UPS and Sealed Air open up Packaging Innovation Center

Transportation and logistics bellwether and packaging services provider Sealed Air Corporation announced today they have opened up a Louisville, Kentucky-based Packaging Innovation Center. The facility is located on the UPS Supply Chain Solutions campus near the company’s WorldPort facility and the UPS Air Group’s global headquarters.

This news follows a November 2016 announcement in which UPS and Sealed Air launched a strategic partnership geared towards helping global retailers, e-tailers, and businesses “maximize the efficiency of their packaging operations, minimize packaging waste, and reduce annual shipping costs.”

UPS and Sealed Air described the opening of the 6,000 square-foot Packaging Innovation Center as the next step in their strategic partnership, in turn helping businesses prepare for the future of supply chains, fulfillment, and packaging, with a keen focus on global e-commerce. 

And the companies explained that with the ongoing advent of e-commerce, unlike in the past when consumers did not shop online and see how packages moved in a linear fashion with standard-sized packaging moving from a supplier to a warehouse and then to a store, consumers today that are active ordering online see, touch and need to dispose of packaging frequently, with the end result being that customers thoughts on brand integrity more often commence with product packaging.

“E-commerce, whether it is B2B or B2C, is a driving force,” said UPS Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Alan Gershenhorn at a ceremony this week marking the opening of the Packaging Innovation Center. “UPS is at the forefront of finding efficient and technology-driven solutions to solve today’s and tomorrow’s challenges for our customers and to exceed their expectations. E-commerce is riding a sea change and changing the way shippers need to think about their supply chains, the way they package their products, and the experience customers have with their packaging. That is why we are so excited to partner up with Sealed Air. This partnership enables us to give our mutual customers access to leading-edge solutions…[which] increase fulfillment speeds, reduce materials costs and waste, maximize labor resources, and enhance and improve end-user satisfaction and also reduce the costs of shipping.”

The UPS executive that UPS and Sealed Air co-design solutions to meet the specific needs of their customers. And he added a key objective of their relationship is to use less and pay less and help businesses grow and accelerate in a profitable manner, saying that when their customers grow, so does the company.

“The at-home delivery experience is more important than it has ever been,” said Sealed Air President and CEO Jerome Peribere. “Consumer expectations for fast, free, on-time delivery leave businesses and retailers with very little room for error. The partnership between UPS and Sealed Air allows us to combine our decades of experience and innovation to help our customers create those exceptional delivery experiences from the point of manufacturing all the way through to the last moment of truth in front of the customer.”

Among the offerings in the Packaging Innovation Center are:

• an automated system eliminating the need for outer cartons and reduce dimensional weight by up to 87 percent;
• an automated right-sizing system that eliminates empty void space per box by up to 60 percent; and
• a portfolio of packaging work-cell offerings that improve labor productivity, reduce product damage, and create an enhance customer experience

The companies said it will also be used for consulting services such as package performance analysis  to ensure companies are using the minimum amount of packaging needed to achieve maximum product protection.