Empty packaging flow and cost optimisation using digital enhancements

‘Expansion means complexity and complexity decay’, said Cyril N. Parkinson. This quote is still very relevant in the current economic context and should challenge every organisation to continuously look for ways to improve its performance. Nowadays, however, supply chain teams are expected to play an increasingly strategic role in developing agility to rapidly meet changing requirements of customers, optimise costs and generate value for the company. In the automotive industry, the specific packaging of the vehicle parts represents an important asset: a huge volume of particular stillages and plastic boxes shared between different vehicles or powertrain plants, as well as outsourced parts suppliers. This requires strong management, because any packaging unavailability affecting one of the involved actors can lead to very negative effects such as production shutdowns, which translates to higher costs. This paper describes the way in which Dacia-Renault’s supply chain team has upgraded packaging management processes and implemented the latest technology and digital tools to optimise costs and bring end-to-end visibility to this specific activity.