5 Benefits of Flexible Packaging

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article |Flexible Packaging|5 Benefits of Flexible PackagingFlexible packaging is fairly new. It can provide some unique options to increase the usefulness or attractiveness of otherwise mundane product packages. As such, it can attract more consumers to try a product whereas they may have just passed it by before. Here are five benefits of flexible packaging.

1. Increased Design Options

Some designs don’t favor a product package that’s boxy or rectangular. It restricts what designs will work and limits the options for creatives. However, flexible packages such as a foil pouch or even a bag, create new opportunities to implement interesting eye-catching designs. Also, being non-traditional shapes, they encourage shoppers to touch them and see how they feel. This increases the level of interaction with the packaging as part of the overall buying experience for the consumer. On the product coding side of things, an inkjet case coder from a company like Diagraph can provide a solution to correctly code products during production runs.

2. Extend Shelf Life

For some products, the use of flexible product packages boasts the opportunity for extended life, especially for fresh produce. While the packaging used to transport the product to its retailer destination may be robust, the retail-level packaging may allow it to breathe or adjust in shape to avoid restricting it.

3. Re-Closure & Re-seal Packaging Solutions Preferred by Consumers

Some flexible packaging is designed not just to contain a product, but to allow it to be accessed, and re-accessed again safely. Especially in the food category, but also relevant for supplements and other categories too, the ability to open the packaging to access the product, to re-seal it again, and do so repeatedly to retrieve small amounts of what’s contained inside is highly useful. These types of solutions can prevent the item from being exposed to too much air, causing it to go stale, lose or change its taste, or suffer other undesirable consequences.

It also prevents someone from needing to use all the supplies quicker than they’d prefer, otherwise it’ll go bad in a day or two once opened. Subsequently, consumers can safely purchase larger volumes and not worry about their longevity.

4. Reduce Waste in Landfills

On the manufacturing side, it has been found that flexible packaging has the benefit of needing less energy to produce and, depending on the product, less H2O too. It’s also lightweight compared to other packaging options, resulting in transportation savings with increased boxes per shipment. Because flexible packaging flattens out better, it requires less space if it gets to a landfill (and isn’t recycled properly).

5. Fewer Greenhouse Gases

Producing flexible packaging is less intensive and so machinery produces fewer emissions. Because it is more efficient to transport it from the manufacturing plant to the retailer, delivery trucks generate fewer greenhouse gases or carbon because lighter packaging requires pushing their truck engines less to get to their destination. Every little bit helps in this regard.

Flexible packaging is taking off because it’s an interesting solution for consumers looking for something different. It is also environmentally friendlier, lighter, and allows for new design ideas to compete in competitive marketplaces.

5 Key Strategies To Improve Product Quality Today

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article |Improve Product Quality|5 Key Strategies To Improve Product Quality TodayWithout a quality product, your brand will fall short of its true potential. Customers are quick to recommend a quality product when they find one, but they are also quick to leave bad reviews unless they are satisfied. To help to improve the quality of your products and services, focus on these five areas.

1 . Create a winning product strategy

The first step to boosting product quality is to create a winning product strategy. One of the key elements of a product strategy is determining the product market and the needs that the product will meet. You’ll need to establish the key differentiators and the selling proposition. Entrepreneurs need to consider the business goals of this new product.

A product strategy should also include the vision for your product. It’s useful to think about the vision as the purpose of your product, what do you want it to achieve? Product goals could relate to various areas, from revenue to customer ratings.

2. Use a QMS

With the help of a Quality Management System businesses can determine how to develop services and products. The standard QMS used by companies is the ISO 9001. It’s basically a set of guides which outline product creation and distribution. Using a QMS business can audit their procedures, backed by a certification body.

A QMS is based on 7 quality principles. These 7 principles include customer focus, leadership, engagement of people, process approach, improvement, evidence-based decision making, and relationship management, (Bestpractice, 2021).

3. Work with the best equipment

To ensure product quality you’ll need to make sure that you’re working with the best materials and equipment that you can find. To find the best equipment you’ll need to work with top suppliers, perform research, and check reviews where appropriate. You’ll need to communicate your needs to everyone you work with, to ensure quality standards are upheld.
Whether you need the best 8-inch jointer for your woodwork applications, or quality automotive parts, businesses across all industries must pay close attention to quality control.

4. Obtain feedback

Maintaining quality standards relies on collecting customer feedback. Once you’ve obtained customer feedback you’ll need to use these insights to your advantage. Some businesses like to involve their customers in the product development process. Taking consumer ideas on board can be a great way to secure the success of a new product.

5. Test your products

Your products may not be perfect right away, there could be a few adjustments you need to make or errors you need to correct. Testing your products is a fantastic way to gauge consumer reaction, make improvements, and check performance. Brands should test their products to ensure usability, and measure customer satisfaction. Think back to the vision of your product. Is your product currently meeting your vision? If so, what steps can you take to correct this?

Focusing on these five strategies will help you to boost product quality and meet your product goals. Evaluating your performance is a key step to ensuring quality. Look for areas to improve, and make the best use of your customer insights. Launching your business relies on paying close attention to the desires of your consumers.

How To Successfully Implement A Warehouse Maintenance Plan

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A maintenance plan is a well-thought-out and researched schedule for ensuring your warehouse’s safe and efficient operation. Good practices combined with preventative maintenance can save you time, money, and headaches down the line.

StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article |Warehouse Maintenance Plan|How To Successfully Implement A Warehouse Maintenance Plan

What do you want to achieve?

To begin with, establish what type of business you are running and know which areas you want to concentrate on first. Are you just looking to make your workplace a little safer, or do you have a project that will require a significant investment? Your first step should be to determine what will give you the greatest return on your investment.

Determine areas of priority

Once you’ve done that, it’s time to look at each area and prioritize them. Which areas are most important for the safety and efficiency of your employees? Once you’ve determined that, it’s time to look at the critical areas for keeping things running smoothly. Finally, prioritize by cost. This last step will help you determine which projects are worth implementing first.

What resources do you need?

After you have all of these lists prioritized, please take a closer look at them and identify what you’re going to need to get the job done. It would help if you had a good idea of what you can do yourself and what you will need help with, whether from employees or contractors. Remember, if something isn’t on your list, but it’s an emergency, don’t hesitate to call in some reinforcements.

Once you have all of your resources listed and have identified who you’re going to need, start looking for the necessary equipment. Then, look into any training required or recommended for completing a particular area of maintenance – especially if it’s in a high-risk zone in the warehouse or critical equipment like the crown pallet jack. Remember, this is preventative maintenance, so you want to make sure all of your employees are prepared to do their part.

Implement your plan

Once it’s time for implementation, get everyone involved and work together. That means managers, supervisors, technicians, contractors – anyone who will work on the equipment or participate in ongoing training. Make sure you have a post-maintenance meeting to review what went well and what needs improvement.

Review the outcome

Now that the maintenance plan has been implemented, it’s time to look at some statistics. If this is your first maintenance plan or it’s been a while since your last one, use the metrics from your company as benchmarks for evaluating areas of improvement. This is important to know what areas need more attention and where you can cut costs in the future.

Continuous improvement

You may find that your maintenance plan wasn’t as successful as stated above or that it did not work, which means it’s time for a new one. These guidelines are just a basic outline of successfully implementing a maintenance plan and what steps you should take for the best outcome.

The most important thing is to make sure your employees are involved; everyone knows their roles and that the maintenance plan is working for your facility!

10 Factors to Consider When Choosing a Roof Type for Your Construction Projects

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article | 10 Factors to Consider When Choosing a Roof Type for Your Construction ProjectsYour roof will determine the durability and appearance of your business facility whether it’s an office or factory. Here are 10 factors worth considering when choosing a roof type for your construction projects.

Choosing a roof type comes with great responsibility. This also involves choosing the right contractor for your construction projects as they influence your decisions the most. Baker roofing company provides you with the 10 factors to put into consideration when choosing a roof type for your construction projects.

Your budget

Finances will always be your number one constraint. How much are you willing to spend on your roof? A good roof type will always be more expensive than the rest. You should be aware of the costs you will likely incur through the process of purchasing, installation, and maintenance. Costs may include that of raw materials, transportation costs, a roofing contractor, and maintenance costs.

Budget involves estimation of costs prevailing in the market. The use of construction estimating software eliminates the likelihood of underestimation or overestimation. Having a good budget with correct estimates shades more light on how much the project will cost you.

Business needs of the facility

When choosing a roof type for your construction projects you need to consider the business needs. Does it need a roof? Is it an office? In case it’s a factory, are there any pollutants emitted? Will they react or cause damage to the roof? These are some of the questions you need to ask yourself to make a good choice.

The geographical location of your building

Different regions have different trends of weather. The weather may differ year to year in terms of wind velocity, rainfall, and snowing and other regions may experience the extremes of these weather conditions. Different roof types are made to withstand the extremes. Your geographical location may restrict you to only certain types of roofs hence you should consider looking into this.

Cost of maintenance

Roofs also need maintenance to keep them functional. Some types of the roof will require high maintenance with the need of expertise which may be expensive. Some may also need to be replaced wholly, therefore, you should take into account this factor.

Reviews, references, and testimonials

A good roof type will be followed by positive reviews. Check the provider’s website or social media platforms to see the reviews and testimonials given by their customers. Ask for references from other owners of buildings who have already installed their roofs.

The length of service

Longevity varies from one type of roof to another. In addition, other factors may influence its normal lifecycle by either prolonging or shortening it. These factors may include exposure to the sun, level of maintenance, and installation. The key goal of any business is to maximize profits and minimize costs hence the need for long-term goals prioritization.

You need to ask yourself this: will there come a time when you’ll have to relocate? Do you have ideas of converting the building into something else shortly? Answering these questions will help you make an informed decision on the type of roof you need to purchase.

Level of expertise of the roofing contractor

Some negative reviews of the roof types may arise due to poor workmanship. You may end up not liking your roof type because it was wrongly installed by an unqualified professional. Expertise in this field has vast knowledge on the different types of roofs and has a better understanding of which one will suit your business. You should also consider looking into the number of years the roofing contractor has been in the market. Those with over 50 years of experience such as slate roofing should provide a high level of expertise.

Energy saving

Energy-saving roof systems are becoming popular because of their efficiency. They can recycle toxins that are hazardous to the environment hence leading to energy bills savings. They are quite expensive than others but in the long run, you save more on your energy bills.

Building codes

Some states have restrictions on the type of roofing for safety purposes. This is because some states are exposed to risks that are natural such as tornadoes and hurricanes.

The roofing application

Are you applying the roof to a new building, as an addition or as a replacement? Answering this will help you in choosing the correct roof type needed.

Conclusion

Making a good choice of roof type is very vital for the success of your business. Your decisions should be informed. Considering the 10 factors discussed above, you will be guided to arriving at the best decision.

Improving Quality Assurance During The Software Development Process

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Quality assurance (QA) is a crucial part of the software development process. Regular testing ensures that applications are not filled with bugs and they operate as they should. Unfortunately, a lot of companies have trouble with their QA process because they think that throwing money or more people at the problem guarantees results. However, that’s not the way that it works and if you want to improve QA, you need to adapt your strategy and change the way that you approach it. Here’s how you can improve quality assurance in the software development process.

StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article | Improving Quality Assurance During The Software Development Process

Improve Project Management

One of the biggest ways to improve QA is through project management. If you want to make sure that QA is working, you need to make sure that it’s an integrated part of the development process and not something separate from everything else. So many companies make the mistake of thinking of QA as an afterthought and that’s when the process suffers. Everyone has to have clear roles and responsibilities in testing as well as communicating with each other about what’s going on. It’s important that you have a good project management team to help integrate QA and ensure that it is a priority throughout the development process.

Implement Automation Tools

Another way that you can improve QA is through automation. With automation, it’s going to be a lot easier for people to do their jobs and test applications because they have tools at their disposal that make testing much more efficient. Using automation tools (like this one at testRigor.com) allows you to automate a lot of the time-consuming aspects of QA instead of testing everything manually. You can create detailed reports so you know exactly where the issues are and they can be resolved quickly and easily. Many people make the mistake of expanding their QA team instead of improving efficiency with automation tools. The problem is, more people complicate the process and increase the chances of mistakes. Automation tools solve this problem and save you a lot of time and money, while also ensuring that your QA processes are working as they should.

Test Throughout The Development Process

Another way that you can improve QA is by testing throughout the entire development process. Instead of waiting until everything is more or less completed and then testing, you should be constantly testing as things are added to applications. This ensures that new components and features don’t throw off the balance of what’s already been created and that there aren’t any crucial components that are overlooked. The more you test, the easier it is to fix issues when they arise and improve production quality. It’s always more effective to deal with small issues as and when they come up instead of trying to iron out complex problems at the very end of the development process.

Quality assurance is so important during the software development process and if you don’t get it right, the user experience of your applications will suffer. By making these simple changes, you can drastically improve QA in your business.