With the new EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), the European Union is tightening requirements for packaging along its entire lifecycle. In future, companies will need to be able to prove much more precisely which materials are contained in their packaging, what the recycled content is, and whether all regulatory specifications are met. One question often remains unanswered: Where do the information required for this actually come from?
In many companies in the packaging and processing industries, product data, packaging specifications, artwork files and regulatory information are held in different systems. Packaging development, marketing, quality management, regulatory affairs and external agencies work with their own sets of data. The result is media disruptions, duplicate data entry and a high level of coordination effort.
Particularly with regard to the PPWR, such information silos can become a risk, since compliance is only as robust as the underlying data. A lack of transparency not only makes reporting more difficult, but also the obligations to provide proof to authorities and trading partners.
SAP as an integrative solution
Many companies already rely on SAP systems for managing product and master data. However, packaging and artwork are often managed separately. Modern, SAP-based approaches enable end-to-end management of product, packaging and artwork data in a shared context. With the SAP Engineering Control Center, for example, packaging structures, material information and artwork files can be linked directly to the corresponding products. As a result, all stakeholders work from the same data basis.
Centralised management of packaging information offers numerous benefits. Companies profit from higher data quality, fewer manual reconciliations, lower risks of errors and faster approval processes. In addition, they are better prepared for compliance and sustainability reporting. Structured and consistent management of packaging data can lead to a reliable ‚Single Source of Truth‘.
Strategic implementation
The implementation of SAP solutions for packaging management requires a holistic view of the existing system and process landscape. Companies must examine which SAP systems are already in use and how intensively they collaborate with external agencies and packaging suppliers. Based on these analyses, DSC Software AG works together with companies to develop a target architecture for packaging and artwork management. In doing so, not only is a solution introduced, but a seamless integration of product data, packaging structures, artwork processes and compliance requirements is created within the existing SAP landscape.
This creates a central information base that development, packaging, marketing, quality management and regulatory affairs can all access equally. The next steps are transparently defined – from analysing the data landscape and choosing the appropriate operating model to implementing a scalable platform for sustainable packaging management.
The real question is therefore not whether companies should digitalise their packaging data. But whether, in view of the PPWR, a growing variety of variants and rising compliance requirements, they can still afford to work without an end-to-end view of product, packaging and artwork.
Source: DSC Software AG
