How can beauty and personal care brands reduce waste in the supply chain?

In the beauty and personal care industry, waste can be detrimental to your brand’s bottom line and sustainability goals. Two of the most common causes of waste are product spoilage and breakage. Read on to learn more about how your brand can optimise logistics operations to address these issues – maximising efficiency and reducing your environmental footprint. 

Waste reduction: A key topic for beauty and personal care brands 

As the beauty and personal industry comes under increasing scrutiny from both customers and regulators, taking steps to limit waste is fast becoming a business-critical issue. For example, legislation such as the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in the EU are forcing many brands to rethink their approach to packaging. Meanwhile, consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the environmental impact of packaging and are choosing more sustainable options.¹ So how can your beauty and personal care brand streamline its logistics operations to cut down on waste?  

Optimising logistics operations to reduce waste in the supply chain 

A key strategy form minimising waste in the supply chain is to use less material when packaging items for transportation. And advanced technology can be a big help. For example, the Ranpak Cut’it!™ EVO machine used by Bleckmann automatically removes excess cardboard from the top of boxes – ensuring that exactly the right amount of material is used. This reduces waste in two ways: less cardboard is used and there’s less empty space in each box, helping to ensure more efficient transport. What’s more, with less empty space, fragile products such as perfume bottles are less likely to get jostled and broken in transit. 

Another strategy for reducing waste is to ensure that goods are transported as efficiently as possible – reducing wasted space by fitting the maximum number of goods into the space available. Filling boxes efficiently to eliminate air gaps requires careful planning and relies heavily on the skill of the packers in your warehouse. However, technology can also help. Take Bleckmann’s Smart Waving solution. It optimises the picking process in the warehouse to maximise the number of full boxes in each shipment. This approach reduces the amount of wasted space, helping to lower the overall carbon footprint of your logistics operations. 

How can data analytics help to reduce waste in the supply chain? 

In addition to packaging, efficient inventory management is another important lever for reducing waste. Many cosmetics products are perishable, so it’s important to stop them from spoiling before they can be sold. One inventory management technique that’s often used in the beauty and personal care industry to address this issue is lot tracking. Lot tracking allows you to track specific batches of product through the supply chain with a unique ‘lot number’ linked to key product information – including expiry dates. This information can then be used to implement a first-in first-out (FIFO) system, where the products that entered the warehouse first are the first to be dispatched. This reduces the likelihood of product spoilage and subsequent waste. For greater efficiency, the FIFO process can also be streamlined with the use of an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS). 

Delivering a less wasteful future for beauty and personal care 

To help your brand reduce waste, it’s important that your logistics provider gets to know your product range in detail. An in-depth understanding of your inventory will help your provider to tailor their services to your requirements and help you reduce waste – whether it’s using less packaging, making transportation more efficient or preventing product spoilage. And through regular check-ins, your provider can ensure they continue to meet your current and future needs. So, if your brand is committed to reducing waste throughout the supply chain, make sure that your with your logistics provider shares that commitment.  

This strategy will help your brand thrive amidst increasing regulatory pressure surrounding waste and its environmental impact – helping you develop sustainable practices to comply with rapidly evolving legislation. And with younger consumers driving an increased focus on sustainability in beauty and personal care, the pressure on brands to adopt environmentally responsible policies is growing. So, by focusing on waste reduction, brands can enhance their productivity, attract eco-conscious customers and reduce their environmental impact.