A 10-point packaging specification review for purchase teams
Find savings in the packaging you already buy. A 10-point spec review for purchase teams, with a trial method, a change note and a savings calculation.
Most packaging specifications in a company were written once, years ago, for a product, a packing line or a courier that may have changed several times since then. Then the same item was re-ordered every month.
Nobody is at fault for this. Suppliers, including us, quote what the buyer asks for. If the purchase order says 5-ply, you get a price for 5-ply.
It takes a question from the buyer to start a review.
This is the review I would run if I sat on your side of the table. It has 10 points, and each one comes with a check you can do yourself. After them, we cover how to trial a change and how to put a rupee figure on it.
I make packaging at Jagannath Polymers, so I am not a neutral party. I have kept the checklist useful whoever your supplier is.
Before you start: pick the right 10 items
Do not review everything at once. Sort your packaging purchases for the last 12 months by value, and take the top 10.
Usually a small number of items carry most of the spend, so this is where a 5% change actually shows up in the accounts. I would rather see 10 items reviewed properly than 100 items reviewed in a hurry.
For each item, collect three things: the current specification, the last three purchase orders, and one sample from current stock.
The 10-point review
1. Is there a written specification, and does the delivery match it?
Many items are bought on a code and a description, such as "brown tape 48 mm" or "poly bag large".
That is not a specification.
A real one states the material, the dimensions, the thickness or GSM, the tolerance on each, the print, the pack count and how each value is tested.
Check: measure the sample from stock against the purchase order. If you cannot say what "correct" is, you cannot say whether you are getting it. In my view this first point alone is worth the whole exercise.
2. Is the size right for the product and the process?
An oversized carton costs more board, more void fill and, very often, more courier charges, while an undersized one saves a little on each of those and then costs you far more in damage.
Check: put the product in the pack and measure the empty space on each side. Then read our guide on volumetric weight before you decide how much space to remove.
3. Is the thickness, GSM or ply the lowest that passes your test?
Specifications often carry a safety margin that nobody remembers adding. Sometimes the product became lighter, or the route became shorter, and the margin stayed exactly where it was because nobody had a reason to look at it again.
Check: weigh a known area of the material. For film, grams per square metre ÷ density gives you the average thickness in microns. Our guide on downgauging explains how to step down safely.
4. Is the material grade still the right one?
Ask whether a better grade at a thinner gauge would cost less per square metre. Ask whether recycled content is possible, and whether paper would do the job where plastic is used today.
For plastic packaging, the grade and the weight also decide your EPR obligation and any recycled-content target. Our guide on plastic EPR for brand owners covers that side.
Check: compare options on cost per square metre or per order, never on price per kg.
5. Does the print earn its cost?
Print adds ink, plates or cylinders, set-up time and waste. A four-colour design on a shipping carton that goes straight to a warehouse may add nothing a customer ever sees.
Ask three questions. How many colours are needed? Does every side need print? Would a plain pack with a printed label or sticker do the same job?
Check: count the colours and the printed sides, and ask your supplier what one colour less would change in the price.
6. Is the pack count convenient for the people who use it?
How the supplier packs the item matters. Rolls per carton, pieces per bundle and cartons per pallet quietly decide your freight, your storage space and the time your team spends counting at receipt.
Check: ask the stores team how the item is opened, counted and issued. If they break bundles every day, the pack count is wrong for you.
7. Do you have too many variants?
Three bags that differ by 2 cm each carry their own minimum order, their own stock and their own chance of a wrong pick. Merging near-duplicates usually gives a better price on the larger volume.
But do not merge so far that small products travel in big packs. That gives back the saving in courier charges.
Check: list every size of the same item type, with the annual quantity of each. Look for neighbours that could become one.
8. Are the order quantity and the price break really worth it?
A lower price for a bigger order is not free. The extra stock ties up money, takes space, and can age. Tapes and some films do not like long storage.
Check: compare the saving from the price break with the cost of holding the extra stock. The calculation at the end shows how.
9. Are the tolerances and test methods written down?
"50 microns" means little without "plus or minus how much" and "measured how". The same goes for GSM, length per roll and pieces per pack.
Agree with your supplier what happens when a lot is outside tolerance. Do you reject it, accept it at a lower price, or accept it with a note? We would rather agree this in advance than argue about it at the gate.
Check: for film on a roll, length in metres = net film weight in grams ÷ (width in metres × grams per square metre). If the answer is shorter than the label, you are paying for metres you did not get.
10. Is there a different format that does the job for less?
Sometimes the saving is not in the item at all. A mailer may replace a carton. A paper wrap may replace a plastic one. A machine that makes cushioning on demand may replace bought-in rolls, if your volume supports it.
Check: ask your current supplier and one other to each propose one alternative format, with the reason and the expected cost per order.
How to trial a change
Run every change as a trial before it becomes the new standard. We suggest these steps. They are the same steps any careful factory uses when it changes a raw material.
- Change one thing at a time. If you change the size and the material together, you will not know which one caused a problem.
- Write down pass and fail before the trial starts.
- Approve a sample first, then run a pilot lot on real orders.
- Include your hardest cases: the heaviest product, the longest route and the worst season.
- Let quality, stores and dispatch each sign the result. Add sales or marketing if the customer can see the change.
How to document the change
A change that lives only in an email thread will be undone the day a new buyer joins. Write a short change note for every item. I would keep these lines:
| Field | What to write |
|---|---|
| Item code and name | As in your purchase system |
| Old specification | Version number and the values that change |
| New specification | New version number and the new values |
| Reason | Cost, damage, rules or supply |
| Trial evidence | Orders tested, dates, results, failures |
| Approved by | Purchase, quality, dispatch, and sales if visible to customers |
| Effective from | The first purchase order on the new specification |
| Old stock | Use it up first, or write it off, with the value |
| Supplier confirmation | The supplier's written acceptance of the new version |
| Review date | When to check the result on real orders again |
Keep one approved sample of each version, labelled with the version number. When a dispute comes, the sample is your proof.
Your calculation
Let us put rupees on two of the points. Every figure below is an ASSUMPTION, chosen only to show the method. None of them is a market price or our price.
The saving on one change
Let us say you change a printed courier bag from four colours all over to a one-colour logo.
- Annual quantity: 2,40,000 bags.
- Price per bag: ₹6.20 today, ₹5.60 after the change.
- Annual saving: 2,40,000 × ₹0.60 = ₹1,44,000, which is ₹12,000 a month.
- One-time cost: a new printing cylinder at ₹18,000.
- Payback: ₹18,000 ÷ ₹12,000 a month = 1.5 months.
Now suppose you write off 8,000 old bags instead of using them up. That adds 8,000 × ₹6.20 = ₹49,600 to the one-time cost, and the payback stretches to about 5.6 months.
So, unless the change is urgent, use the old stock first.
Is the bigger order worth it?
Now let us say you spend ₹12,00,000 a year on one item. Today you order every 2 months. The supplier offers 3% off if you order every 6 months.
- Saving from the price break: 3% of ₹12,00,000 = ₹36,000 a year.
- Average stock today: about one month of use, i.e. ₹1,00,000.
- Average stock with 6-monthly orders: about three months of use, ₹3,00,000.
- Extra money tied up: ₹2,00,000.
- Cost of holding it, at an assumed 18% a year for interest, space and stock losses: ₹36,000 a year.
The saving and the holding cost come out equal. The price break gains you nothing here, and it adds the risk of old stock.
The savings register
We suggest one line per change in a simple register, added up for the year:
First-year net saving = annual quantity × (old unit cost − new unit cost) + freight saved + damage cost avoided − one-time costs
Payback in months = one-time costs ÷ monthly saving
Start this month with your top 10 items and point 1 alone.
I would not be surprised if at least one of the 10 has no specification that anyone can show you. That is a good place to begin.
If you would like a supplier's view on any of the 10 points, send us the specification and the annual quantity through the contact page. We will tell you what we would test first, and what we would leave alone.
Questions buyers ask
How often should a packaging specification be reviewed?
Once a year for every item, and sooner when the product, the courier, the packing machine or the rules change. A review that waits for a price increase is a review held too late.
Who should sign off a specification change?
At least purchase, quality and the person who runs dispatch or the packing line. Add sales or marketing when the customer can see the change, for example print or colour.
Should we ask our current supplier to review the specification?
Yes, and one other supplier as well. Your current supplier knows the item best. A second supplier brings a fresh view. Test both proposals the same way.