What Running Out of Packaging Costs Your Plant

• Idle labor. Your packing crew still gets paid while the line waits.
• Lost output. Every hour down is product you can’t ship today.
• Rush freight. Next-day delivery on boxes often costs more than the boxes.
• A wrong-size box from the back shelf means extra void fill, extra tape, and more damage in transit.
• Late shipments. Missed ship dates cost chargebacks and customer trust.

Unplanned downtime costs the world’s 500 largest companies about 11% of their revenue each year, according to a 2024 Siemens study. A packaging stockout is downtime you can prevent with a calendar.

• One person owns the count, and that person is out.
• Usage jumps with a big order and nobody adjusts the reorder point.
• An order sits in someone’s inbox waiting for approval.
• The supplier is out, and nobody hears until delivery day.

Pick your last stockout and add it up:

1. Hours the line sat idle x crew size x loaded hourly rate.
2. Units not packed x margin per unit.
3. Rush freight paid.
4. Chargebacks or penalties from late orders.

A crew of 6 at $25 an hour, idle for 3 hours, costs $450 in labor before you count lost output or freight.

No S&S VMI customer has ever run out of product. Send us a list of the supplies you’ve run short on this year, and we’ll set levels so you don’t again.

S&S Incorporated · Packaging made easy since 1965 21300 St. Clair Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44117 216-383-1880 · info@sspkg.com · www.sspackaging.com Monday–Friday, 7:00 AM–3:30 PM