Automotive Packaging: What Suppliers to the Trade Need

Supplying into a standard you did not write

Most packaging into automotive is governed by a customer document. Case sizes, labelling type and position, pallet configuration, sometimes returnable container specifications - all set before the supplier is involved. The skill is not designing the pack; it is meeting the standard economically.

That changes where the opportunity sits. There is rarely much room in the outer, because it is specified. There is frequently a great deal of room in what goes inside it, which is usually the supplier's decision and is usually made by habit.

OE and aftermarket are different problems

The two supply patterns compared.

A business supplying both and using one pack for both is almost certainly over-packing one and under-packing the other. They are separate specifications that happen to contain the same part.

Returnable or one-trip

Returnable packaging is frequently assumed to be cheaper because the container is reused. Whether it actually is depends on the route: returnables need the empties to come back, and that leg has a cost nobody budgets for until it appears.

• Fixed route, steady volume, both ends controlled - returnables usually win.
• Long or one-directional route - the empty return cost frequently cancels the benefit.
• Many delivery points - a factor network rarely suits returnables.
• Seasonal or variable volume - the fleet has to be sized for peak and sits idle otherwise.
• Damage-sensitive parts - a returnable with a replaceable fitted insert can be the best of both.

Where damage actually originates

Automotive damage is rarely a transit incident. It is usually a mixed pallet where one oily component contaminated a layer, an unprotected machined face that was marked by the pack itself, or a carton a size too big that let a heavy part move.

All three are specification problems rather than handling problems, which is useful - it means they are fixable at the bench rather than negotiable with a carrier. See protective packaging.

Labelling and identification

Part identification is a packaging decision in automotive in a way it is not elsewhere. A goods-in team scanning a mixed pallet should not have to rotate cases to find a label, and a part that cannot be identified without opening the pack creates work at every handover.

Position, orientation and durability all belong in the specification rather than being left to despatch. Where the customer standard specifies them, that is the answer; where it does not, consistency is worth more than any particular choice.

Schedules, stockholding and the economics of print

Scheduled supply is exactly the pattern that suits holding stock and calling it off. Consumption is predictable, the pack is fixed, and ordering against each delivery is the expensive way to run it.

It is also what makes printed retail outers viable for aftermarket lines. Print carries a setup per size, so the run has to be economic - and a business that can have the run held is able to print where one that cannot is stuck with plain board. See packaging stockholding and Printed Tape vs Printed Boxes: Which Earns Its Place.

Getting it specified

Send the customer standard if there is one, the parts and how they travel, your current pack, and anything that is arriving marked or damaged. For aftermarket lines, tell us whether the outer is seen by a trade counter, a workshop or a consumer, because that changes the answer.

See protective packaging for the protective range and Foam Inserts: When a Fitted Pocket Pays for Itself for fitted work on finished parts.

Where to start if you supply automotive

If packaging has never been looked at properly, the sequence below finds the money faster than a quotation does.

1. Separate your OE and aftermarket packs on paper. If they are the same, one of them is wrong.
2. Read the customer standards you work to and mark which elements are genuinely fixed. Many suppliers over-comply with things that were never specified.
3. Look at a mixed pallet before it ships. Oil migration and unprotected faces are visible there, and that is where most damage originates.
4. Price the empty-return leg on any returnable you use or are considering. It is the number that decides whether returnables pay.
5. Check whether your scheduled lines are being ordered or called off. Scheduled supply is the ideal call-off candidate.

The short version

• The outer is usually specified by the customer; the inside usually is not.
• OE and aftermarket are separate specifications containing the same part.
• Returnables win on fixed routes with controlled ends, and lose on long or dispersed ones.
• Most automotive damage is a specification problem, not a transit incident.
• Scheduled supply is the ideal pattern for holding stock and calling it off.

Frequently asked questions