Just in Time
Helping Brands Reduce Minimum Orders and Deliver on Tight Deadlines
In the dynamic world of retail, packaging plays a pivotal role. At Georgia-Pacific Hummingbird, we constantly track industry trends and have noticed a significant shift towards brands maintaining lower levels of packaging inventory.
Let’s look at why this is happening and how Hummingbird is well equipped to fulfill corrugated packaging orders with high graphics; it is the solution for short turnaround times and lower minimum order quantities. We call these “just-in-time” orders.
Multiple Factors Converging
Brands are navigating economic pressures, sustainability goals and the ongoing digital revolution. As the clock ticks toward efficiency targets, brands are feeling the strain and acting accordingly, many are streamlining their operations.
A reported 80% of consumers adjusted their buying habits during the COVID pandemic¹; to stay nimble brand’s purchasing behavior had to also change. According to Supply Chain Dive, brands that contended with inventory scarcities in the initial pandemic years later struggled to offload surplus goods, as customer spending declined in response to inflation. According to the trade media outlet, retailers began “prioritizing cost control and margin protection over the risk of lost sales,” with many “learning to live on leaner inventories.”¹
Benefits of Lower Inventory
- Cost Savings: Brands recognize that maintaining large inventories ties up capital. Warehousing costs, storage fees and obsolescence risks eat into profits. By keeping less inventory on hand, brands can potentially reduce these financial burdens.
- Agility: The retail landscape is unpredictable. Seasons change, trends shift, and consumer preferences evolve. Brands need agility. The ability to place just-in-time orders with confidence gives them the potential to adapt swiftly to market dynamics – when brands have a rapid-response packaging partner.
- Space Optimization: Retail space is valuable real estate. Less inventory means more room for displays, promotions, and customer experiences.
Hummingbird’s Solution
Hummingbird offers high-graphic package manufacturing and digital printing. Our large-format inkjet printing enables stunning graphics, flexible print-on-demand capability, and countless branding possibilities, especially for just-in-time orders. Here’s why Hummingbird stands out:
- Speed: With our digital solutions, packaging can be ready to print in a matter of days, not weeks like traditional print services.
- Flexibility: Enables aggregated batching, a method that consolidates multiple print orders into a single large batch, significantly reducing setup time and costs for individual orders. This process maintains creative flexibility while eliminating obsolescence and the need for extensive warehousing.
- Quality: Hummingbird® digital print provides life-like image quality, specializing in skin tones, extra-fine details and other vibrant colors that bring brands to life.
- Supply Chain Efficiency: Our digital print process enables supply chain efficiencies that traditional analog printing cannot, and our coast-to-coast digital network helps ensure that whether it is a rush order or a regular restock, your packaging will be ready and available.
It’s a Necessity
The packaging landscape continues to shift, and brands must adapt. Just-in-time ordering can provide brands with needed efficiency and flexibility. Hummingbird’s expertise, capabilities and commitment to innovation render us a go-to partner for brands who need high-graphic corrugated packaging with extremely short turnaround times and lower minimum order quantities.
As the clock ticks, let’s embrace the packaging evolution and its opportunities together. Take a look at some Hummingbird case studies and reach out to us to learn more.
