The outside does actually matter

Challenge

The apparel company, with most of its production in Asia, contracted more than 400 different OEMs in China to manufacture and pack its products. The company spent a lot of time and resources on coordinating the OEMs and making sure that the right packaging reached the right OEM at the right time. The quality of the packaging also varied a great deal and was often poor. The automatic handling systems in their distribution centres suffered from low productivity due to a high amount of broken boxes and a variety of sizes and designs, which required costly manual handling.

Solution

Billerud’s technical team developed a completely new packaging portfolio in high-quality material with a uniform design that facilitates opening of the boxes at the distribution centres. Billerud was contracted to manage the entire logistics chain, from receiving the OEM orders to delivery of the new packaging. We became the brand owner’s single point of contact with the OEM suppliers to initiate the new packaging system and coordinate supply. We also trained the personnel at the OEM factories to ensure successful implementation.

Result

No claims due to poor packaging have yet been reported at the importing location. 10 million boxes annually have been included in the new system and distributed from China, and today Billerud handles over 1,000 orders per week. The customer has achieved substantial operational savings: 15% cost reduction from packaging as well as indirect savings through increased efficiency at its distribution centres. The automatic handling now functions according to plan, with improved productivity. We maintain quality by ensuring that packaging specifications are maintained at every delivery, which is now on time and the logistics puzzle is solved.