Three Big Summer Packaging Risks & How to Avoid Them

Summertime, and living isn’t exactly easy. A heat wave has rolled in, several team members are out on PTO, and orders are stacking up, ready to be fulfilled.

Issues that seem manageable when the weather is nice often tend to escalate quickly during summer and peak seasons, as extreme conditions exacerbate system-wide failures.

Throw in inconsistent standards across multi-site operations and it feels like you just can’t catch a break.

But these issues didn’t appear out of thin air.

Summer heat often becomes a stress test for packaging programs. You can increase your operational readiness by planning and implementing strategies that reduce operational delays, stress, and costs before they balloon out of control.

The Big 3 Packaging Failure Points

Summertime can amplify existing packaging operations issues. Ongoing uncertainties are heightened by non-standardization, extreme heat and humidity, transit delays, and peak volume.

The three biggest packaging failure points that cause the most issues are:

Packaging materials performance loss

Scaling up throughput when labor pressure increases

Increased exposure risks in storage, warehousing and transportation

By ignoring these packaging failure points, material damage, delays, and increased costs result across the board. For multi-site packaging facilities, this can be even more problematic at scale.

Packaging Materials Lose Performance in Extreme Conditions

Most teams underestimate the impact of extreme conditions, like heat and humidity, have on their packaging materials' performance.

Extreme humidity alone causes shipping cartons to lose half their stacking strength, and heat turns them brittle and easy to tear, according to UPS.¹

And it’s not just cartons. Adhesives, films, and other materials are all impacted in various ways. The initial signs are often small, so it's easy for teams to overlook them before they blow up into bigger problems.

When Staffing Shortages and Peak Volume Collide

It’s not just materials that are impacted by high temperatures. Staffing challenges and the risk of heat related illnesses and injuries can reduce efficiency and productivity just when orders are at their peak.

Seasonal labor is often unfamiliar with non-standardized summer packaging procedures and requirements, increasing the chance of product damage and spoilage due to heat exposure.

Heat-related stress can cause cognitive and mental fatigue, leading to increased accidents and a higher likelihood of errors on the packaging line during the summer.²

Storage, Warehouse, and Transportation Conditions Extend Heat Exposure

In environments where products are sensitive to heat and humidity, summer heightens the chance of heat exposure before they even leave your facility.

The minute you start to pull products to stage, the clock starts.

If you don’t have the timing right, perishable products could be sitting on your dock for longer than you expect endangering their viability before they’re even close to their final destination.

Temperature-sensitive goods are vulnerable to slight temperature changes, especially at the high-risk points between transportation stages (loading docks before shipping/during transfers), and within the last-mile of delivery.³

Weather changes, traffic delays, exposure at unprotected docks, adjustments to delivery schedules, fluctuating temperatures inside cargo areas, and other unpredictable events impact shipment exposure, causing spoilage and reduced product quality.

Facilities handling a wide variety of SKUs are particularly susceptible to heat exposure risks. If minor issues are not addressed quickly, the operational complexity can trigger additional logistical challenges as volume and heat spikes.

 

Read how we collaborated with KeHE to consolidate and standardize their packaging SKUs to simplify their process and increase efficiency across their 20 locations throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Having a Peak-Season Packaging Readiness Plan Keeps Shipments Moving

Prepare ahead of time by identifying risks across multiple operational areas and factors. By assessing your packaging operations, you can prioritize where you need to improve and ensure that the process is consistent throughout all your locations.

Evaluate prior year’s performance to identify what worked and where improvements need to be made. During the summer and peak-seasons, make sure to track key performance indicators, including:

• Rework rate due to damaged materials and during hot shifts
• Load failures and restacking
• Emergency order frequency
• Reshipments due to damage or spoilage
• The total number of different packaging materials SKUs
• Damage claims by shipping lane

Implementing a standardized summertime packaging readiness plan reduces your heat exposure risks and sets you up for peak efficiency across your organization.

Download the Summer Packaging Operations: Risk Assessment Scorecard

This self-assessment helps you evaluate six key areas throughout your packaging operations to determine what you need to prioritize and invest in to reduce heat exposure risks, materials exposure, and improve consistency.

Ensure packaging operations readiness and standardization across all your locations!

 

References:

1. UPS Temperature and Humidity: Package Engineering Sales Sheet
2. CDC Stacks: Impact of Occupational Heat Stress on Worker Productivity and Economic Cost
3. Cold chain on the brain? 3 Key challenges for last mile distribution