Driving Raw Material and Packaging Material Productivity Excellence

As energy and commodity costs continue to rise, manufacturing companies have looked to their supply chains to find additional means to reduce raw material and packaging material costs. Most companies already have picked the low-hanging fruit in supply chain savings through economies of scale, consolidating source materials and other measures. This study seeks to understand how leading manufacturing companies achieve productivity gains through system approaches and innovations that reduce raw material and packaging material costs.

Driving Raw Material and Packaging Material Productivity Excellence provides extensive data and insight from 17 leading manufacturing companies. These companies and thousands of others are being challenged daily to find more effective ways to produce low cost, high quality goods for consumers. As they look for ways to compete in a tightening marketplace, many companies still see operational processes as an area they must evaluate for more tangible returns. Through quantitative surveys and in-depth interviews with packaging and procurement leaders at top manufacturing companies, the Best Practices, LLC research team sought to identify the proven best practices and tactical innovations these companies are utilizing to reduce raw material and packaging material costs. Best Practices LLC analysts identified several key elements that provide greater insight into developing high-performance in the areas of raw material and packaging material productivity.

• Leveraging supplier relationships emerged as one of the most important new ways to achieve productivity goals.
  • Best-in-class companies use two approaches depending on the situation: collaboration with preferred suppliers and competitive supplier selection.

Transferable technology innovations from other industries are the primary source of new technology to be leveraged for improving productivity. Leading companies monitor packaging breakthroughs outside their own sector and evaluate them for transferability to their own environments and needs.