Packaging Waste Reduction

The Role of the Packaging Professional in the Product Development State

By H. B. Tollette

As you look at new and existing products or re-design, packaging materials must be considered. These materials must preserve and protect during the product's life-cycle. How do you identify the most efficient and optimum packaging to accomplish the aforementioned goals?

Packaging development professional "fill in the blanks" for many small, medium, and large firms. While some firms have in-home packaging professional, most do not. How do you determine a need?

To be sure, investing in a consultant is not for the short-sighted. The reason: consultants aren't cheap. Typically, fees range anywhere between $30 an hour for a consultant to oversee implementation of specific new work programs to more than $300 an hour for the top chemical, regulatory, or technical experts.

Whether your plan is to prepare for an EPA inspection, purchase or merge with another business, or simply institute new administrative or production methods, you should be prepared to lay out some cash.

The upshot is that over the long term, a company can save a substantial amount of money by having invested in a consulting service up-front. Consultants, after all, offer a few advantages over hiring or training a staff employee to oversee the same projects. When a consultant is hired, an employer pays no benefits, offers no vacation or paid holidays, or other fringes associated with hiring a full-time employee.

More importantly, if the project winds down in several months, the consultant's job is done. Hiring a full-time employee implies a mutual agreement toward long-term employment--regardless of the project's status.

"You only pay for consulting on an as-needed basis," says Lewis Tomer, sales and marketing manager at Chemsultants International Network in Mentor, Ohio. "Yes, the salary rate is higher," explains Tomer, "but for a manufacturer who needs a specific service, the overall cost and liability are significantly less."1

Having decided that having a consultant is necessary, how do you find the "right one" and how do you get your money's worth?

With fees rising as engagements lengthen, clients are demanding more results from their consultants. How do you get your money's worth?

• Screen Before hiring a consultant, rigorously interview and screen several candidates for the job and ask for at least three recent client references.
• Research Visit client sites and ask executives for evidence of tangible benefits delivered by the consultants--and whether the company could have done as well on its own.
• Join In Insist that the analysis of the company's issues be done not solely by the consultants, but by client-consultant teams with in-house managers outnumbering consultants.
• Learn Demand that consultants share their skills and knowledge with the teams. Any firm that insists on keeping its methodology or process secret is likely to seize too much control.
• Internalize As the assignment moves into implementation, greater numbers of insiders should be involved in the efforts to make sure the changes have staying power.
• Set Limits Resist efforts by consultants to "scale up" a project to all other units of the company. If skill have been transferred to teams, insiders should be able to spread the ideas to other parts of your organization."2

What do you look for in a packaging professional? The largest organization in the packaging industry is the Institute of Packaging Professional in Herdon, VA, and within the IOPP is the Consultants Council. Their Web site has information on:

• What to look for in a packaging consultant
• How to hire a packaging consultant
• When to hire a packaging consultant
• When not to hire a packaging consultant
• The IOPP Packaging Consultants Council
• Standards of Ethical Conduct for Professional Packaging Consultants

Additional consultants or potential consultants can be reached by contacting San Jose State University, Professor Jorge Marcondes, (408) 924-3210 or marcondes@sjsuvml.sjsu.edu or http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/packtech. I can be reached at:

HB Tollette @ Assoc.
655 University #113
Sacramento, CA 95825
(916) 923-2076, Fax:(916) 230-0934
hbtanda@ix.netcom.com
http://www.hbtandassociates.org

The identification of individuals, companies, and products in this document does not constitute endorsement by the Integrated Waste Management Board and is provided for informational purposes only.