Mapping Reusables Into Your Supply Chain

Editor’s Note : The con­tent of this arti­cle was orig­i­nally deliv­ered as part of the Reusable Pack­ag­ing Asso­ci­a­tion work­shop at PACK EXPO Las Vegas in 2011.

By Andrew DeWitt, Senior Busi­ness Ana­lyst, TOSCA Ltd., and Reusable Pack­ag­ing Asso­ci­a­tion Member

Reusable pack­ag­ing can deliver cost sav­ings, increased mate­r­ial han­dling effi­cien­cies and reduce a company’s envi­ron­men­tal foot­print. How­ever, the imple­men­ta­tion of reusable pack­ag­ing will have a sig­nif­i­cant impact on many inter­nal processes as well as those of sup­pli­ers through­out a sup­ply chain. The changes that result from con­vert­ing to a reusable pro­gram can touch many peo­ple and the work they do. From work­ers on a line who fill the reusable con­tain­ers with prod­uct, to sup­pli­ers who inter­act with the con­tain­ers, to trans­porta­tion staff. If a com­pany decides to man­age the clean­ing, repair­ing and sort­ing of the reusables in house, there will be new processes and pro­ce­dures to cre­ate and sup­port. Because reusables require new processes in mate­r­ial han­dling at many places along a sup­ply chain, a com­pany must under­take care­ful plan­ning and thor­ough train­ing in order to be suc­cess­ful. This arti­cle will help you:

• Map and review an exist­ing sup­ply chain
• Map future sup­ply chain with reusable pack­ag­ing
• Test and refine the new busi­ness model
• Pre­pare for suc­cess­ful implementation

Read more at www.reusables.org.

Rick LeBlanc

Rick LeBlanc, EMBA, is the founder and editor of Reusable Packaging News (subscribe to the free newsletter) and editor of Western Pallet Magazine. A supply chain journalist with more than 30 years of experience, he specializes in pallets, reusable packaging, material handling and related operations. Rick is co-author of Pallets: A North American Perspective and Pallets & Progress: A Collected History of Pallets and Palletized Handling 1922–1945. He is also an advisory board member of the Virginia Tech Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design. Read Rick’s full bio.