Why Is It Said That Packaging Boxes Are Difficult To Make, And Small Batches Are Even More Difficult?

If you have ever been a boss or made a product (with a real product), you must have encountered a problem, which is the last pain before the product goes on the market: packaging.

Pain has two points:

Everything is ready only owed to the east wind, but it took a month for the east wind to blow over. The design and customization of the packaging box is such an efficiency. It is not that this matter is difficult, but the traditional workflow is so slow.

The product has not been sold yet, and the packaging box has to be 10,000 in advance. If you want to ask for less, I am sorry, the price will go up. If you want to try the water and make less packaging, then I am even more embarrassed The factory will stop quoting, and tell you directly: Mr. X, my factory is very busy now, and I really don’t have time to take orders. The fact behind it is that he doesn't want to make this order, but he is afraid that you will not contact him in the future when the quantity is too large, so he can only decline.

Usually, as a novice, you need to understand that the production process of a packaging box is as follows:

Traditional Packaging Design Production Workflow

If each arrow represents a communication, you may think that the illustration is exaggerated, but if the actual situation is drawn, basically there are only arrows left in the above diagram. . .

As a brand owner, what you know best is your own products. As for the outer packaging, you probably know how your friends use it, or what kind of packaging you buy for other products around you. Therefore, the brand owner has to find a design company to produce renderings before going public. Usually, the communication is as fierce as a tiger, and finally imitates the friends and business dogs, and the design fee is not less.

Well, 1-2 weeks have passed, and the red line between the brand and the designer as shown in the picture has finished communicating. You thought you could get the box tomorrow, and you told the market that you were going to put the goods on the market, and finally purchased it for you. Said, the factory has to confirm the proofing, so you can make it if you say so. Unexpectedly, it will take 1-2 weeks for proofing, and 1-2 weeks for bulk processing.

So you scratch your head and ask yourself, why? Obviously, the effect picture is so good, just turn it on and do it.

Because, because the renderings are fake, if the factory can generate boxes according to the renderings, it will be 3D printing. You must have heard the actual situation: plate making, mold opening, and startup. The process of plate-making requires a knife line drawing. I am afraid that you and the designer have no idea what the precise drawing of a box will look like. But the factory can only start work if it relies on this, so imagine what will happen next.

The next step is that the factory master contacts the designer (or you contact the designer) to ask for a plane drawing, and then paste it into the master's knife line drawing, adjust the corners and color difference according to the paper thickness and process, and adjust the dpi of the picture to ensure that it can be printed After this matter is finished, I will send you a signature and a pledge. Only then did I dare to open the mold and print big goods on the machine?

So what’s the root cause? As chickens and ducks talk, the three packaged products “box type, effect, and drawing” are like “water, ice, and water vapor.” They seem to be the same thing, but they are completely different.

As long as one day, the three parties can see the three states of a packaging box at any time, the problem of information inconsistency can be solved.

That is to say, any two states can be switched at any time. This requires a "digital structure of packaging" behind it, just like the molecular formula behind water, ice, and air is H2O. When it comes to this, you probably understand why it is difficult to make a packaging box.

Why are small batches more difficult?

You will definitely ask, since someone is willing to make a box, such as a proofing factory. Why don't you want to make 100 or 200? Doesn't business talk about scale effects? With scale, can you be willing to do it?

The problem is like this on the surface, but behind it is the issue of cost-effectiveness. You can’t just look at the higher amount of 100, but also look at the profit ratio of each of the 100.

Then let's disassemble the logic of making 1-2 pieces for proofing and 10,000-20,000 pieces for bulk products:

For example, the proofing price of an airplane box is 50 yuan for one, and 100 yuan for two, which is acceptable to most people, and the profit is about 60 for making 2 boxes, and the processing time is only one hour.

Another example is an airplane box made of 10,000 pieces, 1 yuan each, which is acceptable to ordinary people, and the profit is about 10 cents per box, and 1,000 yuan overall. The actual processing time is about 1-2 days.

In fact, the energy efficiency ratio of the two factories is almost the same, and the well water can make money even if the water does not interfere with the river water.

But if you only need to make 100 boxes, the problem will be very different. If you are still willing to pay 50 yuan for a box, the problem will be solved, and the factory you are willing to make will line up, but if you want to make 10,000 boxes, it only costs 10,000 yuan. If you want 5000, you will naturally not agree.

Then it’s a little more expensive, assuming you can accept to make 100, a box of 3 yuan, then let’s calculate, the proofing factory can theoretically make 100 different boxes at the same time, actually considering the different boxes The craftsmanship is slightly different, so even if you can make 50 different boxes, the proofing factory can earn 2,500 yuan, why should you make 100 boxes for a total of 300. . .

Then let’s take a look at the big goods factory. The cost of a knife plate is 300. Is there any money to be made? As for starting up, paper, and printing, you can only decline with "too busy".

How to deal with it.

According to my years of research on personalized customization, the first is to reduce the cost of design and communication, and the second is to turn small batches into large ones.

Reducing design and communication costs requires powerful tools, such as the small box, which can completely digitize and 3D a package from box shape, to effect, to drawings, so that anyone can understand it, and it can be printed when it is satisfied.

Group buying requires a stable order flow. How much does a factory have to do to stably integrate small batches into large batches? The answer is at least 100 orders and a packaging factory that can connect with 100 customers every day. I haven’t seen one yet. Network Taking orders may be a good solution, but it involves nationwide orders, which leads to a sharp increase in transportation costs. So what I mean by 100 orders is that there should be at least 100 orders/day within a local area of 400 kilometers.

Of course, we also look forward to one day solving the problems of packaging production from the perspective of engineering and mechanics, such as designing a brand-new machine that can maintain the same efficiency from 10,000 to 10,000. Of course, this also requires digital upgrades to take the lead.