On Becoming a Packaging Engineer Part VI/The Brief That Shouldn’t Be Brief

(This is a series of articles aimed to all those who are in or are about to enter the fascinating world of Packaging Engineering)

Dear Fellow Packoholics

I hope you had wonderful and exciting holidays, wherever you are. I received great feedback from a lot of folks from many countries, regarding my last article.

I hope you find this one useful for you as well

Following the series of articles “On Becoming a Packaging Engineer”, I will now talk about a document called “The Brief”, that is or should be issued at the beginning of every single packaging projects

At the startup of any packaging development Project, it′s important to define exactly what our internal / external clients want to achieve, through your work, but also, it′s important to define how feasible it is what they are asking for, in terms of shape, color, functionality, costs and time.

And here is where The Brief comes in play.

Traditionally, in many companies, small, large and very large as well, The Brief is a short document, that contains the wish list from marketing mainly, but also from different places such as Procurement, Production, Sales, etc., establishing the need of a new package, and the characteristics of such Packaging

Sometimes it is done verbally or in an email.

As good as it might be to have one side of the story to kick off the project, in order to make it more effective and create a continuous flow in the project with a common understanding and agreement in all the variables, a good brief must have the following characteristics:

1. The Brief should be a 2 ways document, a mean for dialogue and discussion, among the many areas involved. Therefore, before agreeing on the requirements, there should be room for meetings, discussions, to clarify the needs and establish commitments based on achievable solutions. This means of course, at the end of the discussion, an agreement on time, costs, and the budget required to produce the Packaging Innovation.
2. The Brief should be an integral part of the innovation process, not an isolated document, that is, the need of the packaging innovation should be supported by the conclusions of all involved areas, Finance, R&D Product, Engineering, etc., that the new packaging will support the growth of the company in terms of incremental sales volumes, margins, etc. all of this performed within the framework of an innovation process. Many companies are using the model of Innovation Funnel as a base for their innovation process.
3. It should include valuable information for the Packaging Engineer, to understand the Market, the consumer, the distribution channels, projected sales volumes, etc.,
4. Everything in The Brief should be described objectively, such as size, color, desired material, decoration, shape etc. As I explained in other articles, there is no room for ambiguous words such as taller, pretty, modern, etc,. that is, there is no room for vague descriptions. In case it′s not possible to be more specific, work with graphic examples together, that explain the concept, include them on The Brief, and put it writing the agreement.
5. It should include useful and concrete information of product to be contained in the Packaging, that is, shape, weight, ingredients, sensibility to environmental elements, such as heat, UV light, Visible light, Oxygen, Humidity, mechanical abuse, etc. Again, if no available concrete numerical information is available, it should be establish a time frame to research on this variables, but by all means, do not proceed without knowing this data.
6. The Brief should define who will be accountable for the project, who will be the direct responsible to lead the project and what areas should be involved
7. A road map for the next phases of packaging development should be established, to let know all the people from the team, the actions, protocols and tests that should be performed from then on until the launch of the new packaging.

So here the is the structure I propose to have in the Brief:

General Objectives

1. Background
2.  Project Description
3. Scope (Markets, Consumers, Distribution Channels)

Technical requirements

1. Physical (Dimensions, Weight, Volume, etc)
2. Shelf Life
3. Product description
4. Decoration

Marketing considerations

1. Target Cost
2. Target Market
3. Launch date (To be negotiated)

Deliverables (Musts and Desirables)

1. Functionality
2. Look

Operational considerations

1. Budget
2. Cost center
3. Plant for product launch
4. Equipment considerations

Actions and agreements

1. Complexity
2. Required FTE’s
3. Accountability and responsibility
4. Protocols
5. Road Map
6. A guide to fill in The Brief

I know that even though this is not a conventional way of doing a brief, you might find useful and productive to proceed this way, since in first place, you get to do the necessary research and tests to assure that the launch is successful, gathering the necessary elements to fulfill the requirements in terms of cost, time, quality, etc.

Also, it′s a start up document to begin planning the projects with a lot of details, and to perform a risk assessment.

Last but not the least, it will provide you important info of how much of your time and resources are required to carry out the project, which is important to establish your workload.

My rule of thumb based on my experience, simple projects, namely line extensions, repeats, graphic changes, take 0.07 FTE’s, (Full Time Equivalent) that is 7% of your available annual working time, medium complexity project, namely structural minor design changes or adaptations, new materials, etc., take 0.10 to 0.12 FTE’s, and highly complex projects, that is, coming from scratch, breakthroughs, 0.2 to 0.5 FTE′s,.

I hope you found useful this article. and again, I thank you for your comments, feedback and support

Email: [email protected]

Facebook: @Packoholicos

Jorge Maquita / Strategic Sr Packaging Manager with In-depth knowledge of Innovation, Optimization and Operations