Packaging Solutions

History:The history of Ali Group dates back to pre-independence days, almost a century ago, when the highly dynamic personality of Sir Syed Maratib Ali envisioned the importance of trade and industry in the sub-continent. He expanded his agricultural business into trading and industrial partnerships. Soon after independence of Pakistan in 1947, the business activities were further developed into industrialized operations. Ali Group is currently one of the oldest and most successful business groups in the country. After the immense success of Treet Corporation Limited (rated in the top 25 companies in KSE), the company has decided to delve into corrugated box making industry. A new company by the name of Packaging Solutions has been formed which is to be the first ever organized corrugated company with online database dealing with imported raw materials. Fully automated machinery accented by highly sensitive computer controlled system along with the state-of-the-art IT mainframe is being introduced for the customers. For the first time in Pakistan video conferencing is being made available for all large customers providing an even more direct access. Customers will have complete access to numerous services like placing orders online, discuss and change designs, check status of orders, make payments and get pricing done all online from the comfort of their own home or office 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year will all be done in real time. Getting appointments to place orders, looking for sales officers, busy phone numbers, not receiving invoices in time will all be a thing of the past. This will not only save our customers' valuable time and effort but will also cut the lead times to mere 7-10 days instead of six weeks which is the current industry norm. In this day and age, automation is the name of the game. Mission Statement:"Higher standards of personalized service and quality at competitive prices.

Products:Packaging Solutions manufactures corrugated boxes, corrugated containers and fiber boxes. Corrugated boxes have brought to packaging a cushioned protection, light weight, ease of handling and storage. The benefits of mechanical methods in opening, filling, sealing and handling together with attractive appearance increases the merchandising opportunities for our customers. Corrugated board is a highly versatile material, from light weight micro flute materials used for the packaging of fast foods to heavy weight multi flute materials used for packing washing machines, fridge and TVs etc. The term 'fiber' refers to corrugated board, except when the term 'solid fiber' is used. Corrugated board combines great stiffness and rigidity with high cushioning ability. The flutes of the corrugated medium are anchored at both sides to liners forming a continuous arch structure much like the truss structure of a bridge. Because of this basic truss stress formulas apply similarly to corrugated board. Since so many different types of products are packaged, stored and shipped in corrugated boxes, under a wide variation of conditions, different types of boards have been developed. Packaging Solutions manufactures following types of corrugated boxes:
Regular

Slotted Boxes (RSC) Boxes

Two Piece Top

& Bottom Boxes Boxes

Die Cut Glued

Boxes Boxes & Unstitched Boxes

Unglued Stitched

Organizational Structure:(PTO)

Supply Chain Management:Supply chain management is the management of a network of interconnected business involved in the ultimate provision of products and service packages required by end customers. Supply chain management spans all movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and finished goods from point of origin to point of consumption This new concept of whole Supply Chain was providing the Company to be more agile. Agility is something that companies needed through the Supply Chain concept, in the time of more and more demanding market, growing competition and expansion of range of categories and products. Simply, the market is becoming more volatile and less predictable. Supply chain management must address the following problems:

Distribution Network Configuration Distribution Strategy Trade-Offs in Logistical Activities Information Inventory Management Cash-Flow

Suppliers:As the company is producing or manufacturing corrugated boxes so their major raw material is brown paper which is the major ingredient for manufacturing of corrugated box or carton. Initially the company imported huge volume of paper from abroad but just year ago the company launched its own paper mill in sheikhupura which showing that company is going for backward integration and getting benefits of this backward integration. Purchasing Process:Quotation from Suppliers

Price Negotiations Agreement Purchase Order Supplier Advance Payments

Raw Material Received

Gate Inward Pass

Store

Goods Inspection Report

Goods Receipt Note Report

Defected Goods Return to Supplier to Customer

Invoice from Supplier

Accounts Department

Bill Payment

Relationship with Suppliers:The company has long term relationship with its suppliers. The company builds this long term relation through making long term contracts and paying advances to its suppliers. They are building long term relationship through following ways; Advance Payments:Packaging Solutions often pay advances to its suppliers so that they can make sure the timely delivery and good quality raw material which ultimately result in good quality product for their customers. Agreement:The company makes contracts from its suppliers for delivering good quality and timely raw material, all the matters are deeply discussed in contracts for example payment term, quantity of the raw material, delivery terms. Earlier two years of company there were only fewer suppliers from them company purchased raw material. These few suppliers are following 1- Taj International 2- Nazir Paper Mill 3- Packages Limited But now a year ago company buys a paper mill in Sheikhupura to reduce the cost of procurement, moreover recently the company develops relations with other suppliers. Some new supplier to who company built relations and procuring raw material from them, 1- United Paper Mill 2- Saad & Company 3- Horizon Paper Mill Moreover company purchases raw material other than paper which are used in corrugated cartons manufacturing for example Starch Bags, Glue, these material company purchased from Rafhan Maize. It is the only supplier of these material for Packaging Solutions. Supplier Selection:There are no specific criteria for selection of supplier in Packaging Solutions but there are few factors on which company concentrate more while purchasing raw material; Price Quality Delivery Time

 Suppliers capability Past Performance Suppliers Development:Packaging Solutions is contributing effectively for its suppliers development. Supply chain manager is focusing on four main pillars of the supply chain, Cooperation, Coordination, Communication and Collaboration for the development of the suppliers. Moreover the company keen to solve the issues and problems which are faced by the suppliers.

Customers:Packaging Solutions manufacturing an industrial product so its major market share from the following industries, Foods Textile FMCG Match Pharmaceutical Packaging Solutions is a growing organization and it has lots of opportunities in future. Sales are growing very well. Packaging Solutions clearly mentioned in its mission statement they have the mission of providing quality product to its customers. Through effective use of supply chain Packaging Solutions get remarkable achievements in corrugation industry. The company is providing quality services for customer satisfaction on the basis of following factors, Price:Customer always demand reasonable price, especially in country like Pakistan customer always prefer low or reasonable price. As the inflation rate is increasing and overall economy is in deep trouble whereas Packaging Solutions providing low priced product by effective utilization of resources through efficient supply chain. Quality:Another important factor of customer satisfaction is quality. As company has the mission of providing a quality product to its customers so it is consistently focusing on quality issues of the customer, although company has a separate department of Quality Control of which man target is to minimize the defective products to its customers. Moreover here the role of supply

chain department is very important, it make sure the raw material purchased is high quality and the product dispatched to customer with good transportation service. Timely Delivery:The company has the competitive advantage over the competitors that it has a shorter lead time as compared to other. Here again the role of supply chain department is very important it make sure that the product is delivered to customer on desired time. Packaging Solutions make sure the delivery of the product to its customers within 7 days of the order of the customer order.

Processing Map:-

Lead Time

7 Days

PO from Customer

1 Day ISO

1 Day Job Card

3 Days Production

1 Day Quality Check

1 Day Dispatch

Customer receive the material

Order Filling Process:The company has following process for filling an order of customer; First of all sales officer or sales representative develop a customer and received purchased order from customer. In that phase it is also discussed that what will be payment terms? Who will be paid the freight and all other terms and conditions which are related with sales? After receiving PO from customer side sale officer prepare a document called as ISO (Internal Sale Order) which is consisted of the complete description of product including size weight deckles, rate quantity, credit days, freight terms etc. Along with that sale officer contact with graphic designer if there is any printing on cartons. Then graphic designer make computerized designed of the printing. Then production department prepare a document called as job card or bill of material which consist of the raw material need to manufacture the order given by customer. If the material is available the planning department planned to manufacture the cartons or incase of material not available the production manager contact to store in charge for buying the raw material for fulfilling the customer demand. After that production phase come and carton produced according to customer requirement. Here a document made named as Production Note. PN consist of no. of cartons manufactured, sizes of the cartons, party name for whom cartons are manufactured, ISO and Job Card number references are also mentioned on it. Then finished goods transfer to where house to dispatch to the customer. Here the document made a Dispatch Note or DN. It consists of quantity to be dispatch to the customer, transporter name, ISO and PN references must be mentioned on DN. The company is using an ERP system so all the documents made systematically so there is very low chance of error. Oder Filling Process:Order Filling Process

Customer

Sales Officer

Internal Sales Order

Dispatch

Job Card or Bill of Material

Warehouse

Production

Quality Control

Distribution Network:Distribution refers to the steps taken to move and store a product from the supplier stage to a customer stage in the supply chain. Distribution is a key driver of the overall profitability of a firm because it directly impacts both the supply chain cost and the customer experience. Good distribution can be used to achieve a variety of supply chain objectives ranging from low cost to high responsiveness. As a result, companies in the same industry often select very different distribution networks. Packaging Solutions is using the following type of distribution network to make sure timely delivery of the product to the customers Distribution Storage with Carrier Delivery:-

Customer Customer Regional Warehouse Customer Customer Customer Customer

Factory
Regional Warehouse

Product Flow: Information Flow:

Factors Influencing Distribution Network Design:The customer needs that are met influence the company's revenues, which along with cost decide the profitability of the delivery network. While customer service consists of many components, the company is focusing on those measures that are influenced by the structure of the distribution network. These include: Response time Product variety Product availability Customer experience Order visibility Return ability

Recommendations: Recently the supply chain concept is new to the organizations so there are some ambiguities and misconceptions about this concept, so company should focus more on development of this concept which will contribute remarkably for the success of the organization. Inventory management is bit weak for which company is bearing some cost, so there should be taken some measures for inventory management. For inventory management we suggest that company should use different tools for inventory handling for example Economic Order Quantity, and use some other measurement tools so that they can save huge cost. Employees trainings are also needed, employees training workshops should be arranged for best utilization of human capital or human resource. Company should improve more it supply chain because there is still some gaps in this, company can take following benefits if it using accurate supply chain network. The company is focusing quality control factor rather quality assurance which is showing that company is focusing product rather process and it is also concluded that supply chain is not effective as much it should be so the company should be more quality assurance focused because it will lead to higher customer satisfaction. As this is an age of information technology and the company go for Supply Chain information system to take the advantage over the competitors.