Digital is delivering for today’s leading contract packers, writes Josephine Coombe
Embracing digital transformation is increasingly recognised as key to operating effectively within today’s fast-paced supply chains and contract packing and manufacturing services are no exception to this.
At Nulogy we see many contract packers reluctant to move off legacy and paper-based systems – missing the bigger picture and the opportunities that come with digitalisation. Usually, in these environments, we uncover costly blind spots of inefficiency, such as time-consuming manual entry procedures, inaccurate materials and inventory management, and error-prone quality controls.
The potential for software and digitalisation to provide a competitive advantage has long been recognised by forward-looking businesses. As far back as 2016, SGL Co-packing, part of the Keswick Enterprises Group, was already looking to modernise its systems and improve the visibility, flexibility and service provided to its customers.
SGL turned to Nulogy with specific objectives including delivering greater control of stock and improved access to quality records. Rather than select a more generic ERP system that would need to be significantly adapted to meet SGL’s needs – a highly costly undertaking fraught with risk — they chose to work with Nulogy because of their focus on the contract packing sector and expert knowledge of the contract packing workflows.
SGL has also been able to leverage Nulogy to enable improved collaboration with major FMCG customers. As a cloud-based platform, Nulogy allows for integration and sharing of key order milestones and other critical information with brand customers, giving Nulogy-powered co-packers another competitive edge in the market, relative to their peers that rely on older “on-prem” solutions.
Marsden Packaging, based in Blackburn, specialises in primary and secondary packaging services for the food and pharmaceutical sectors and has been using Nulogy’s software to power its operations in the UK for more than five years. The software replaced a combination of computerised and manual systems and allows Marsden to manage its production flow more efficiently and perform all necessary quality checks. This provides the visibility and technological access that customers demand from the supply chain.
Digitalisation through Nulogy’s platform has also driven many benefits to meet the specific challenges arising from the pandemic and volatile market conditions. Many co-packers have had to manage through highly variable demand spikes, sudden changes to orders, and extremely tight deadlines. With Nulogy, their ability to adapt rapidly to brand customers’ changing requirements has been significantly enhanced. From rapidly rescheduling work with Nulogy’s intuitive production scheduling tool, to quickly ascertaining materials and inventory status to determine the viability of producing an order on time, Nulogy’s platform gives co-packers an edge in agility.
Many co-packers turn to Nulogy at precisely the point where their business is poised for growth, recognising that outdated systems and processes do not scale well. True digitalisation as enabled by Nulogy’s cloud-based software can deliver tangible results in efficiency, quality, traceability, and profitability – and support rapid and sustainable growth. Ultimately, innovative leaders will be those who educate themselves on the software of tomorrow and implement accordingly to take their organisation to the next level.
