Akers Packaging recently issued the following announcement.
For Corrugated, the price versus cost question is complex. On one hand, Price correlates directly to the amount spent on the box, whereas Total Cost often involves other factors such as buffer inventory, warehouse costs, production downtime or rescheduling while waiting for the delivery, and damage costs related to poor design, to name a few.
When comparing vendors, it’s crucial to do a total cost analysis to determine how the factors affect the price. You will never be able to judge the true cost by simply looking at the price of the box.
Order Quantities – Discount or Disadvantage?
Many suppliers attract customers with low prices, usually tied to larger order volume. While this may sound good on the surface, it doesn’t capture the added cost of utilizing storage space to hold more cartons than are needed in the near term, or the loss of stacking strength that comes from storing boxes for over 90 days (up to 40%!).
By ordering what you need, when you need it, you can free up warehouse space for more important things.
Waste Reduction
Another element of overall cost is the reduction of waste. Have you looked at your corrugated inventory recently? Do you have obsolete boxes because your customers’ needs changed after you placed a large order of cartons? Perhaps a product has out-lived its lifecycle or maybe you purchased the wrong boxes and they’ve been taking up valuable space in your warehouse. The concept of buying only what you needed helps prevent this waste, saving you money by lowering your total cost.
Akers Packaging is a consultative corrugated vendor. We make sure that your packaging fits your product and that there is a balance between the over and under packaging. Damage to product due to the wrong packaging can result in customer returns from damage-at a tremendous cost. Conversely, if your returns and damage are low, perhaps your boxes are overengineered- increasing your total cost. Akers can also assist with box consolidation, reviewing SKU’s to make sure you aren’t stocking more than you need and determining if a box can be reconfigured to work for multiple products.
Time is Money
The age old saying that “time is money” is still relevant today. If your corrugated orders are late that could result in production downtime, unnecessary production rescheduling and even late shipments to customers-all extremely costly. This is a frequent situation, low box prices but high total cost. The Akers motto is “On Time, Every Time” because we know how much late deliveries really cost you. Before working with a new vendor, verify their on-time-delivery ratio and their lead time. Akers is typically better than 98% and usually 3-5 days including the date of order and delivery.
We take pride in the routine packaging assessments we conduct for our customers, and often identify time savings as a result.
Make the Right Choice
Akers provides the best fit corrugated packaging to our customers every day. We ship only what you need and only when you need it – on time, every time. Our consultative approach gives our customers peace of mind knowing that the boxes they receive are the best value. Please contact us today for a complimentary packaging assessment- we welcome the opportunity.
Original source can be found here.
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