Welcome To
The Bottom Line

With roots stemming back to the 1950s, the flexible packaging market is a significant product in the procurement industry due to its efficiency, customizability, and sustainability. 

Flexible packaging is a type of package or container made of flexible material, which, when filled, can still easily change shape. Though there are many examples of flexible packaging, a few examples include:

• Paper
• Cartons
• Blister packaging 
• Flexible laminates
• Woven bags 

In any aspect of business, achieving a sense of efficiency—balancing effort, time, and money to achieve the best outcome—is hard work. This is a particularly unique challenge for packaging and transportation. From excess headspace to improperly scheduled routes, to simply being unaware of emerging shipping and packaging solutions, it’s easy for a business to unknowingly lose thousands of dollars and valuable resource hours per year.

If your organization utilizes a strategic sourcing partner, that relationship should extend beyond ensuring the prices you pay vendors are consistent with what is being charged across the industry. A skilled sourcing expert can identify opportunities for process improvements that may have no influence on the invoice but will have a material impact on your bottom line.

In recent posts, we have offered words of caution concerning the perils of free money when considering a proposal, contract or addendum from a vendor. As part of our work, we are continuously monitoring the market to remain current on the trends that impact our clients. Lately, we have seen a real-time case study playing out in the market that reinforces why every proposed vendor contract amendment should be reviewed carefully.

If your organization utilizes a strategic sourcing partner, than that relationship should extend beyond insuring the prices you pay vendors are consistent with what is being charged across the industry. A skilled sourcing expert can identify opportunities for process improvements that may have no influence on the invoice but will have a material impact on your bottom line.

Engaging with a strategic sourcing partner can be an effective means to improve your manufacturing company’s bottom line without affecting its operations, or perhaps even improving them, because the process allows operational and procurement managers to be better focused on the tactical aspects of running the operation.

Not all sourcing management firms are created equal, however, and like other vendor categories some will be a better fit with your manufacturing company’s culture and objectives than others. We suggest asking the following questions before selecting a strategic sourcing partner.