Packaging South Asia met Amarjeet Singh, manager at the LG central warehouse for spares in Greater Noida, for a user perspective of reusable PP corrugation packaging. It is from this manufacturing unit that spare parts are supplied to LG warehouses and branches all over the country. LG uses PP corrugation sheet boxes from Nilanchal Packaging for packing its LED TV panels. LG has a different approach when it comes to using these boxes for delivering items to the end users.
PP corrugation boxes cost five times more than what a similar box made of paper corrugation sheets would cost, let alone boxes made of wood. However, LG manages to retrieve the boxes even from the end users—customers who need replacements for their panels. The electronics major uses these boxes a minimum of ten times on average barring those that are damaged beyond repair. LG has been using such reusable boxes both for its smaller and bigger panels. In fact, the company even uses these boxes for panels as big as 60-84 inches wide.
These kinds of panels require careful handling during shipment but due to negligence and mishandling, the panels often suffer damages In order to overcome this problem, LG came up with the idea of using more durable packaging and finally zeroed in on boxes made of PP corrugated sheets with built-in cushioning. The design is LG’s own, which it shared with the suppliers—in this case, Noida-based Nilanchal Packaging, which offers a better suite than most other suppliers since it also manufactures the sheets that it uses to fabricate the boxes for LG’s LED panels, complete with inside cushioning.
LG’s central warehouse stores over a lakh units of such panels in addition to other spares, making it a huge inventory. Currently, LG uses PP corrugation only for its LED TV panels, which accounts for about 35% of its packaging needs. For the balance of its inventory, which includes spares for products like refrigerators, washing machines, air-conditioners, etc., the company uses paper corrugation. However, Singh said that it is far more easy to to handle PP corrugation boxes as compared to wooden crates or paper corrugation boxes because it is lighter in weight and is a lot more resistant to damage caused by rough handling during shipping.
