Flawed packaging design costs millions

05-Oct-2011 - Last updated on 06-Oct-2011 at 15:15 GMT

Fit for purpose. New packaging designs must offer easy handling characteristics

Hundreds of millions of pounds are being wasted each year because new packaging designs are being dreamt up that won’t feed through packaging machinery.

Food and drink marketers and packaging designers attracted flak at the recent Processing and Packaging Machinery Association show at the NEC in Birmingham for failing to consult with equipment manufacturers before they introduced new packaging designs or made major modifications to existing designs.

In a debate organised by the Packaging Society, Richard Bull, md of induction sealing machinery supplier Enercon Industries, slammed the food and drink industry in particular for not consulting with equipment suppliers before introducing new designs or making major changes.

Mix well

“Packaging, packaging machinery and brand owners do not always mix well,” said Bull. “The design of the equipment is only the start of the requirement.”

He cited the example of new cap and bottle designs that would not run on equipment because the machinery manufacturers had not been properly consulted at the design phase. “This is not unusual”, he said. And it is a problem for big brand owners as well as small firms, he added.

“Sales and marketing do not talk to production. You don’t find out there’s a problem until you get to the production trial.” Equipment manufacturers and packaging design people need to work far more closely together and at an earlier stage, he added.

The size of the problem was huge, said Bull. ”€400M was wasted in the EU alone this year because of packaging that didn’t fit.”

Better informed

But, Mark Healey, sales director for labelling technology company Pago, argued that it was as much up to equipment manufacturers to be better informed about consumer trends, so that they could pre-empt production problems where packaging tended to jam going through kit.

“Those who look at markets tend to make products that markets and consumers want,” said Healey. “Yes, we have all heard of disasters where things didn’t work. But the fear inside the machinery industry is misplaced.”

He added: “Very few new products are genuinely new to the world … so it shouldn’t be a mystery to machinery manufacturers.”

Alan Moffat, packaging development manager for Heinz, said that what brand owners really wanted from their equipment suppliers was flexibility which would allow them to respond to market demands. “Manufacturing flexibility acts as a shock absorber to the system,” said Moffat. “You can gain competitive advantage with machine changeover times.”

He added: “Machine flexibility often costs money, but it can strategically affect operation performance.”