At the Auto Supply Chain Congress in Liverpool I chaired the
packaging discussion on the final day. Alongside me on the panel was Bill Povey,
Packaging Manager, Unipart Logistics; David Mayo, VP Automotive Europe, CHEP;
and Wendell Smith, VP Sales, Macro Plastics.
For the first time
ever at an automotive conference, the panel agreed that there could and should
be a standardised returnable packaging footprint that can be used across the
globe in the supply chain.
Up until now there had been serious resistance to having a
standardised product that can fit seamlessly into the supply chain across
numerous continents. There have been various reasons and queries put forward by
individuals within the industry as to why they don’t see a need for a packaging
solution that can be transported by road, rail and sea across the globe.
OEM’s, tier suppliers and logistics providers are now coming
to the consensus that some sort of standardised packaging is going to have to be
the way forward. This is pleasing news for an element of the supply chain that
is not given enough attention but underpins the whole process from OEM’s and
tier suppliers through to the automotive manufacturers.
As a result of this lack of attention, the OEM’s are not
fully aware of what returnable packaging can bring to their supply chain.
During the discussion Bill Povey pointed out that returnable
packaging offers cost benefits to the client and health and safety benefits to
the logistics providers. This indicates that there are benefits to all of the
parties involved in the supply chain. These benefits can be felt on a larger
scale if there was some sort of standardisation across the globe.
The standardisation is not some far flung dream, it is
constantly increasing in importance for the automotive industry and is becoming
harder for people to ignore.
The prime example of the need for a standard returnable
packaging solution is the Ford Focus. By 2018 Ford will be manufacturing the
Focus in five location
In the current environment, when tier suppliers and OEM’s
are preparing to bid/ tender for work they have to consider the viability of
transportation and logistics solutions.
They have to look at manufacturing locally which in the
context of the Ford Focus would mean locating in five locations requiring large
scale investment. A second option is having to package parts and components to
be sent to up to five locations with various parameters and requirements. Again
extra costs would be incurred by having to package and handle components for
different locations.
With the option of a packaging solution that is standardised
the OEM’s and tier suppliers can manufacture in their current locations and
ship to five different corners of the globe using one product. This
significantly reduces the costs compared to the options I mentioned above and,
also, drive down their costs compared to the options above and drive down their
current packaging and handling costs. This is without looking into the benefits
of using logistic pooling companies.
