If you’re an operations manager, chances are you’re removed from the purchasing process. Some companies are too siloed for one hand to know what the other’s doing.
This is a mistake. In our experience, the largest hidden costs of manufacturing and packaging are found lurking between the cracks. And if you approach supplies as commodities for a specific use, rather than as an integral part of your company’s overall profitability, there will be blind spots in this area.
The situation raises a significant paradigm shift to consider: Don’t let your suppliers make their pitches in the purchasing office. Better yet, work with a supplier who understands the true costs of packaging and who can demonstrate why their goods make sense for your overall profitability.
FPS has helped dozens of customers reduce downtime and limit product losses from damaged goods by simply consulting on the appropriateness and applicability of chosen supplies and identifying practical ways to improve profitability.
For example, one customer had more than 40 different machines in their facilities. Each system required months of training and years of expertise to properly integrate into their business.
After consulting with their team and evaluating their production line, we found they were potentially losing tens of thousands of dollars a year, attributable to the low-quality materials they were purchasing at a discount. The combined costs of downtime and machine repairs due to the lower-quality supplies were exponentially higher than the amount they were saving in the purchasing department. By switching to higher-quality supplies that cost them a little more up front, the company accounted for a hundred thousand dollars in savings by reducing downtime & increasing efficiencies over the course of the year.
It’s just another reason you should consider working with a supplier who takes the time to understand your business. The experts at FPS can boast a global expertise with materials, equipment, and technical support. Their knowledge of the packaging industry is broad, with a deep understanding of the ever-evolving packaging industry’s business models, market statistics, regional and national trends, and relevant data, allowing them to provide expert analysis and recommendations that contribute to meaningful solutions.
If you’re an ops manager looking to identify hidden costs, eliminate waste, optimize uptime, and increase labor efficiency, be sure to call us first. We specialize in helping our customers improve all of the above.
