Maybe you are embarking on an exciting new business venture and looking to bring your product to market.Or perhaps your company is well established and exploring ways to make your production and packaging process more efficient.Whatever the case, the manner in which you package your product is a vital component to overall company success.There are two main avenues to take when making this decision:Use the services of a contract packager.
This involves subcontracting the packaging of your product to a third-party company.Invest in automating packaging in-house.
This usually involves acquiring capital packaging equipment and performing the packaging process in-house.It's an important decision that often comes down to a few important details: Available resources and expertise, crunching the long and short-term budget implications, and maximizing plant-wide efficiencies.When to consider outsourcing your packagingIn general, a contract packager is chosen by a manufacturer when it is less costly and more efficient than packaging its product in-house.Contract packagers also bring very specific expertise to the table, as they live and breathe packaging all day, every day.
A rapidly growing small business can turn to a house hold powder packing machine to quickly scale their packaging and production to a higher level than they would be able to achieve on their own without significant investment and reorganization.In the same vein, a large multi-national corporation may find it easier and more efficient to outsource their packaging so they can focus on other matters.According to the Contract Packaging Association, there are many reasons a business might consider a co-packer, including:No available in-house equipment or expertise for a particular jobNot economically feasible to invest in their own packing equipmentGeographically separated facilities could serve the product better for national distributionNon-standard packaging requiring special machinery or labor-intensive work is specifiedProduct may more economically be shipped in bulk to a distant market, then unit packed locallyShort-term requirement that may be better served by specific experience or equipment you don't haveThere's a warehouse full of a product that needs re-working to make it saleableThere's a corporate downsizing in personnel, facilities or bothWhen to consider bringing packaging in-houseThere are also many companies, small and large, that choose to package their product in-house.
In general, packaging your product on-site requires a higher upfront cost, but as soon as the machinery is paid off, the return on investment can be substantial over the long-term.
The only continuing expenses will be paying machine operators/technicians, wear parts replacement, and maintenance.