Any business that stores and transport goods knows getting the right size packaging is essential if they want to operate efficiently and effectively. After all, it keeps productivity levels high and running costs low.  This is especially true for furniture manufacturers and suppliers, who have the added complexity of storing and transporting a product that can be large, heavy and bulky.

Traditionally, manufacturers and suppliers have packed their furniture in plastic wrapping or boxes that are too big for what they have inside, filling the space around it with additional packing material such as bubble wrap.  Today, technology is allowing them to change the way they work, creating packaging through systems such as Ribble Right Size, that fits the packaging around the furniture itself.

On the surface, this change may seem small. However, if you’re a furniture manufacturer or supplier, there are significant benefits to be had by getting the right size furniture packaging.

• Warehouse

No matter how lean a business runs, there’ll always be a product that needs storing.  The more efficiently you store your furniture, the less space you’ll need and the less money you’ll spend on warehousing.  When you use furniture packaging that isn’t the right size, it takes up more space than it needs to in your warehouse, costing you money.

Saving warehouse space will become increasingly important in coming years as the UK experiences a shortfall in available storage space, making the cost of warehousing per square foot increase. When you use furniture packaging designed to fit precisely to the size of your products, you save space, not only because the packaging itself is smaller but because you can store upwards as well as across a warehouse floor.

• Health and Safety

While it’s impossible to avoid all work-based accidents, you can significantly reduce the risk by using furniture packaging that fits the furniture itself.  Doing so makes it easier to move using forklift trucks, for example, reducing the amount of heavy lifting your staff have to do and the chances of them hurting themselves in the process (almost 25% of all workplace injuries are due to handling, lifting or carrying).

It also makes stacking products easier, increasing their stability and reducing the likelihood of their falling off shelves or workers tripping over them because they couldn’t be stacked and have been left at ground level.

• Transportation Costs

According to research published in 2018, over 30% of businesses worldwide say that they’re using packaging that’s at least 40% too big for the products inside, leading to an extra £35 billion in transportation costs a year.

The 40% extra, or empty, space is caused because businesses rely on standardised packaging which is designed to a certain size, rather than the size of the product it is shipping.

By changing this around, so your furniture packaging is designed to fit your product, you can significantly reduce – if not eliminate – the empty space. This, in turn, lowers transportation costs because you can get more product into each delivery vehicle, meaning fewer trips are needed to deliver your product.

• Furniture Damage

In 2017, 40% of consumers reported that the goods they’d received were damaged in some way according to a report by retail association IMRG.

While figures aren’t available for the number of businesses that receive damaged goods from a supplier, it’s fair to assume that, as most damage happens during the shipping process, the figures are relatively similar.  Damaged goods can’t be sold, or need to be sold at a discount, meaning they are likely to be returned to you, leaving you to cover the costs or sell them on at a reduced price.

Using furniture packaging that is the right size reduces the likelihood of goods getting damaged because they are less likely to shift in transport as they are more securely packed within the delivery vehicle and there is less empty space for them to move around in.

• Operational Efficiencies

For any business, saving time and money are key to a successful business.  Using the right size furniture packaging helps you do both by reducing:

1. Warehousing costs
2. Transportation costs
3. Sick days due to work-related accidents.

By investing in technology such as Right Size, it enables you to create the exact amount of packing you need, when you need it, meaning nothing is spent on unnecessary supplies, and nothing goes to waste, which is good for the environment and your business.