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Packaging's role in product development: Gaining a foothold

One-third of survey respondents say packaging is a key player in product development. Maybe not yet, says a consultant.

Pw 11829 Figure 1

This survey was developed with assistance from Packaging & Technology Integrated Services (PTIS), a consultancy that helps companies better integrate packaging into an overall management strategy. The goal was to assess just how important the packaging function is in product development efforts and to show where packaging as a discipline is today. The survey also suggests where packaging needs to get if it is to have a greater impact on profitable product innovations.

This survey represents perspectives of both large and small companies. Respondents are from companies with more than 2ꯠ employees and from companies with fewer than 100 employees.

Approximately 37% of the respondents were from companies with more than 2ꯠ employees. Another 29% were from organizations with from 500 to 2ꯠ employees. Only 13% were from companies with fewer than 100 employees, while 21% were from companies with 101 to 500 employees.

Packaging World acknowledges the contributions of PTIS principals Michael Richmond and Brian Wagner. Their help in formulating the survey questions and interpreting the results bring added value to the overall effort.

How important a role does packaging play in product development efforts right now? Where and how should fundamental packaging issues fit into product development strategies at Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies?

Those who responded to a targeted survey on packaging and product development say that packaging plays a significant role about one-third of the time. But they say packaging should play a key role about 70% of time, leaving a lot of room for improvement.

Packaging World ran its on-line survey early in 2005, and it got more than 200 responses. Top-line results from the data and the analysis show:

• About 21% of respondents say their company’s packaging department is brought in at the pre-concept stage and 33% say at the concept stage when a new product is being considered (see Fig. 1). They say packaging professionals collaborate closely with marketing as product and package evolve.

• Asked what the ideal collaboration picture should look like, more than two-thirds of respondents say the packaging department should be brought into the product development process early (see Fig. 2).

• Marketing drives the product development process. Marketers are involved in early pre-concept thinking 46% of the time (see Fig. 3). Packaging people get into pre-concept development only 21% of the time.

• Survey respondents see packaging as the most important function in the process, saying that 77% of the time the packaging function is “very important” in product development (see Fig. 4). Purchasing is lower on the product development “totem pole.” Its influence is considered “very important” only 31% of the time.

• In many cases, the concept of integrating all the players—including vendors—into an integrated value chain hasn’t happened yet.

• One of the more significant obstacles to effective product development—the “not invented here” syndrome—is going away, and managers are quicker to embrace ideas from outside sources.

The on-line survey, “Where Packaging Ranks in the Organization,” went to a broad e-mail list of Packaging World subscribers. More than half of those who responded were from CPG companies. The others were suppliers and consultants. The percentages reported in this article represent only responses from CPG companies.

Defining integrated value chain

The survey’s goal was to determine to what degree companies are implementing the Integrated Value Chain Model (IVCM) for managing packaging. That model seeks to involve packaging with all other functions in developing and delivering new products. In simplest terms, it suggests an easy flow of information among these internal functions:

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