Translations

IDKIDS reuses cardboard boxes in logistics applications, thanks to an employee initiative

4. Environment

Waste management

Sector Business / Distribution

Year 2014

Country France

Transmitter

Context

ID Group, a leading market player in the children's sector, is constantly expanding around an array of projects, under the banner "RESSEME" (French acronym for the promotion of Social, Societal and Environmental Responsibility on behalf of Children's Brands). As a follow-up to investments in the Group's HQE Roubaix-Leers platform in 2010, logistics teams participate every year in drawing up the company's path towards progress and, in 2013, devised a new organization for reusing cardboard boxes.

ID Group comprises six different brands (Okaïdi, Obaïbi, Jacadi, Oxybul éveil et Jeux, Véronique Delachaux, Ïdkids) with a workforce of 5,000 employees.

Objectives

Lower the risks of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) caused by producing new cardboard boxes
Reduce the consumption of new boxes and all related operating costs
Increase productivity

APPROACH

In 2013, the company adopted a Lean philosophy, based on a "horizontal" layout with feedback of ideas from all employee categories, in addition to launching the "Cut out the excess" project.
This project applies to the entire workforce, encouraged to submit to the Continuous Improvement Unit their ideas for reducing all forms of wasted resources (wait times, elimination of steps with no added value, physical waste, needless handling, etc.). These ideas are then studied, prioritized and ranked; subsequently, employees receive guidance in their implementation.
It was against this backdrop that the idea of reusing cardboard boxes surfaced.

As a result, the material handling carts had to undergo modification to accommodate the reused boxes, which in turn led to improving working conditions.

Set-up time: 3 weeks
Organizational changes: Additional of a demarcated zone to position the empty boxes once tagged for reuse
Personnel training: Closure of the boxes and placement of the various shipping labels
Selection of boxes to be reused: A single box dimension (600 x 400 x 300 mm). The box format had been changed prior to project launch, in the aim of decreasing the number of workplace accidents. These boxes were in fact designed to open from the front and not the top (to avoid the use of cutters upon removal from storage shelves). The box design also features a double corrugated cardboard.
Inherent improvement in working conditions: less of a need to manually create new cardboard boxes since the boxes in use had already been produced previously.