In recent years, we have increasingly organised in-house workshops with our customers. In the beginning, these were essentially special workshops to develop potential alternatives for existing packaging concepts or holistic concepts for packaging. At the same time, we are increasingly approached by converters from the supply chain, where we not only present the current sustainability aspects in a short training course, but also show and discuss the potentials for their own business model of the future. The variety of workshops thus continues to increase and we design the contents and processes to meet the needs of our clients.
Workshop on sustainability goals
The basis of a workshop is usually a short or full-day in-house training for the responsible employees and decision-makers in order to feed the internal discussion with facts instead of making decisions based on hearsay or emotional sensitivities. Such training is also intended to identify initial potentials for companies in order to define or specify corporate goals, to determine strategies and measures or to identify packaging for which solution ideas for more sustainable concepts are to be developed.
Business model workshop
Due to the rapidly changing framework conditions in the packaging industry, companies are often confronted with the question of whether their business model is still sustainable and where potentials can be raised. The resulting decisions are usually connected with high investments for a reorientation or redesign of the machines. Repeatedly, we support companies in pointing out the background and market developments, illuminating advantages and disadvantages holistically, carrying out SWOT analyses and setting initial priorities, which are further analysed for decision-making..
Packaging concept workshop
The conception of a new packaging or the revision of an existing range is a complex topic. Usually, it starts with the 'simple' wish to change the material. But there are already many things to consider when choosing the material. We usually start with the end-of-life scenario, i.e. how will the packaging be disposed of in the destination country and what impact will this have on nature or what costs are involved. With the help of our decision tree, relevant packaging concepts can be identified and further illuminated. In addition to the materials, the question inevitably arises of availability, processing on the company's own machines or processes, savings in logistics and goods storage, cost aspects, disposal and image aspects, handling and appearance or haptics. However, one maxim is always at the centre of a packaging concept for us - the preservation of the product according to our motto: "A sustainable packaging solution puts the product at the centre and sustainability at the forefront."
In-house workshops with a side effect
A nice side effect of these in-house workshops is that the individual departments involved in new solutions get to know each other better. It is not uncommon for colleagues to exchange and understand the different points of view for the first time and thus arrive at solutions more quickly than through the usual individual working groups in the departments. Another learning for the companies is that many interesting solutions already exist in-house, but they are often not 'heard'. From our experience, the share of such ideas is often 50-60%; it is then our task to identify these and to help them gain appropriate weight based on facts.
Cost savings are the rule and our target
Our experience with holistic packaging concepts shows that, as a rule, the savings from more sustainable packaging solutions are in the double-digit percentage range, while the basic expectation of companies is of additional costs. We explain this with the simple understanding that sustainability means reducing waste - be it time, energy or other resources. And less waste inevitably means savings. Unfortunately, most packaging concepts are not considered from a total cost optimization perspective, but are often detached from the value chain, based on missing information or half-knowledge, with the aim of optimising the status quo with existing solutions.
Interested in an in-house workshop to get your company moving faster? Then feel free to write to us via our contact form or directly to sustainability[at]pacoon.de