Sometimes a simple solution can solve a complicated problem.
For example, Michigan man Rudy Youell’s P2 Packaging box cardboard box design, which is saving the automotive industry tens of millions, according to the Detroit Free Press.
“It's not rocket science,” said Youell. “It's almost so stupid it's ridiculous. But it's saving so much money it's amazing.”
What sets it apart most cardboard boxes used to transport goods – such as Amazon boxes – is that it can be re-used. Partitions inside of the box can also collapse and stay with it, unlike traditional boxes with unattached partitions.
Youell, aged 64, has been in the corrugated box business for close to half a century, since he graduated from Parkside High School in Jackson, Mich. He went on to own American Corrugated Box with his late father, who died last year, from 1980 to 2015. At one point in Youell’s career, his hands were caught in a press, leading to two years of rehab along with bone surgery and skin grafts.
He patented the cost-saving box in 2016. After five years, the box is now a success story.
It carries parts for everything from the Ford F-150 and Expedition to Jeep Gladiator and Wrangler to GMC Acadia and Cadillac, said the Detroit Free Press. It’s licensed to companies in Michigan, South Carolina and Indian and used to ship car parts all the world.
“It's crazy,” said Andrew Hurley, associate professor at Clemson University and founder of packagingschool.com. “Think about the automotive space. Some vehicles have 30,000 parts and some parts have seven packages. A car company has to manage more packages than they do car parts.”
With that many boxes, automakers and their suppliers end up spending a lot of money to move parts from factory to factory. Estimates for clients can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars in packaging and transport costs for just one car, manufacturers told the Detroit Free Press. The outlet said these sources asked to remain anonymous.
P2 Packaging boxes make it so that a new box isn’t needed for every move.
“As a packaging engineer, not a whole lot that comes down the pike that moves the needle,” said David Colclough, a Michigan State Packaging Engineering graduate who has spent 30 years in the automotive packaging industry and the North American packaging buyer for Holland, Mich.-based Yanfeng Automotive Interiors.
However, he’s seen returnable boxes do just that over the past 26 months.
“The numbers are staggering,” said Larry Ross, program logistics manager for North America operations at Faurecia Interior Systems based in Auburn Hills, Mich.
As supply chain disruption and unpredictability continue in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the savings from P2 Packaging are welcome.
“The product is so simple,” Youell said. “It's like, 'Duh.' Not not like the cure for COVID. It's just a frickin’ box. But in the automotive world, it's a game changer.”
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