Digital Diligence pays Dividends

There has been a growing interest in how digitalisation can improve efficiency, reduce costs and improve the interface between the brand and the consumer. The recent report from Forrester underscores the increasing importance of digitalisation and its role in advancing the cause of greater sustainability and the circular economy. Philip Yorke takes a closer look at its conclusions.

Changes that came about in the packaging industry in response to the pandemic, resulted in a major shifting of consumer preferences, and supply chain disruptions. Unfortunately, these are likely to remain relevant well beyond 2023. However, digital transformation in the packaging industry can help overcome disruptive shut-downs, offer greater operational agility, improve operational efficiency and lower costs. SPN looks at some of Forresters’ recent conclusions.

Reducing Lead Times

Forrester said: “The process of designing new packaging, typically involves dozens of design concepts before arriving at the perfect solution. It’s not uncommon for packaging development departments to wait days and weeks before each prototype is ready, which can be extremely time-consuming. Which is why packaging brands turn to 3D printing to speed up packaging development through faster and more economical production of design variations.

This is possible because 3D printing is a digitally-controlled technology that doesn’t require moulds or other tools for production. It uses a design file sent to a 3D printer and manufactured within several hours. Another benefit of 3D printing is that it can create prototypes with the finished product’s features, colours, and materials. This enables packaging companies to test the final product’s look and feel, whilst keeping the costs low. For example, Thermos, a manufacturer of insulated food and beverage containers, has been using 3D printing for packaging prototypes since 2006.

Switching from outsourcing prototyping jobs to in-house 3D printing reduced the lead time for a prototype from five days to several hours. The company states that prototyping with 3D printing allowed them to optimise the fit of the cap stopper and pouring performance of their best-selling Thermos mugs.

Enhanced customer experience

Whilst 3D printing enables faster packaging designs, smart packaging technologies make packages more communicative and individualised, by using tags, QR codes or sensors that embed information onto packaging, which smartphones and other devices can read.

One example of smart connected packaging comes from a leading UK university that developed a solution that enables spirits traders to authenticate bottles of rare vintage whisky. This is achieved by using their smartphone to tap an anti-tamper NFC bottle closure that connects to a digital certification record held on a private blockchain.

In addition to the food and beverage industry, pharmaceuticals can also benefit from smart packaging. From the customer perspective, pill bottles with smart packaging can help patients understand product usage, safety, and dosage information which has the added environmental benefit of reduced paper usage. From the supply chain perspective, smart packaging can provide visibility on every medical product’s location, making inventory management and quality control more efficient.

more Intelligent Packaging

Expanding on the supply chain point, using intelligent packaging with radio frequency identification sensors (RFID) enables a more efficient supply chain for packaging manufacturers and distributors.

Companies can collect data and track packages connected to a network. For example, RFID tags allow tracking of the location of a package throughout warehouses. This is because the RFID tags are automatically scanned by the RFID reading device upon entering and exiting the warehouse.

What is the best part of RFID tags within an inventory? The fact that individual manual scanning of each package is not necessary. Through radio-frequency monitoring, the RFID reader knows immediately when the package has entered or left the warehouse. Not only does the use of RFID tags for packaging minimise human error, but they also help to enhance the delivery time and increase the rate rate of packaging productivity.”