We sort through the tiresome marketing jargon to identify the real innovations in packaging for automotive, and report on the benefits
Innovation is among those words editors should always treat with scepticism (other bugbears include optimisation, continuous improvement and synergy). A purchasing manager or logistics executive shoudl use no less caution when evaluating the promises of such ideas among its suppliers and logistics providers, as wasting time on empty words helps the bottom line no more than shipping empty air.
On the other hand, these are all words that, for better or worse, form the lingua franca of automotive logistics jargon, and there is only so much this magazine can do void them. For this new feature in the magazine, we are trying our best to define innovation by example.
The transport industry has fundamental characteristics that are unlikely to change anytime soon, and so it goes for a commodity like packaging.but that does not discount the potential for real developments in the supply chain, for which packaging plays a ubiquitous rolefrom the factory to warehouse and everything in between.
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The formula for determining our most interesting packaging innovations is simple: we wanted something done that has been tested or implemented recently, so as to be as close to what is genuinely "new" as packaging can get.
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