from the Packaging Diva

Joanne Hines writes a terrific editorial on packaging for Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNK2JTS3UNMS06MS

Manufacturer Showcase

cBoxBid.com is looking for two Northeast US (CT, NJ, NY, NH, PA, MA, MASS, RI or VT) corrugated manufacturers to showcase directly to corrugated buyers.
You must be a current subscriber to cBoxBid.com and have operations in one of the above mentioned states. Please send an email with "showcase" in the subject line along with a link to your companies website to info@cboxbid.com. Two manufacturers will be randomely selected and have a banner ad posted on the buyers dashboard.

RFQ's and collaboration

Over twenty RFQ's (i.e. rsc or fol) posted by buyers ready for pricing NOW at The Online Markeplace for Corrugated Packaging - cBoxBid.co

check out "the doctors" blog on collaboration -
http://blog.sourcinginnovation.com/

More Pricing

cBoxBid.com data see's manufacturing plants converting more tonnage at slightly lower price levels then in September 2009.

A brief guide to buying shipping containers

First - While the corrugated salesman cares about your yearly volume, his manufacturing plant usually doesn't. The plant looks at the orders month to month. So without a contract, the plant won't set pricing for a yearly volume. Your buying a commodity and the price fluctuates.

Second - Two different manufacturing plants, same company, two different quotes. How can that be?
A. Corrugator Plant = This plant glues the three pieces of paper together, called converting. It looks to sell high quantities of boxes to say Coca Cola and sheets to sell to sheet plants. Usually want to sell by the ton. Which in quantity means by the truckload to a minimum of about 25k pieces. Some, especially when orders are down, will manufacture to a minimum of 15k.
B. Sheet Plant = Buys sheets from a Corrugator Plant. Wants to do low volume from 1k up to 15k to 25k. Anything around or over these numbers it wont be competitive with a corrugator plant. Sheet Plants usually want to manufacture low quantity with multiple colors.

Printing Plates and Die Cuts - Most buyers want the Corrugated Manufacturer to buy this equipment. If you plan on purchasing the same box with the same artwork for at least two years or more, I recommend buying these items for this reason - the buyer is now free to move production to more competitive corrugated manufactures without having to negotiate the purchase of the equipment all over again. Besides you can write off the cost.

Hope this helps.....

e-sourcing for cardboard boxes

cBoxBid.com has created the first regional marketplace for the corrugated packagaing buyer. Buyers simply create an RFQ (request for quote) and corrugated manufacturers subscribers bid back to the buyer in a non-binding platform.

Its that easy. Its FREE for buyers! Manufacturers get: qualified leads, reduction in cost of sale expenses, and manufacturer ratings!

State of the Corrugated business

NEW YORK — August prices for cardboard box parts, which will be reported this weekend, will likely hold steady as inventories hover around a 30-year low, despite rising production, Wall Street analysts said Monday.
Credit Suisse analyst C.A. Dillon III said that at the end of last month containerboard inventories were at their lowest level since 1980.
Meanwhile, the industry's July utilization rate, which gauges how much of its manufacturing capacity is being used, was 88.6 percent, well above the 82.8 percent year-to-date level, UBS analyst Gail Glazerman said.
She also said production in July rose 1 percent, month over month, to its highest level since October.
"August prices will be reported this weekend, and evidence is mounting that prices will remain level once again," said Dillon.
Investors are watching containerboard prices for signs the industry's strict production discipline, which has resulted in the low inventories, will continue and thus boost the likelihood of sustained profits when the recession ends.
Dillon's favorite pick is the stock of Lake Forest, Ill.-based Packaging Corp. of America, which he rates as a "Buy"; Glazerman's top pick is the stock in Memphis, Tenn.-based International Paper Co., which she rates as a "Buy."
In afternoon trading that was marked by widespread declines, Packaging Corp. of America fell 40 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $18.30 and International Paper declined 48 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $19.52.

Regional Procurement the new Globalization?

From Procurement Leaders Magazine:

Regional procurement the new globalisation Companies are looking closer to home for materials and redesigning their supply chains to suit as the pressures of climate change and the financial crisis force western businesses to reassess low-cost country sourcing strategies.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Dan O'Regan, head of supply chains at accounting firm Ernst & Young, said that it isn't just the prospect of regulatory change but also the downturn which is forcing businesses to look more local. "I think you will find smaller, more regional supply chains," he told the newspaper.
The chief executive of Philips, Gerard Kleisterlee, said, “A future where energy is more expensive and less plentifully available will lead to more regional supply chains" before going on to add that an economic crisis is a period when companies should sit back and think, "is this a moment to make some fundamental change".

Move forward with Caution

Yesterday the Institute for Supply Management released its July 2009 figures. Which showed a .06 decline and ended a nice four month run of increased averages. This small slowdown in July probably won't reflect anything in corrugated orders, however steady improvement in manufacturing is always a good sign.

http://www.ism.ws/

Got a packaging compliment? gripe? question?

Let the community know -

names and companies will be deleted but the message will remain!

Define Commodity

Attention all CPM's, Buyers, Purchasers, CFO's, and anyone else who makes a purchasing decision:

Wikipedia gets credit for this definition of commodity. After the you read the definition there is a short quiz.

A commodity is something for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market. It is a product that is the same no matter who produces it, such as petroleum, notebook paper, or milk.^[1] In other words, copper is copper. The price of copper is universal, and fluctuates daily based on global supply and demand. Stereos, on the other hand, have many levels of quality. And, the better a stereo is [perceived to be], the more it will cost.

One of the characteristics of a commodity good is that its price is determined as a function of its market as a whole. Well-established physical commodities have actively traded spot and derivative markets. Generally, these are basic resources and agricultural products such as iron ore, crude oil, coal, ethanol, salt, sugar, coffee beans, soybeans, aluminum, rice, wheat, gold and silver. *(paper too)

Commoditization occurs as a goods or services market loses differentiation across its supply base, often by the diffusion of the intellectual capital necessary to acquire or produce it efficiently. As such, goods that formerly carried premium margins for market participants have become commodities, such as generic pharmaceuticals and silicon chips.

Whats the most important difference between a 32ect C flute, Kraft; RSC, Die Cut, Sheet, HSC, you name it, from any corrugated manufacturer?

You have two seconds to answer, GO.

If you havent heard -

The Box Business never surprises me!

- Eight people charged with embezzlement at Pratt's Staten Island recycling facility - http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/8-men-charged-in-theft-from-paper-company/

- Smurfit Stone's stock is worth .16 per share. With $20k purchase you could qualify for a spot on the board of directors

6/12/09 - Atlanta, GA.

If your company looks to decrease shipping costs, then you should check out Global Forwarding @ globalforwarding.com.

Excellent checklist for considering suppliers

Supply management: should all suppliers be considered equal?

Published May 26th, 2009 by Carol McIntosh

The answer is NO. Supplier relationships today are very different than they were 10 years ago.-

• Suppliers are global
• A supplier may produce your entire product
• A supplier may also be your customer since you sell them proprietary parts for your products
• Suppliers often ship directly to your customers. You never see the product
• You may use a traditional buy sell process with purchase orders and acknowledgments
• You may use a pull system where your supplier ships to your replenishment signals
• You may share forecasts and ask your supplier to provide forecast commitments
• The information sharing may be hourly, daily or weekly
• You may want notes from your supplier or reason codes for non conformance
• You may want to track their work in process so that you can monitor yields and quality issues
• With such a distributed environment you are creating more opportunities for communication gaps when responsive communication is more important than ever to contain costs and maintain customer loyalty

You may have multiple ways of conducting business with your suppliers. It is not just your processes that are varied. Suppliers are different too. They have different levels of sophistication. They have different tools. Your business represents a different level of priority with every supplier.

One thing is certain. Not all suppliers are equal.

Suppliers can be categorized on the basis of the level of information sharing and collaboration required.

1. All suppliers benefit from information. For example, a scheduled transmission of forecasted requirements.
2. Allow some suppliers to edit data directly in your system. You may choose to edit in an offline copy that is reviewed before you execute. The point is you can capture purchase order commitments, comments and also request that your supplier review leadtimes, pricing, and order backlogs for accuracy.
3. A small percentage of suppliers can send you information such as forecast commits, or WIP, or On hand data electronically where your system is automatically updated. Make sure that your system is tapping you on the shoulder when there is a problem with the information. By problem I mean, as an example, that their commitments are less than their last update and don’t meet your requirements.

The more you empower your suppliers with information and give them the flexibility to manage their processes to meet your requirements (forecast or inventory targets), the stronger your partnership will be and there will be fewer surprises.

Traditional systems dictate your processes. While it is beneficial to understand what best in class processes are, you and your suppliers are the owners of the process. Start thinking out of the box.

Sustainability within the corrugated packaging industry

The term sustainability is being thrown around by manufacturers like Big Brother from the book 1984 by George Orwell. No one has a clear definition for sustainability, however many manufacturing companies claim sustainability is their goal? Clearly Doublespeak. Remember synergy? convergence? mission critical? Corrugated manufacturing is really three steps - paper in, boxes out, deliver.

New RFQ entry for Buyers

Necessary improvements for buyers to post RFQ's are being implemented at this time. We have listened to buyers and have made various changes so the process of posting and modifying RFQ's is easier.

Stay Tuned....

Customers speak....

With multiple transactions under our belt, subscribers are seeing the true value cBoxBid.com.

Buyers are simply amazed how easy it is to post an RFQ. "Four steps and the RFQ is posted. Manufacturers are bidding from as far away as North Carolina" says one buyer from the Chicago area. "we've never recieved pricing from a corrugated manuacturer from so far away, and it was competitive with local manufacturers."

"Whether its on cBoxBid.com or we quote directly, we know were not going to win every sale" says a sales manager from Philadelphia, Pa., "but thats just it, we can't physically get to every sales opportunity so cBoxBid will help fill that gap."

cBoxBid.com not populating browser?

Finally, it seems we have the session I.D. problem patched. Some of you might experience this inconvenience when you have logged in, navigate away from the page, then try to log back in. Session ID is when we authenticate you as either a buyer or a manufacturer. This helps everybody know who's dealing with who.

Thanks..

Deeper is Cheaper

Just a little tidbit for the RSC buyers of the world. Have your corrugated manufacturer quote your RSC with contents stacked higher in the box! or make your width your depth. Instead of laying six widgets down across, lay the widgets on top of each other with the flaps at the top and bottom. Have them develop a stacking pattern to keep your pallets tidy.

Its an interesting dilemma:

You run a production facility manufacturing widgets. You have five production lines, six people per line and run two shifts. One of your responsibilities is making sure two trucks are full every shift.

You have received five quotes for your only shipping box: a RSC 12 1/2 x 13 x 12 1/2 - 32ect kraft. no printing qty T/L, every day - Five manufacturers bid on that RSC. The quotes range in price from a low of $190 per thousand to a high of $270 per thousand. Which one do you choose?

You better choose the manufacturer with the highest on time percentage. Imagine if the packaging company "forgot". It happens. Thirty people are now idle.

But how on earth can you verify manufacturer claims?

Answer: Manufacturer Ratings. cBoxBid.com gives every buyer the opportunity to rate manufacturers on price, delivery, quality and customer service. So when your looking at price, look at their ratings also, it may be worth .03 cents.

Check the Facts -

Fact - purchasing professionals are under pressure for cost reductions.
Fact - there is an oversupply of raw materials and plant capacity.
Fact - manufacturers are keeping a keen eye on quality to keep customers happy.
Fact - There is no difference between a 32 ect RSC manufactured by Rock Tenn or Smurfit Stone.

Or is their?

If you said price, your correct.

cBoxBid.com is the only e-commerce tool that lets buyers constantly source for a better PRICE.

• Identify and negotiate with a broad range of qualified manufacturers thanks to Manufacturer Ratings.

• Remain anonymous in the buying process.
  

• Manufacturers are ready for your challenge.
  

• Negotiate 5% to 20% price reductions.

• It's non binding. Colloborate before signing terms.
  

buyers RFQ quantities and warehousing

Tom Barszczowski, of Packaging Concepts and Design http://www.pcdpackaging.com -
emailed me with a great question regarding quantities and how to quote them.

When buyers create an RFQ, they are asked three questions that are indicators of how a manufacturer should price:
1. Warehousing Required
2. Quantity to be Quoted
3. Frequency ordered

If you look at the attached screen shot, the buyer requires warehousing, the quantity is 12,000 pieces and the frequency of the order is bi-monthly.

Simple right? Quote 12K pieces. Run 12K deliver 6k, warehouse 6k. Only if the buyer hits the warehousing button, and most may not. And this is the foundation of Tom's question and an oversight on our part.

We will rewrite these lines so that buyers can indicate the entire quantity of the production run and the shipment quantity on a monthly basis.

Until then, all RFQ's have a quantity, and if the frequency ordered is more than once a month, its safe to say, warehousing is required.

Marc