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A road sign with the word FREE on it will cause many to pull over. Most agree that we usually ‘get what we pay for’, yet our desire for getting ‘something for nothing’ still obscures the clarity of that certainty.
Whenever we’re not being charged for a service, we’re actually being sold something. A box supplier will gladly talk to (consult) you about using boxes because that’s what they sell and they’ll never recommend anything otherwise. We were once asked to help a client automate their time-consuming box set up process. They’d already budgeted for their anticipated machine purchase. In the first 20 minutes, we realized they actually shouldn’t be using boxes. With (1) product per box, they were loading (100) per pallet. By eliminating the box, that pallet load went from (100) to (600). Changing their packaging process eliminated the box, improved productivity, and increased pallet count (lower ship cost/unit). No FREE packaging consultation would have provided this much improvement and thousands in savings. A “FREE” service has no measurable value unless something is being sold by it and then that ‘value’ is only going to the seller. It's important to remember that all FREE packaging consultations are sales-driven with any benefit to you always being secondary. Corrugated paper standards in use today are a mixture of the old and the new. To keep things simple, we’ll use the terms ‘Mullen’ for the old and ‘ECT’ for the new. The Mullen standard focuses on sidewall surface strength (horizontal penetration) while ECT (Edge Crush Test) is based on edge compression resistance (vertical crush).
So which packaging standard is most important and often used? The key is to know which standard best fits each packaging application. Corrugated paper is produced and available for both the Mullen and ECT box standards and both are widely in use. The bigger question might be…why are two standards still in use today? Cost-reduction was the motive for creating a new standard and box penetration resistance became its sacrificial lamb. What effect did this material savings have on shipping damage claims? That all depends on what’s being boxed and how it’s being shipped. Packaging sales reps will often offer ECT based savings as an easy (lazy) way to capture more business. Changing boxes from the Mullen to the ECT standard could provide some material cost savings, but it might also result in creating more damage claims and unsatisfied customers. It’s not always cheaper or better to change from the Mullen to ECT standard and a non-biased analysis should assist in that selection. This is truly a task better left to a packaging consultant than guesswork or trial and error. It’s commonly understood that chipboard (folding) cartons are mainly used to sell things and that corrugated (cardboard) boxes are mainly used to ship things.
It’s rare to see ‘chipboard’ material being used as a shipper, yet not unusual to find ‘corrugated’ being used for retail cartons (unseen by the untrained eye). The machinery used to convert chipboard and corrugated materials are similar in nature but different in technology (high vs. low tech) which directly impacts their operational cost. Some other differences include their tolerance standards, material price breaks, and industry lead times. It’s an easy decision when choosing corrugated boxes for shippers, but not always so easy when selecting the best material for retail box needs. A myriad of questions must 1st be asked and answered. Yet some of these questions may never be asked by sales reps having an agenda of selling you their products. Gaining the expert advice of a packaging consultant having no skin in that game ensures your decision in selecting the best packaging materials will be informed and a wise one. |
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This blog author has a myriad history of successful packaging solutions in process and materials from the manufacturing to distribution channels. Archives
April 2021
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