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Send to KindleFlexible packaging specification guidelines
4. Specify what works. A solid understanding of real requirements leads to being able to match up film options in a robust manner. Where lots of experience exists, leverage that knowledge to simplify the process, adjusting other aspects of the film to meet the unique requirements for the specific application. If you are heading into uncharted territory for either the supplier or user, take the time to test and understand the limits of satisfactory performance. A beautifully formatted specification that describes in detail a film construction that doesn’t work is worse than useless—it runs the risk of misleading everyone as to what film to use.
5. Specify what the supplier can make consistently and efficiently. Very few, if any, situations can tolerate high rates of unacceptable material. Mismatches between a film specification and a supplier’s capability only serve to drive up costs and put at risk the smooth flow of the value chain. The user has the responsibility to describe what they understand to be their requirements, and the supplier has the responsibility to accurately represent their capability to consistently and efficiently make the film.
6. Point out potential mismatches. Identifying a potential mismatch may lead to a productive conversation in which “what matters” can be refined, leading to better supplier capability, the realization that other suppliers may have the needed capability already in place, or an agreement that it will take time for any supplier to move up the learning curve to meet the needs. Keeping a mismatch a secret is a dangerous practice that all too often comes to light at the worst possible time.
7. Specify what can be delivered at appropriate cost. The value of a film structure only can be set in the context of the end use. High-value goods with high failure costs can justify more costly, higher-performance packaging to ensure secure and fully functional delivery. For lower-value commodity goods, where consumer or industrial end customer switching costs are small to nonexistent, the critical need for cost efficiency drives the selection to lower package performance and overall cost-in-use.
8. Drive to the best outcome. Be sure to maintain an overall, or total, cost-in-use mindset. The invoice price of the film structure is only one component. Carefully examine and understand all the places where the performance of that structure impacts cost. You’ll determine accurate cost-in-use and make much better decisions. Industry veterans relate cases where bulking up a sealant layer slightly resulted in increased film cost that was more than offset by a reduction in incurred costs associated with seal failure in terms of downtime, lost product, and lost sales to the end user. Cost-in-use applied smartly avoids the “penny wise, pound foolish” trap that comes from too simplistic a view of procurement of films.
9. Acknowledge the natural tension around price. There is always tension between suppliers and customers around price, and film choices and specifications. Suppliers appropriately seek to be realistically rewarded for quality, service, innovation, and reinvestment. Customers understandably seek consistent quality, security of supply, and competitive, and predictable costs. In the long term, “you get what your pay for” and “you get paid for what you deliver” generally hold true even though short-term shifts in the balance between supplier and customer may seem to distort the equation. The real bottom line here is profound: Poor film choices and specifications subvert the supply relationship, resulting in higher costs for both parties.
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