Reducing costs and achieving CSR goals for a global pharmaceutical brand

Our clients trust us

Testimonials

56 %
Cost saving

“In an industry that is really competitive, achieving marginal gains throughout our business can make a big difference. The support Lindum have provided has benefited our people, our business and also the environment. I don’t think anyone can ask for more than that.”

- Karro Food Group

65 %
Cost saving

“It was not necessary to make a full business calculation of the pay-back period. The ‘offsite’ waste reduction of 66% alone convinced the senior management …Thanks to the Caregrip™ anti-slip paper, the stacked products remain on the pallet and the downtime is reduced. In fact, there have been no stoppages caused by dropped products since the shift to PAL-Cut and Caregrip™ sheets. A welcome side-effect is the near elimination of fork-lift trucks in the packaging zone and that has been a wish for many years.”

- ‘Offsite’ waste reduction

52435 kg
Reduction in packaging waste

“In an industry that is really competitive, achieving marginal gains throughout our business can make a big difference. The support Lindum have provided has benefited our people, our business and also the environment. I don’t think anyone can ask for more than that.”

- Faccenda Foods

Introduction

A global pharmaceutical company reached out to Lindum to address some critical corporate goals. With a high value pharmaceutical product going through their high-speed wrapping machines they needed to reduce costs, cut CO2 to meet their CSR goals whilst ensuring efficiency continued across their packaging operations. The results and long term impact was huge.

The Challenge

Product value for this company is high, so the challenge of reducing packing costs when using a high-speed wrapping machine without damaging goods or affecting the supply chain is difficult. In addition, the company needed to make a CO2 saving in their packaging operations, so achieving both at the same time was a huge challenge for them. Having spent time trying to achieve these challenges, they turned to the experts at Lindum to help address the challenges they faced.

The Solution

Lindum discussed at length the challenges faced, and started to begin to address it with a free packaging audit. The team went on site and looked at their entire pallet wrapping operations. With an audit, the Lindum team look at everything from current products and machines, to processes and machine settings. Our team worked closely with the client’s operations team to ensure the audit was as thorough as possible and were soon able to identify ways in which to solve the challenges. The team noted that the film that was currently being used on the high-speed wrapping machines was a thick, over specified film.

This meant that a thinner film could be used to do the same job, and would result in less product required. At the same time, the settings on the wrapping machine were incorrect – which meant that too much film was being used to wrap each pallet.

The right machine settings are critical to ensuring maximised film yield. As a result of these findings it was recommended that the pharmaceutical company switch to a high-performance Nano film – and our Carestretch Nano was recommended. Why this film? Carestretch Nano performs incredibly well on high-speed wrapping machines, with incredible strength and high puncture and tear resistance. Furthermore, with up to 400% stretch capabilities, our Carestretch Nano film works exceptionally well on high-speed machines ensuring much less film was needed than the existing film that was being used. Adjusting the current gears on the existing machines too meant that a much better film yield was possible. This combined with the film savings from switching to a Nano film meant that significant cost, plastic and CO2 savings could all be achieved.

Results & Outcome

The initial brief and challenges were not only met, but exceeded for the pharmaceutical company. From a simple, free packaging audit, we worked closely with the company to help address the challenges they faced, and in doing so, improving efficiency across their pallet wrapping operations. The results clearly show that there is not one standard film that can be used across pallet wrapping operations – the right film is unique to each company to not only ensure efficient pallet wrapping, but to also help cut costs and reduce plastic usage too.

By switching to a Nano film, we cut their annual cost of pallet wrap by 23.8%. Using a Nano film means a stronger film, with much less wrap required to wrap each pallet. It’s properties are also critical for high value products too – meaning pallets move into the supply chain secure. On top of the significant cost savings, Nano allows for less film to be used – in fact one metre of Nano film can be stretched into five metres of wrap, meaning plastic is reduced substantially. In this instance that equated to 53.4% less pallet wrap used. In addition to cost, the company also wanted to meet their corporate CO2 reduction goals. Being able to demonstrate a huge plastic reduction we could help them do this – and by switching to a Nano film we helped reduce their CO2 by a whopping 59,788 tonnes.

Providing solutions