6 Steps to Help Improve Your Packaging and Distribution | TNT Direct
Whether you’re a start-up operating out of your garage or a medium-sized enterprise with its own warehouse, it can be challenging to make sure your packaging and distribution is fit for purpose.
Inefficient systems and processes can create bottlenecks that make it hard for successful enterprises to keep up with demand. Outdated systems, poorly designed workspaces and materials that need a lot of storage space are some of the reasons why.
Knowing how to make your business more efficient with its packaging and distribution is a great way to keep the orders flowing and customers happy. So, here are six ways how you can update your operations for the better:
Audit your operations
Before you change anything about your packaging and distribution, you need to know what’s working – and what’s not. SWOT analysis can be particularly helpful here, identifying:
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
By doing a thorough review of your systems and processes, you’ll know more about how to improve your efficiency. It can help you find ways to lower your costs and give you a clearer idea of what tools or machinery could speed up the process.
Prioritise popular products
Which products are your best-sellers? Have you noticed any product combinations selling well? It makes good sense to know product sale volumes for stock management reasons, but this data can also help you plan your packaging processes.
Put your fastest-moving, most profitable products closer to your packing area and they’ll be ready to hand for quick packaging and distribution. When time is money, reducing the amount of time you spend fetching products from where they’re being stored is crucial.
Go green
One of four trends set to impact the global packaging industry in 2019 and beyond is the move towards using plastic-free packaging. Half of UK consumers are willing to pay more to avoid plastic in their packaging, so how could this affect your operations?
Going eco-friendly can help improve your brand image. But there are other benefits too:
The use of eco-friendly alternatives reduces your carbon footprint – and this can have practical benefits too, e.g. recycled materials cost less.
Using fewer/lighter materials can help lower your shipping costs.
Being more efficient with the use of packaging materials can create more storage space for your products.
Eco-friendly packaging is versatile and can be used for any type of product.
Trial new tech
No matter the size of your business, there are tech solutions you can try to automate at least some of the process, be it picking products, packaging them or getting them ready to send. Doing these by hand takes up a lot of time and is open to potential human error.
With tech, you can automate some of the most repetitive tasks in the process – such as label application. It can also help you make sure your products are packed securely. It’s not necessarily the right approach for all businesses but it can deliver real benefits.
Packing station
The design and layout of your packing station is an important consideration − you don’t want the operator to have to move too much. This means having the product, containers, labels and other useful items within easy reach.
For some companies, this can mean using tech to create more efficient packing stations – connecting a conveyor or automating the way in which staff are notified once an order is placed. With the right planning, your packing station can drive packaging productivity.
Direct distribution
Once an order is packed, it’s time to deliver it to the customer. You want it to get to its destination as quickly and as safely as possible – and that’s where TNT Direct comes in.
Smart Send is our innovative bulk parcel delivery service that gives you more control. It lets you tailor your courier and payment preferences to help streamline the process from the moment the order is placed on your website or ecommerce platform.
Available to businesses of all shapes and sizes and with multiple integration options, we can save you time by automatically importing details of your product to get it delivered.
It’s one thing to know how to prepare packages for distribution more effectively, but it’s another to make those changes. It needn’t be daunting though, as our six steps show.
There’s plenty of ideas you can consider. But any improvements you can make to your packaging and distribution can only be good for your business – and your customers.
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