Sustainable Packaging Hurdles - Overcome the Unknown

New regulations like the "Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (2025/4 PPWR)" and consumer preferences are driving brand owners into the need for sustainable packaging solutions.

With the increased awareness the urge to commercialise improved packaging solutions has also grown. But we are not seeing that the speed to market for new sustainable packaging solutions (NPD) are actually improving. We are seeing the opposite launching sustainable NPDs is getting harder and more complex.

The root cause for the slow go-to-market is often found in complex decision making and stakeholder management instead as often thought by a poor commercialisation performance.

In the past new packaging solutions were often discussed and executed by engineer/ procurement teams. Due to the public awareness the group needed to make packaging decisions has risen to 'town hall' sizes. Now public affairs, sales, marketing, communication, the C-suite, everyone need to be involved and consulted.

A cross-functional decision requires a cross-functional team. The need for individuals who can navigate and influence all these functions is needed.

The questions why new packaging solutions are still on the bench and are not getting any playtime yet are many:

• Is there enough brand real estate to ensure shelf presence?

• Do we need to re-balance the production line efficiency?

• Who has reviewed and conducted the Life Cycle Analysis (greenwashing risk)?

All of these questions and many more must be answered. However, the most not open discussed one is "How do we overcome the Unknown?". Often the speed to market is slow as the capability (skills) of managing stakeholders to win-over for the new bold ideas does not exist.

Operational (Un-)Readiness: Reason for failed Business Case delivery

The start of most business case developments is to answer the 'cost versus benefit' question and to identify the Return of Investment (ROI) hurdle in years. A practical approach must be applied to sharpen the cost assumption to hit the ROI. The challenge here is to apply an end-to-end lens in determine risks of quality, safety, capability and cost to deliver the business case in full, on time, on budget.

Unfortunately, often a short term thinking is applied and operational readiness is missed. Operational Readiness is the cost item in every business case which must not be missed. However, many OCon case studies showing exactly this. Operational Readiness was missed or significantly understated to hit a ROI hurdle. The consequence is brutal as Business Cases are delivered delayed with increased costs.

Operational Readiness is:

1. Developing scenarios to manage inventory & customer service during commissioning

2. Project management of installation, commissioning to full operation

3. Providing team with capability for new technology (training)

4. Problem solving to close out installation punch list

5. Support factory for vertical start-up phase after commissioning

The ambitious timeline to manage project costs requires that the newly installed production equipment starts up smoothly to maximum efficiency (OEE) as quick as possible - vertical start-up. A methodology used to achieve high factory performance is Centre-Lining.

 OCon is providing Centre-Lining for Vertical Start-ups     

• Number #1 issue of achieving and sustaining OEE improvements is the activity: Centre-lining of production lines/ equipment which is also the least understood and practiced.

• Centre-lining is a methodology used to reduce product and process variability and increase machine efficiency in manufacturing processes.

• The principle to Eliminate, Simplify, Standardise and Automate (ESSA) will help your organisation make savings by streamlining processes and removing inefficiencies.

• Determining best settings for your production process and ensure the consistent use during production (changes) is the core objective.

• Under OCon two lean practitioners with over 25-years of beverage manufacturing experience have come together to offer their (centre-lining) service to you.

Engineers Needed for Decarbonisation

Problem Statement

Mega Industry trends? Nothing is clearer than sustainability is the future direction. Unclear is the roadmap how to decarbonise Supply Chains within the FMCG industry.

It is not new to communicate sustainability pledges via marketing tools or through Board directors on AGMs. The new part is that the ecosystem of stakeholders turning to the C-suite of promising organisations and ask: “How do we that? and “Are we there yet?”.

Organisations & CEOs which have done the heavy lifting over the recent years (packaging reduction, H2O & E monitoring etc.) can answer these questions easily. However, my experience is telling me a different story.

There is a vast number of organisations they don’t have the tangible initiatives to build a roadmap to deliver on their net-zero promise.

Approach

Reflecting on this there is one clear call to be made. We need ENGINEERS to decarbonise our SC. There was never a time where engineers are more important than now. The time that the engineers are the ugly brothers held in the dungeon of the big brand organisations are over. The call for our youngest and brightest to join our highly renowned universities is now. The time is now for organisations to rethink the move to hang sustainability purely on public& communication officers. We need to start a PR campaign to maker engineer sexy again as these are the people who will change the planet and help our organisations to deliver theory net zero pledges.

OCon has exactly done this:

(1) working with universities to ensure the new workforce leaving universities are prepared and ready to add value form Day 1. Also ensuring that engineering students know what a bright future lay ahead of them.

(2) Developed multiple roadmaps & action plans to reduce costs & emissions in one step.

Contact us to learn more about our case studies and success stories.