Think Your Company Is Losing Money? Data Can Help
Have you heard of PPC’s data benchmarking program? When folding carton converter members submit their metrics, PPC aggregates data from all participants and then provides each with a “report card” of its performance versus the average of all the respondents, based on company size. With data in hand, converters are empowered to make smart decisions that move their business forward.
So, how does it work in practice? Let’s take a look at a hypothetical folding carton converter. Randy is the owner of Speedy Paper Box, and he thinks he’s doing quite well. He’s making money, his employees are happy, and he recently brought his daughter, Rose, into the business as finance manager.
One afternoon Rose approaches Randy with a concern. It seems like she’s always approving orders for paperboard. She doesn’t have facts, but something about it feels off.
Fortunately, Speedy Paper Box participates in PPC’s Annual Performance Report for Management (APRM). This report helps converters review their financial performance, as a percentage of net sales, on a variety of different data points like paperboard, wages and salaries, and shipping costs.
Randy and Rose review their latest APRM report, which you can review here. You can see a simplified version of their hypothetical report to the right. Looking at their paperboard expenses they determine that, at 37% of their net sales, they spend at least 10% more on paperboard than the mean average of the rest of the survey respondents. Yikes!
So, Randy and Rose work with Speedy Box’s plant manager to audit the company’s paperboard usage. After a little digging, they discover that one of their reoccurring, high-volume jobs might be the culprit: the blanks aren’t optimized on the sheet as effectively as possible. With some tweaking, they found they could fit several more blanks on the sheet.
Realizing that this obvious mistake might be cropping up elsewhere, Rose suggests an audit of all recurring jobs. They discover that others need optimizing. Ultimately, Randy and Rose decide to invest in training for some of their design staff.
Months later, Randy’s APRM report offers excellent news. Speedy Paper Box’s paperboard costs are now in line with the industry average, and net profits have increased.
Randy is thrilled. Not only is he saving money and resources, he has also learned that Rose will make a great owner of the company in the future.
Rose and Randy’s story highlights just one way that folding carton converters can use PPC’s data reports to better their businesses. Learn more about all of our data offerings, and get started today!