It's Always Peak Season Somewhere

New consumer behaviors, the rise of sustainability and supply chain disruptions from the past two years have reshaped packaging operations to deliver value better and faster – particularly when managing peaks and troughs of demand. What have we learned from these past peak seasons and how can these lessons help packaging operations succeed into the future?

Nobody thinks about Christmas in July, but for some packaging operations jingle bells are ringing all around. Alongside the traditional logistics peak season, packaging operations have always dealt with their own peaks in demand, which already required a balancing act to ensure smooth operations. Adding the disruptions of the past two years, businesses across industries felt additional pressure to maintain agile and competitive packaging operations during fluctuating and volatile peaks in demand. But with challenges also come opportunities and the lessons learned will pave the way for successful packaging operations in the future.

Market dynamics driving change

The Covid-19 pandemic, trade wars, and Brexit were some of the catalysts of the greatest supply chain disruptions in recent history. The pandemic, for instance, accelerated the spectacular rise of e-commerce, and with consumer in-store purchasing decisions disappearing, businesses needed to find new strategies to capture consumer attention online.