Closing the Loop: Smart Reusables & Data-Driven Supply Chains

David Perrine: Glad to be here, Bill.

Tim Debus: Terrific. Thank you, Bill.

Bill Wohl: So, let’s get started. Dave, let’s set the stage first. We’ve been talking about the challenges that companies have filling the gaps and transparency in the supply chain and in particular, how companies can think about that effort from concept to execution.

So, let’s get grounded for our audience again in case they’re joining us for the first time. Why is data at the edge? Why is transparency in supply chain so important?

David Perrine: Bill, a great question, and I want to say from ACSIS standpoint, we’re very pleased to be working with Tim Debus and the Reusable Packaging Association, which is a relatively new relationship for us. We have known at ACSIS for some time, particularly in certain industries such as food and beverage and certain types of chemicals, that there is a serious issue with the loss and misplacement of returnable assets. Those returnable assets are commonly known as totes, trays, pallets, and various types of specialty containers.

We have recognized in our research that the industries I mentioned sometimes lose upwards of 30%, but it is typical to lose between 15 and 30% of these returnable assets on an annual basis. There is now technology at the edge that can help prevent this and mitigate the loss. That’s why we’re so pleased to be here with Tim and the RPA to talk about how this technology can be applied to help the industries I mentioned recover these losses, which can be quite expensive—depending on the size of the company, anywhere from hundreds of thousands to many millions of dollars a year.

Bill Wohl: Well, that’s great. Thanks so much for getting us grounded. Tim, welcome to the program. Tell us as we start our discussion, tell us first a little bit about the Reusable Packaging Association.

Tim Debus: Sure. The Reusable Packaging Association is an international nonprofit trade organization consisting of member companies that supply, use, or provide services to reusable transport products and services. One of the things we focus on is the system in which these products—like pallets, bins, containers, trays—are used to carry goods through supply chains and business-to-business transactions and then, of course, are recovered effectively and put back into use. Our organization promotes the use and value of these products through that system. We collaborate across the industry to identify issues that are common that we can work on together to make a stronger, healthier business climate for our member companies.

Dave mentioned the role of technology, which is continuing to be an incredible development for our industry. The growth, the direction, its application for our products, and what we’re able to derive from them is not only helping with areas like asset tracking and location, but also driving new value that’s being generated by the data that’s being captured, assembled, and ultimately interpreted for best supply chain visibility. So, it’s an exciting time, and our organization works across the industry to be able to take advantage of those opportunities—not only with that systems approach but with the technology and automation that’s rapidly changing supply chains.

Bill Wohl: It’s always interesting the kind of audience that you get for a podcast, and I expect that there are some real experts in supply chain that listen but others as well. So, let’s ground this in a real customer problem. Forget the company names, but as you listen to the customer challenges, can you give our audience an example of where the rubber meets the road? What’s a typical customer problem you’re trying to get from? Give like an industry example.

Tim Debus: Well, the most common one that really has served the test of time since our organization’s been around for over 20 years has been waste and the lack of efficiencies that aren’t created through supply chains. How do companies build stronger distribution of their products through the multiple steps without waste created, to be able to move these products as efficiently as possible? And then, over the years, of course, there’s much greater awareness now about the pollution as a result of packaging waste—products that are just discarded, and the value is lost to the product that ends up unaccounted for.

And then, of course, the climate change and other actions in which people are examining their footprint, the environment, and what’s taking place in the supply chain that might help alleviate one’s impact to the environment. But more so right now and pressing, here we are in the midst of a pandemic that just keeps lingering. We’re seeing the effects of what not having a resilient supply chain is—not having products and raw materials that are available, those that have to be sourced for every single use production.

Let’s say the lack of materials, the lack of accountability in terms of having products like packaging available for your business—it’s really pressing some of the greatest challenges we have around the world in terms of global trade. You know, the idea is that when you design and build products for durability, they’re lasting. They’re here. You don’t have to go back and re-source raw materials to remanufacture for every need. You’ve got products that are available within your pool or network. It just requires the management of those assets to optimize your packaging needs. And so, really creating the resiliency and the visibility of your inventories moving into modern digital supply chains is what the opportunities hold. And it’s been very evident with the pandemic and the impact it has—that’s really stressing how people are distributing goods and the availability of those goods in the supply chain today.

Bill Wohl: So, as you think about reusability, I think that the name of the association sort of gets people thinking about recycling and waste. But you’re really trying to help your members deal with some of the challenges that are fairly basic.

The racks that hold fresh bread—they not only bring the fresh bread to market, those racks then have to be returned to the manufacturer. If those racks get thrown out, get lost, get stolen, it makes it difficult then for the manufacturer of bread to have enough racks reliably to ship out new products.

Or even what we’re seeing a lot in the general news right now—the shortage of shipping containers, largely driven by the fact that the ports have been shut down because of the pandemic. Getting those containers back to manufacturing markets, say like China, is now one of the biggest problems. Is that a lot of the chatter you hear from the members of the association?

Tim Debus: Oh, absolutely. Earlier this year we saw with pallets just the availability of pallets. In fact, in the fresh fruit and vegetable industry, they made public announcements and statements about the lack of pallets that were available. And then, of course, as we saw with goods like toilet paper in the consumer markets, people start stocking up on pallets to make sure they’re covering their business under an effective managed system.

In which you have the confidence to have availability of that product that’s moving for your business and being returned—and returned in the right shape. Whether it has to be washed and sanitized for food uses, for example, conditioned, but they’re put back into place. And when you’ve got that managed system and you’re leveraging the technologies to enable the real-time movement and understanding of your inventories, that’s when you really have the robust packaging system in place.

And so, you’re right—when you’re seeing shortages across the nation, across the world in terms of these products, our organization brings together these members to talk about best practices, talk about experiences. One thing we do is we just raise awareness—using case studies, using examples, using articles and columns that we’re able to write, credible expert perspectives to provide in the marketplace. At the end of the day, we want to be an educator. We want to have people come to the organization and learn and understand what is what. How do we overcome challenges as an industry? How does a business tackle certain limitations they may be seeing in their supply chain? Are there examples that could be accounted for and learned from? And so we invite people to join the organization, to be a part of our network, to be a part of our committee structures, to learn and discuss amongst your peers and your partners in the trading business. And that’s where we find our most success.

Bill Wohl: I suspect that many of those discussions do revolve around technology. We’ve all heard the term “smart packaging,” and for those of us in the general public, we’re thinking about packaging that ultimately is consumer facing. But in the world you live in, that’s really about understanding how technology like RFID tracking and scanning—even shock and temperature monitoring—can go into the way the materials move through the supply chain and report back to the manufacturer. I would imagine that’s a big focus of the association membership.

Tim Debus: Tremendous, and more and more so—only because it’s breakthrough, the promise of technology applied to reusable packaging products. You know, even 15, 20 years ago it was very rudimentary in terms of the application. The products were large devices, they were expensive. Now it’s not the case. In fact, we’re having connectivity through the Internet of Things and having products being able to be identified through GPS and cloud systems like ACSIS offers. That’s one of the fastest growth areas of our membership—technology providers—because of the rapid development of these devices, these systems, the digital components that could be applied to our industry.

What’s really important to note, Bill, today is that this technology is available. It’s not in the future. It’s not forthcoming. It’s actually available today. And it’s some wonderful technologies that are equipping this smart packaging that’s providing a wealth of information. That’s the great thing about ACSIS—and they’re coming to the industry saying, “Look, we can capture data. The key is can we assemble and interpret it to be able to make predictive analysis or predictive analytics of decision-making for your company?” That’s really where we find the excitement—taking raw data that’s being generated in the millions in terms of movement of products in the global distribution of goods and ultimately identifying not only where they are but where they’re going. And when can we get them back? Answering those questions really drives the value proposition for reusable packaging.

Bill Wohl: That’s great. Dave, we just have about 30 seconds before we have to wrap up. Just want to come back to you for one last final question. How do customers get started on this technology journey with reusable packaging?

David Perrine: That’s a great question, Bill. And look, one way is of course, you’ve heard from Tim speak about the value of doing this. So, one way to start is to reach out to the Reusable Packaging Association and to ACSIS. Come to our website, visit our sites. We have tremendous resources in the form of blogs and papers and so on that can help guide the journey.

Lastly, don’t try to eat the elephant all in one bite. Start small. Use a concept of a proof of concept or a pilot that helps you identify, and from the learnings from that pilot, then you can move—or that POC move—efficiently into a production environment that will help you realize the benefits that Tim described over the last few minutes.

So reach out to us. We’re here to help.

Bill Wohl: That’s good advice, Dave. As always, thanks for joining the program. Tim, thanks for being on the podcast. We really appreciate it. I want to tell our audience there is an upcoming event that looks directly at these topics.

It’s at the end of September 27th through the 29th, in good old Las Vegas. Yep. Las Vegas is open, and they’re holding in-person events. We’re excited to see business getting back to in-person.

The event is called the Pack Expo. A lot of great information at their website, packexpolasvegas.com. I know that ACSIS, Tim, and the Reusable Packaging Association will be there in the reusable package pavilion. So, if you’re going to be in Vegas at the event, seek out Dave, seek out Tim, and look for an opportunity to continue this discussion. That wraps up today’s podcast. My thanks to the Reusable Packaging Association President and CEO Tim Debus for being with us, and for ACSIS’ David Perrine for being a part of this podcast. And of course, always to ACSIS for making the podcast series possible.

We welcome your comments and questions about the discussions on these podcasts. You can engage with us at the official ACSIS Twitter and LinkedIn accounts and of course directly with the Reusable Packaging Association. Please join that discussion. We look forward to hearing from you. I’m your host, Bill Wohl. And for everyone at ACSIS, thanks for joining. We look forward to our next podcast. Talk soon.

Narrator: Thank you for listening to Supply Chain Visibility Stories brought to you by ACSIS, the 100% supply chain visibility cloud solution provider. Visit us on the web at acsisinc.com, or join the dialogue on social media. Look for ACSIS Inc. on LinkedIn and Twitter. Join us next time for Supply Chain Visibility Stories brought to you by ACSIS.