cause OEM sourced packaging providers to produce packaging that deviates from packaging design files. Our international team of packaging designers can proactively eliminate barriers that might arise when global brands rely on remote OEMs for international package production.

As our design team works across three distinct time zones, there is almost always somebody available to actively work on moving your design project forward.

Clearly Communicating Packaging Specifications Across International Borders 

We will work collaboratively with your internal team to design customized packaging solutions for your particular needs. We will then prepare a Statement of Work (SOW) that clearly delineates your specific needs, your timeline, and our deliverables to you.

What Services and Products are Included in DaaS?

As each solution we design is unique to a specific customer, product, industry, and distribution region, we remain flexible regarding development of each SOW.

Components of a SOW may include:

• Design services
• Validation testing
• Sustainability reports
• Carton optimization exercises

Deliverables for a SOW may include:

• A carton prototype
• A testing report
• Assembly instructions
• Material specifications
  • Note: Material specifications will outline the materials we had on hand to use for your prototype design. (The packaging providers that your OEM contracts with may have different materials available.)
  • If you need assistance ensuring the OEM’s packaging providers are using raw materials that will adhere to design specifications, please let us know and we can discuss creating an additional SOW to help you manage the transition from design ideation to on-going production.

Packaging Design with Sustainability as a Core Value

Sustainability is a core corporate value at Billerud Managed Packaging. We work to proactively take the lead in the transition to a circular economy with packaging solutions that are renewable, recyclable and climate efficient.  

Each design that we prepare for you will consider downstream uses, recyclability, and disposal.  This focus on circular packaging design helps many of our clients achieve success at meeting their own sustainability goals.   

What if My Product Factory Needs Help Transitioning from Prototype to Production?

Sometimes, after brands receive their final DaaS prototypes and files, they would like additional support to ensure that their optimised packaging solution transitions successfully to production. We do offer additional services that can provide localized support for implementation. These services may include:

• Validating production samples (as these may not be made with exactly the materials we specified)
• Meeting onsite with chosen packaging supplier to ensure specifications are being met
• Auditing the packaging in market to ensure that packaging drift is not occurring

To find out about these services, please contact your account manager.    

Conclusion:

Brands are empowered to rapidly respond to packaging challenges on tight deadlines when they use Billerud’s DaaS. Our experienced bench of top packaging designers understand the business model of global brands. We can help you hit the ground running to launch improved packaging designs.

We will help you develop innovative packaging solutions to reduce costs, improve efficiencies, and minimize your carbon footprint. We will also provide you with something that is often elusive... peace of mind knowing your international supply chain and packaging are operating at peak efficiency.