Your buyer and production team need one spec sheet

Both are doing their jobs. That's the problem. The buyer is judged on price per pack and the production team is judged on output. When those two scorecards don't talk to each other, the factory pays for the gap, and the invoice never shows it.

Why do buyers and production teams want different things?

Because they're measured on different things. The buyer's target is a lower price per pack, per roll or per box. The production manager's target is pallets out of the door, on time, undamaged.

Neither target is wrong, and neither person is careless. Here's the catch: a cheaper pack can slow the line down or force extra use, and a better pack can look dearer on paper.

Nobody owns the cost per use. That's the number that matters.

What does a spec set once and never reviewed cost you?

Most specs get written the day a product is first bought. A heavier board gets chosen to fix a damage problem. A film is picked for one load. Then nobody looks at it again. Years go by.

Suppliers admit it. One UK distributor describes over-specification as "surprisingly common", with a heavy grade chosen to fix a damage problem and never revisited. Go too light the other way and you get transit damage, which can cost more than the saving.

Reviews have a rhythm. BRCGS requires specifications to be reviewed at least every three years, as commonly summarised by consultants. Three years is a minimum, not a target, because prices, products and pallets all change faster than that.

What do workarounds on the floor look like?

We've seen it on real sites. One factory bought pallet edges at 11p each. Their pallets stood 1400mm high and the edges were 1.1m, so the team cut extra pieces and joined them on. The edges weren't strong enough alone, so they doubled up: four on every corner, 16 on every pallet.

That's £1.76 a pallet before anyone counts the time spent cutting and fitting. A single 1450mm edge at an illustrative 17p would cost 68p a pallet. The cheaper edge cost £1.08 more per pallet.

Across 1,000 pallets, that's £1,760 against £680, a gap of £1,080 before labour. Say a site ships 100 pallets a week. That's 5,200 a year, so about £5,600 a year (illustrative). Nobody put it on a report. Operations never saw the invoice. The buyer never saw the floor.

Want to see what your floor is doing that your invoices don't show? We'll walk it with you on site.

What does the buying side cost in admin?

There's a second hidden cost, and it sits in the office. Every supplier means orders to raise, deliveries to chase and invoices to check.

The Office for National Statistics put median hourly earnings for full-time employees at £19.67 in April 2025 (the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings). That's pay only, before employer costs.

Here's an illustrative example. Say a factory buys from 15 suppliers and places six orders a month with each, so 90 orders. Say each order takes 30 minutes in total: 8 minutes raising it, 10 chasing the delivery, 7 matching the goods-in paperwork and 5 checking the invoice.

That's 45 hours a month. At £19.67 an hour, it's about £885 a month, or around £10,600 a year, and that's pay alone. The minutes are our assumption. Swap in yours, because they'll differ.

None of it shows up in the packaging budget. It's in someone's week.

How do you get the buyer and production team on the same spec?

Hold a 30 minute spec meeting. It needs three people at minimum: the buyer, the production or operations manager, and someone from QA or technical. The line supervisor should come for the first one.

Bring one product only, say pallet edges for the 1200 x 1000mm pallet. Don't try to fix everything in half an hour. Put the current spec sheet on the table, along with a real sample off the line and last quarter's usage.

Agree four things. What the product has to do on this line. What it costs per use: the price divided by how many go on each pallet, case or shift. What workarounds the team is using, and why. And what a better spec would look like.

Write it up on one page, 1 sheet, no more. Give it a named owner and a review date. Review every product at least once a year, and again whenever a price rise, a new product or a new pallet size comes in.

Cost per use needs real numbers. Weigh it, measure it, count it. For wrap, weigh a roll and the empty core. For edges, count what the team fits to each pallet.

What should the one-page spec include?

Name the material, the dimensions, the thickness or board grade and the tolerance. Add the test method where there is one, plus the supplier's declaration of compliance, which you shouldn't have to chase.

Then add the floor facts: pieces per pallet, minutes to fit, and any problems the team reports. Load height matters too. A pallet network's maximum height is 2.2m including the pallet, at up to 1,200kg, so a 1400mm load leaves room, but an edge that's too short won't.

It's short on purpose. The buyer gets a price. Production gets a product that works. You'll both be reading the same page, and that's the point.

Frequently asked questions

Who should own the packaging spec?

One named person, usually the technical or operations manager, with the buyer as a required signatory. If it has two owners, it's got none.

How often should we review specs?

At least once a year, and whenever the price, product or pallet changes. BRCGS expects a review at least every three years, as commonly summarised.

What is cost per use?

It's what a packaging item costs each time it does its job: one pallet wrapped, one case packed, one load secured. It's the price divided by the number of uses you really get.

Do we need a consultant to run a spec meeting?

No. You need the right three people, one product and a sample. We'll run the first one with you.

We'll run the spec meeting with you

We'll run the first spec meeting on site with your buyer and your operations team. We bring a micrometer, scales and a tape measure, and we're not shy about weighing things. One product at a time.

It's part of our free site check: about 30 minutes, a written report, no contract. Testing is arranged only where it's needed. Most sites start with layer pads, pallet edges, pallet wrap or gloves, on a 30 day trial of five products.

Email sales@kptrading.uk or call 020 4576 5500.

Sources

ONS Annual survey of hours and earnings: 2025: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/2025

GWP Group packaging material costs and prices: https://www.gwp.co.uk/guides/packaging-material-costs-affects-prices/

IPP How to load a pallet: https://www.ipp-pooling.com/news/how-to-load-a-pallet/

Techni-k The key elements of specification (BRCGS summary): https://techni-k.co.uk/product-development/the-key-elements-of-specification/

Illustrative figures are labelled in the text. Images are illustrative.