Racionalización de envases y embalajes en cadenas de suministro sostenibles. Un estudio de caso en el sector de la alimentación
Authors: García-Arca Jesús , Riveiro-Sanromán Sara , González-Boubeta Iván , Prado-Prado J. Carlos 
Published: July 2022

In increasingly complex, volatile and global supply and distribution markets, the sustainable management of the supply chain and its associated processes is, and will be more so in the future, a key element of competitiveness. In this sustainable field, the packaging design actively contributes to this competitive improvement of companies and supply chains, which has generated different theoretical approaches, among which the “Sustainable Packaging Logistics” (SPL) concept stands out. Within the framework of the development of this concept, different authors have identified the potential to address different actions, among which the packaging standardization of formats and qualities outlines. Therefore, this article proposes and justifies a methodology for the standardization of the packaging system from an efficiency and sustainability perspective, based on the redesign of secondary packaging (boxes). The reason for this approach is not only because secondary packaging is the link with the other two levels of the system (primary and tertiary), but it is also less limited at the level of commercial restrictions (typical of primary packaging) or logistics (typical of tertiary packaging).Thus, the authors have developed a methodology for the rationalization of secondary packaging composed of four stages that are distributed in a similar way to a PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle. In order to build new alternatives to the initial packaging system from a perspective of standardization of boxes, it is necessary to propose analysis strategies that allow to justifiably reduce the number of initial formats from which one starts. In the methodological proposal, this strategy involves establishing volumetric groups similar in dimensions and qualities. To establish these groups, the boxes are sorted by volumes from highest to lowest, associating to each of them the number of expected units of consumption in the period of analysis; the boxes with less consumption are tried to integrate in another box with similar volumetry. The products with a higher level of sales are tried to assign highly efficient boxes at the productive and logistical level. At the same time, the potential impact on primary and tertiary packaging of this reassignment is identified, comparing the associated KPIs.Likewise, the application of this methodology is illustrated with the development of a case study in the food sector that adopts the “Action Research” approach. After the application of the methodology in the company, it can be seen how the impact on the different pillars of sustainability is reduced thanks to the elimination of the most inefficient boxes and the standardization of the most suitable ones. In the same way, the operability of the packaging system also improves substantially due to the reduction of packaging references. This article is considered to be of interest at an academic and business level because it delves into the standardization and integration of the combined packaging-product-supply chain system as a means of deploying the SPL approach. These results contribute to advance in unexplored lines of research, and help organizations to improve their logistics processes in a sustainable way.