Packaging innovation in the modern warehouse
Drones, robots and cranes. The modern warehouse looks like something out of a science-fiction...
4 min reading time
In most cases, suppliers can provide so much more value when they get a chance to sit down with you and talk in detail about the 4 key best practices of SRM. If you can give them a straight answer on all of them, you have established a supplier relationship that will give you much more than just cost savings.
Suppliers naturally respond to requests for a certain, specified type of solutions or services. That’s what they make or do and that’s what they sell. But the best results often come when suppliers are involved BEFORE those specifications are formally agreed.
Not only does that allow suppliers to give advice, but it can also save you valuable time.
By providing answers to these questions and developing a shared understanding of the business logic behind your decisions – suppliers and clients can work together to find a better solution.
Once you have a common understanding, the next logical step is to encourage your supplier to think for themselves. We live in a deadline-driven world, so it is often hard to find time for proactivity.
Suppliers can help you consider different ideas and emerging innovations. They give you a chance to step back and look at new approaches, giving you a crucial competitive advantage in the future.
The apex of collaboration between customer and supplier? An automated ordering process, based on your consumption forecast, stock, supply chain and agreed business and logistics rules.
The benefit is two-fold. First, because the supplier know where the stock is coming from and how long it takes to prepare, they can optimise lead times and reduce the amount of inventory. Second, it relieves the client of the mundane, time-consuming task of ordering – releasing them to add more value themselves.
Good idea, an over-emphasis on cost alone is a race to the bottom. Find out how DS Smith adds value with, for instance, Vendor Managed Inventories how we solve other logistical challenges such as void fill and overpackaging.
Stéphane Dalletarehas 20 years of experience in the packaging industry in in several roles (Local sales, Marketing, Key account Management …). Today, his main goal is to deliver targeted, profitable and sustainable growth within a portfolio of Key accounts across Europe. His extensive knowledge in different printing technologies and board types combined with his expertise in FMCG at local and European level provides him and his team the suitable skills to improve customer satisfaction, loyalty and delivering improved customer experience at each of the Business Unit customers.
We are different because we see the opportunity for packaging to play a powerful role in the world around us.