Omni-Channel Speakers

 

As customers and consumers across industries weigh up cost, speed and service in their order fulfillment decisions, their expectations and experiences are becoming more fragmented and multidirectional. This session describes how the future of fulfillment will require advancements in fulfillment, last mile transportation and network design in order to succeed.

Takeaways: As customers and consumers across industries weigh up cost, speed and service in their order fulfillment decisions, their expectations and experiences are becoming more fragmented and multidirectional. Companies need to re-think their network designs to focus not on what they are capable of achieving but on what their customers demand they achieve. This demand compels organizations to look at the suitability of their networks from an outside-in approach.

For example, an organization may have four US distribution centers, designed to meet nationwide customer demand at an acceptable order fulfillment lead time. With the growth in on-line business, both to consumer and other businesses, the pattern of geographical demand may no longer be clustered in locations easily reachable from the distribution centers.

Add to this, increasing customer requirements for faster and less expensive fulfillment and the network comes under perhaps unsustainable pressure to meet expectations.

From a product perspective, demand for products may vary by location too, leading to geographical differentiation and shifting inventory holding patterns.

Resolving this issue will require inventory to be held in new network nodes, located closer to the regions of geographical demand. As a consequence, inventory holding will become more fragmented while also perhaps residing in the three existing facilities to support other regions with less significant demand patterns. These existing facilities will need to support and replenish the new local nodes.

This hub-and-spoke model is gaining prominence within industries. The distributions models used by leading companies are proactive, using predictive demand patterns to anticipate future demand and position inventory in locations in expectation of actual orders, which can then be delivered in short lead times.

Biography: John is a Senior Research Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain Planning organization focusing on packaging, artwork, labeling and product lifecycle management.  In his analyst role, he provides research and actionable advice to global supply chain leaders promoting best practices and driving solutions to today's most pressing challenges.  Prior to joining Gartner in 2018, John spent over 25 years in packaging development roles from engineer to global team leader.  His experience covers package development, organization design, strategic planning, long term research, global team leadership and project management.  John is a graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology, Bachelor of Science Packaging Science and Sacred Heart University, MBA.  In addition to his role at Gartner, John serves as an Adjunct Professor at Rutgers School of Packaging Engineering and serves on the Rutgers Packaging Engineering Advisory Board.

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Liquid Product Case Study

Nicholas Bull
Senior Principal Engineer
Henkel


Protecting liquid packaging from leaking in eCommerce shipping has become a costly endeavor. By taking a holistic approach and fully understanding the problem, a unique packaging solution can be developed to meet the needs of the brand owner, the shipper and the consumer. Baking in an omnichannel approach to packaging development will enable brands to lower cost and be able to better handle the future changes in the eCommerce space.
 
Takeaways: Creating eCommerce-ready, leak-free packaging is possible and can offer benefits to both the brand, customer and consumer. Ordering products through eCommerce does not have to interrupt a consumer behavior or need. It can be done with improvements to existing structures, if the problem is fully understood.

Biography: Nick is a Senior Engineer in Henkel’s Laundry & Home Care category, based in Trumbull, CT. He leads eCommerce packaging for the Laundry & Home Care categories, developing unique eCommerce-only solutions, as well as adapting mass market packaging for eCommerce distribution. Prior to joining Henkel in 2018, Nick spent 11 years working across the food, beverage and personal care industry. Nick has been developing eCommerce packaging strategies for over 4 years, working to better understand how to improve testing, and material usage.

E-commerce, predicted to grow to 15% of retail sales, is the tail wagging the dog.   The rapid evolution of e-commerce has completely disrupted the consumer-packaged goods market.   Huge, slow moving, process-oriented companies are having to "break set" to react to the dizzying challenges of getting product out the door in an attempt to keep up with smaller and mid-size brands who are rapidly innovating.  But the "band-aid" stage of prepping packages has given way to new approaches to product development and packaging.

Now it’s time to step back, look at all your products, packages, marketing/sales and logistics channels to embrace a philosophy of omni-channel.

Takeaways:

Biography: PMMI Media Group, publishers of Packaging World, Healthcare Packaging, ProFood World, Contract Packaging and Automation World, is part of PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies. PMMI represents more than 850 North American manufacturers and suppliers of equipment, components and materials as well as providers of related equipment and services to the packaging and food and beverage processing industries. Jim travels the U.S. and Europe representing members, speaking on e-commerce, cannabis packaging challenges, automation, sustainability and other issues driving change in the packaging marketplace.


Eric Hiser
Vice President of Technical
ISTA


There are many challenges facing those tasked with package design in today’s era of unified retail.  This peer-to-peer session will bring attendees together to share and learn the protective performance demands of packaging in omni-channel distribution, packaging format decisions, omni-channel distribution testing, and more.

Group discussion topics:

• What's your most common approach to packaging format for omni-channel distribution?
• Do you use testing to determine whether packaging formats are sufficient to meet the demands of an omni-channel distribution chain?
• ISTA 6-Amazon.com SIOC - Experiences & Feedback

Biography: Eric is Vice President of Technical Operations at the International Safe Transit Association (ISTA), an association focused on empowering organizations and their people to minimize product damage throughout distribution and optimize resource usage through effective package design.  He manages the ISTA Technical Division including all technical activities, development and maintenance of ISTA Procedures and Projects, and ISTA Certification programs for labs, packaged-products and people. Prior to joining ISTA in 2014, his packaging career included solving supply chain challenges at UPS’s Package Design and Testing Laboratory as well as developing Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) for Scott’s Miracle-Gro.  Eric is a graduate of the Michigan State University School of Packaging with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Packaging. He is an Institute of Packaging Professionals (IoPP) Certified Packaging Professional (CPP) and is involved in industry activities as a Packaging Industry Advisory Board member for Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).


Eric Lausch
Packaging Engineer
Kimberly-Clark



Eric Maclean
Design Manager
Kimberly-Clark



In a crowded omni-channel world, brands need to deliver a consistent experience to consumers wherever and wherever they shop. Packaging plays a key role in elevating brands above the noise and communicating the brand promise across sales and marketing channels. This case study presentation will cover how Kimberly-Clark developed a distinctive package design for its new line of Huggies Special Delivery diapers which is elevating the brand and building powerful connections with consumers from e-commerce sites to retail shelf.

Eric Lausch Biography: Eric Lausch, Packaging Engineer at Kimberly-Clark, holds a B.S. degree in Packaging as well as a second B.S. degree in Biosystems Engineering from Michigan State University. Since graduating from college in 2018, Eric has worked with the Huggies and Depend brands across various product forms and innovations.  Most recently, he led the packaging structural design and execution for Huggies newest launch of Special Delivery.

Eric Maclean Biography: Eric Maclean, Design Manager at Kimberly-Clark, graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a B.S. degree in Industrial Design.  Over his 9 years at K-C he has led design efforts in Depend, GoodNites, Kleenex, and Huggies brands.  His design contributions for Huggies Special Delivery helped shape the execution at shelf as well as tie together the omni-channel portfolio.

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E-commerce Package Design for Less-Than-Truckload Delivery 

David Leinberger
Senior Manager - Packaging Engineering & Material
ABF Freight

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Packaging Satisfaction and CX: The Post Omni-Channel Strategy

Vickie L. VanHurley, Ph.D.
Branding Packaging Expert, Educator, Author, Artist
Bootstrap Branding

• Why consumer packaging satisfaction is important
• Why packaging is key in building trust in a product
• Why investing in packaging is directly contributing to building trust (a vital brand attribute highly valued by consumers)

• Understand the role of packaging satisfaction in omni-channel packaging strategies
• Understand the ease of implementing packaging satisfaction
• Understand packaging aesthetics drive consumer purchase and packaging satisfaction