Packaging Impressions Parlor: Addressing Efficiency Among Converters and Brand Owners

In surveying package printers and brand owners in NAPCO Research’s 2024 report Digital Packaging: The Pursuit of Prosperity, both sides reported facing similar challenges. Above all, efficiency challenges rose to the top, indicating that the entire packaging supply chain aims to move faster.

For brands, top challenges include improving supply chain efficiency and responsiveness and handling shorter time-to-market requirements. On the converter side, solutions to solving customers’ needs for faster turnarounds, optimizing print and production equipment, and managing increased versions emerged as key benefits from adopting digital printing.

With this overall need for the industry to operate more efficiently, both brands and converters reported advantages of implementing digital production technologies. Particularly, when combined with conventional printing, the data reveals that a multifaceted workflow can be the key to efficient production.

The Customer Need for Increased Speed

Brand owners operate amid a challenging supply chain in which they must source several components for their products, along with labels and packaging, and ensure these products arrive safely and on time to retailers, consumers, or any number of destinations. When asked to indicate their top packaging challenges, 38% of brand owners surveyed reported improving supply chain efficiency and responsiveness was a top challenge, along with 28% citing difficulty handling shorter time-to-market requirements.

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Meanwhile, with 32% of brands reporting managing increased product versions as a top challenge, a picture emerges of a supply chain increasing in complexity as more products need to be delivered faster. Increasing SKUs and package versions is a prominent trend among brand owners, as 79% of brand owner respondents reported they expect an increase in SKUs over the next 24 months.

When asked what was driving that expected increase, the need for efficiency in production was made even clearer. In addition to satisfying consumer demand for product variety and keeping up with competitors, top SKU proliferation drivers include shorter product development cycles and lifecycles (34%). With products staying on shelf for less time, brands are turning to technological solutions to get new products to market faster, as 36% each indicated printing technology that allows for short runs and the ability to produce packaging on demand as top drivers of their expected SKU increase.

Converters Cite Top Efficiency Challenges

As brands seek to push the pace of packaging production, printers and converters report added difficulties in their workflow. When asked to indicate their top challenges in various business areas, the No. 1 challenge converters cited was managing customers’ speed to market demands with 39% of respondents reporting this to be a top challenge. Meanwhile, 43% deemed it to be a moderate challenge, and 18% stated it is a slight challenge, with no respondents reporting speed to market as not being a challenge.

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Digging into converters’ specific efficiency challenges, the No. 1 difficulty cited (48%) was changeover times between jobs, which becomes particularly challenging as more SKUs or package versions flow through a facility. Confirming the concern of increased package versions and SKUs, it was the second-most cited efficiency challenge, selected by 41% of respondents.

Recognizing Technological Solutions

The good news on the converter side is that all respondents indicated they are taking action to work through their efficiency challenges. Much of the effort to increase efficiency has been centered around technological investments – particularly digital printing and production equipment. When asked to indicate the steps they have taken to enhance their organization’s efficiency, the top responses were:

• Installation of digital printing equipment: 51%
• Addition of digital finishing/converting equipment: 44%
• Upgrading or investing in workflow management software: 38%

These investments indicate that package printers and converters recognize that the increased SKUs, package versions, and short runs their facilities have faced will remain for the long term. Having digital equipment suited for this type of work while leveraging conventional equipment for high-volume production runs is ideal for operating at peak efficiency.

Click to Enlarge | Credit: NAPCO Research

On the brand owner side, 91% of respondents report using digital printing to at least some degree in producing their labels and packaging, and of those 91%, most cite efficiency benefits as the top advantages of the technology. Specifically, 55% of brand owner respondents stated cost-effective short runs to be a top benefit of digital printing, while 53% deem increased speed to market to be a top benefit.

For the entire packaging supply chain, efficiency has undoubtedly become paramount. By incorporating the flexibility, quick changeovers, and short-run advantages of digital printing, converters and brand owners can benefit from an optimized workflow. High-volume printing will continue its prevalence in the packaging industry, and conventional production will continue to thrive with those jobs. But as short runs and more frequent changeovers add to workflow complexity, a well-rounded equipment mix will help the entire industry operate at peak performance.

For more insights from Digital Packaging: The Pursuit of Prosperity, download the free report here.