There is no doubt that the sustainability aspect of packaging has rapidly increased in relevance. This development is not a trend, but an essential prerequisite and irreversible factor in the performance evaluation of a packaging system. Nevertheless, it is a matter of doing one thing and not leaving the other (keeping an eye on costs). Reducing the economic evaluation of a packaging system to procurement costs alone is too short-sighted. Rather, it makes sense to identify and evaluate a comprehensive assessment of all, or at least all, relevant influencing variables. This is all the more important in view of the increasing importance of the issue of external costs, i.e. environmental damage that is not priced into product costs.
A holistic view requires comprehensive knowledge and analysis of the cost-affecting parameters in the entire value chain. The more detailed the analysis in the value chain, the more costly and data-intensive the holistic view. For this reason, we recommend that the system boundaries of the TCO analysis be precisely aligned with the intended use, so that effort and benefit are in an economic relationship. The second important aspect is the object of the analysis. Which product (+packaging) should be considered? Which product has the greatest cost leverage or turnover?, according to which prioritization should be proceeded, with which will the greatest benefit be achieved? A process visualization helps, especially when system comparisons are made, because often differences in the processes lead to wrong cost assumptions.
In general, it can be said that a TCO analysis generally and very specifically identifies the essential cost drivers or savings potentials and sensitizes decision-makers to a holistic view of costs. This generally increases the scope for action for those responsible, because procurement costs are only one part of the profitability analysis of packaging systems, but seemingly more expensive packaging plays out its cost advantages in other areas.