With so many developments in both medical technology and packaging systems, it’s easy to overlook corrugated shippers. But that’s not at all the case at Boston Scientific Intl.’s European Distribution Center in Kerkrade, Netherlands, where the company ships more than 3,500 boxes containing about 28,000 products each day. These medical devices are shipped globally, with 70% going directly to hospitals and 30% to customer distribution centers.
Making sure the distribution process is efficient and cost-effective is a challenge that the company is meeting with the help of three machines from Packsize Intl. LLC. The equipment utilizes Packsize’s On Demand Packaging™, a technology-enabled corrugated box production process that helps Boston Scientific select the most appropriate box size for the medical device to be shipped, then makes the box, with options for quantity, size, and style. That means Boston Scientific no longer has to stock excess box inventory and can make boxes to match shipments on a just-in-time basis.
Before implementing the Packsize system in June 2011, Boston Scientific stocked more than 50 different box sizes that needed to be ordered five months in advance of production. “Our box inventory took up significant warehouse space,” says Frank Moonen, director of operations at Boston Scientific, Kerkrade. “And despite this broad inventory, we never had the right-sized box, forcing us to ship a lot of air and additional packaging fillers.”
Boston Scientific integrated three Packsize converting machines with its Warehouse Management System in Kerkrade. “Now, with each order, the system calculates the perfect box dimension and sends this data to one of the Packsize machines, which then cuts the required box. Another crucial deciding factor for us was that the packaging system we selected met our ‘takt time’ requirements,” says Moonen.
He describes “takt time” as the company’s required speed to meet Lean principles and allowing warehouse picking and packaging at a certain speed per hour. “It is important that the machines can deliver boxes according to our internal picking speed,” says Moonen. “If that were not possible, then we could not finish orders all of the time. Packsize helped us accomplish our strategic goals by reducing our shipping damages and saving us freight, [paper]board, and storage costs.”