More than 5 billion people globally are internet users. With such scale, it’s no surprise that e-commerce has risen, too. More than 75% of American consumers shop online and nearly 60% of global consumers prefer e-commerce retail to shopping in-store.
An additional factor in the e-commerce shopping craze is consumers’ attention and care for sustainability: 78% of American shoppers find it important to live a sustainable lifestyle. Online shopping often produces a smaller carbon footprint than traditional brick-and-mortar stores, giving reason to consumers’ growing e-commerce preferences.
Consequently, these new shopping habits have skyrocketed demand for efficient and more sustainable packaging solutions. In today’s marketplace, nearly half of all consumers avoid purchasing products with excessive packaging, and an even greater percentage search specifically for recycling information on product labels.
While maintaining environmentally friendly packaging products is critical, sustainability in the industry extends far beyond the contents of the package itself. Today, sustainability lives within all aspects of a business.
Understanding the flow of production, and looking for opportunities to improve processes, is an important step in overall sustainability. Fortunately, manufacturers can take advantage of packaging ERP and MES software to simplify operational processes and gather real-time data and insights across their supply chain. A premier ERP and MES software helps to address potential packaging errors and inconsistencies, supports quality management, and ultimately ensures products are packaged to meet company standards.
Analyzing production nuances directly in the supply chain with MES technology allows for immediate modifications. For example, monitoring product overfill in real time helps to reduce future shipping weights and transportation costs. Additionally, implementing automated scheduling capabilities allows for optimized truck loads and delivery routes, which reduces the number of truck runs and lowers the carbon footprint.
Energy optimization is also a key player in sustainability as it relates to packaging production. By understanding the quality of equipment and raw materials going into a product, businesses can run production with greater efficiency and accuracy while improving overall output. Optimizing energy efficiency in manufacturing also means minimizing unplanned downtime, and ensuring operations are properly maintained and functional for routine, quality production.
As consumer preferences evolve, so do the expectations of sustainable packaging practices. Today, sustainability is seen as more than a product’s recyclability. For packaging manufacturers, this translates to real-time process improvements along the supply chain aimed to improve quality while reducing expense and overall waste.