The packaging industry is essential and systemically relevant. Aicomp offers the right toolkit to support this industry in tackling two important challenges: can processes in production respond to demands for more customization, changing availability of raw materials and fluctuations in the market without the need for specialist software support? And how can the packaging industry increase its sustainability efforts?

‍

Digitalization offers an opportunity to address both of these issues by the development of software designed to put power over processes into more hands and by boosting efficiency to reduce the carbon footprint. The solutions offered by Aicomp are proving to be win-win propositions for their clients chasing the goals of responding to their customers’ needs as well as operating sustainably.

‍

Jens Hennecke, CEO/Co-Founder at Aicomp Group says that recycling and reusing packaging is one part to address sustainability for this sector, but there are other efforts to address.

‍

To truly answer this requirement, manufacturers need end-to-end transparent and granular data collection that covers as many aspects of raw material sourcing, product characteristics, production, storage and shipping, and reuse as possible:

“To increase sustainability even further, you need software such as enterprise resource planning tools. This software manages all the master data in the systems, and allows you to actively pull data from the systems to create reports, and flag anything that is not optimal.”

‍

Optimization at a game-changing level can only be achieved through the precise application of tools and technology.

‍

Aicomp Group is the leading software and technology partner for the packaging industry. For more than 20 years, the company has been at the forefront of process optimizations in the sector. The company uses SAP ERP software to develop customizations in the SAP standard as well as add-on solutions for the packaging industry that supports the overall digital concept of their customers. As Hennecke says:

“We provide the software solutions that enables them to really control the whole process from product design, product definition, costing, pricing, master data management, and also the whole control of the production and reporting afterwards.”

‍

Such an approach has been embraced by Aicomp’s customers, such as MM Group, a leading producer of cartonboard packaging solutions. Thomas Greigeritsch, Head of Group Sustainability & Marketing at MM Group says that the company is keen to operate in an even more sustainable way:

“The MM Packaging division is a leading producer of folding cartons. As a market leader in consumer packaging and printing, we process around 850,000 tons of cartonboard each year. When it comes to the whole supply chain, individual companies strive to improve sustainability performance, but to really make a big improvement, collaboration is key.”

‍

Jacqueline Wild, Head of Group Information at MM Group says that the most fruitful collaboration of all has been to use the Aicomp software to achieve greater efficiency:

“VCPowerPack is an SAP add-on which we are using for product configuration. Our products are not that simple. We have different kinds of products and different steps in the production process. And with VCPowerPack, all those process steps can be easily done by every user in our organization.”

‍

Wild says that as well as making production more streamlined, the software can provide more accurate pricing for complex products, reducing the time it takes to give a quote to a customer and move a product from concept to placing it in the customer’s hands. Greigeritsch adds:

“Corporate sustainability is talking to product sustainability. Everything you want to control, you first have to measure and therefore you need certain tools. The MM Group has installed a lot of different tools on the corporate level and the product level. Aicomp’s technology includes the different compositions of our products, it provides the data we need to evaluate, for example, a carbon footprint or a water footprint. It's a win-win situation: beside the best price, we can also offer a more sustainable alternative to our supply chain. And finally, to the end consumer.”

‍

Jens Hennecke says that increased sustainability can be realized through the use of digital tools - which also drives competitive processes:

“The sustainable transformation for the packaging industry goes hand in hand with digitalization. This includes, for example, the Internet of Things or the use of Big Data. But also cloud technologies are becoming increasingly important for us and our customers. The access to a fast digital solution is easier using cloud technologies, enabling collaboration with suppliers and vendors, and also for the users. The look and feel is more app-like and browser-based cloud technologies really speed up a project implementation time. Therefore the costs are reduced, and the maintenance of IT systems is much easier, cheaper and more flexible.”

‍

Wild agrees that the technology has performed a vital function in her business:

“Cloud technology helps to speed up and to secure processes. What we are gaining out of it, we can spend downwards on our clients, where we are really happy about that.”

‍

Hennecke says that Aicomp’s contribution to MM has been to deliver for the business, end consumers and the planet:

“MM Group is already a front runner of paper and cartonboard products. The level of recyclability is very high and together with our digital solutions, we are a great team and will achieve the goals for the future.”

‍