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Newell Rubbermaid
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Cost Reduction
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The household products division of this US corporation produced a range of plastic goods
at manufacturing facilities in the US and the UK Product was manufactured by injection molding and supplied to general
retailers and stores. Due to increasing commercial pressures on the business,
James Ross Consulting were commissioned to identify and implement process and
material cost savings. The project concentrated on production facilities in
Central and Eastern Europe.
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newellrubbermaid.com
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Commercial Pressure
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Rubbermaid had entered the European market with their range of products, brands and processes based on their successful US model. The European market place had, with the opening up of Eastern Europe, become significantly more complex. It also offered a wide range
of low cost competitors.
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Business Challenge
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Process Change
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The Project was based at three European manufacturing sites.
Product and commercial data was investigated to provide background information,
agreed with local project teams. Current procedures for developing and testing
pack formats were reviewed.
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How JRC Helped
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Lower Packaging Spend
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A packaging change process was agreed, whereby the product
was packed in production, shipped to central stores, picked and shipped again,
under agreed conditions. A team, consisting of commercial, marketing and
technical representatives, reviewed the tested products for acceptability to
the business. Over a period of 8 months, in the first phase of the
project, the packaging related spend was reduced by $1.4m.
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Value Delivered
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Sustainable Cost Avoidance
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The products consisted of bulky, relatively light items, so
the packaging changes were directed, where possible, at improving palletisation
to achieve reductions in transport costs. This enhanced the savings achieved in
material reduction. The project required a system of control to be established
to track and validate the changes. This system became a tool for predicting the
value to the business of making change, and is available for internal use in
the future.
Savings were achieved with minimal disturbance to operations. On the basis of competent action by James Ross Consulting,
the company intends to retain our services for a future phase, when the time is
right. The new packaging formats act as examples for future NPD,
representing on-going cost avoidance for the business. The specifications for
pack components developed via the change process provide a starting point for
the future classification, control and value analysis of material.packaging_
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Contact Us
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To enquire about applying our services to your business send us an e-mail
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We have offices in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Locate our office addresses here
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