When Profit Can Be Measured in Grams
A regional manufacturer competes in a food category crowded with substitutes. Consumers are quality-conscious but price-sensitive too, with little brand loyalty. To compete profitably in this sector, manufacturers need to strictly control costs without diluting consumers’ perceptions of product quality and safety.
The manufacturer provided Obeikan Additive Manufacturing with copious technical data on its most critical SKU. Our process engineers assessed the data to be certain that it captured every available lever of change, then proceeded to run simulations that tested the effect of various changes on quality and profitability.
Their report back to the manufacturer was fascinating. One of the discoveries was that the weight of the product packaging could be reduced by nine grams while still maintaining product quality and safety. Nine grams may not sound like much, but when you multiply it by 100 million packages per year, this change saves 900,000 kilos of raw material and 900,000 kilos of transport. It adds several million dollars(?) to the margin and as a bonus, is a sustainability gain that consumers increasingly care about.