Smurfit Kappa’s innovative SupplySmart solution helps businesses think outside the box

Henkel employed SupplySmart to facilitate its packaging, significantly lowering CO2 emissions. 

Smurfit Kappa has founded its new SupplySmart digital solution, which allows businesses to intelligently adapt their packaging to boost efficiency and decrease emissions across their supply chains. 

SupplySmart has developed to tackle increased supply chain complexities and uncertainty in a world that has seen one supply chain disruption after another. Using insights from the analysis of over 100,000 supply chains, it identifies possibilities for optimization across the whole supply chain length. Its new digital twin feature also permits businesses to test their updated packaging in a virtual environment to eliminate risks before implementation.

Case study – Henkel dishwasher tablet pack 

Leading German consumer goods company Henkel partnered with Smurfit Kappa to launch a compact and sustainable paper-based alternative to plastic packaging. SupplySmart was used to build a digital model of Henkel’s supply chain to achieve the company’s goals of reducing CO2 emissions while introducing a more user-friendly and compact pack. The redesigned dishwasher tablet pack resulted in 66% less volume for the package and has helped to reduce CO2 emissions during transport by as much as 44%. The new sustainable solution also enables easy handling, is easy to store, and is fully recyclable.

Marcel Daube, International Packaging Developer of Henkel’s Consumer Brands division, said: “Smurfit Kappa’s SupplySmart solution has supported us in achieving a number of our key business objectives. It’s not just a change in design; it’s driving sustainability and efficiencies across our entire supply chain. Our commitment to responsible business has found its perfect partner in this innovative packaging, helping us reduce waste, minimize our environmental footprint, and deliver on our sustainability objectives.” 

Gérard van den Boogaard, murfit Kappa Supply Chain Innovation Director, added: “We’ve seen how businesses are increasingly assessing how they can best manage their supply chains to address growing complexities and risk alongside keeping costs down and meeting their sustainability goals. Our enhanced SupplySmart digital tool provides our customers with a risk-free solution for realizing efficiencies and improvements across their supply chain, enabling them to respond better to market opportunities. It can also identify where sometimes the simplest packaging changes, such as packaging orientation, can significantly reduce waste and emissions. At Smurfit Kappa, we are creating packaging that delivers on a low-carbon, circular future.”