Surety of supply: How pooled reusable packaging ensures reliability

In the fast-paced world of supply chain management, reliability is king. Businesses depend on consistent, efficient logistics from retailers to suppliers to keep operations running smoothly. While adapting to new advancements in efficiency, sustainability and quality protection is necessary to stay competitive, the hesitation to change is understandable.

Let’s explore how the pooling model for reusable packaging meets your needs for reliability, flexibility, and scalability. 

Pooled reusable packaging explained

Pooling is a circular economy system where multiple businesses share a “pool” of reusable assets. Assets are delivered to suppliers and returned from retailers to be cleaned, serviced and returned to the pool for reuse.

The pooling model provides:

• Accessibility: Easy and quick ordering through an intuitive platform. You gain access to a robust, high-quality portfolio without capital outlay.
• Ease: You’ll have a team of reusable experts behind you, zero asset maintenance, and a simple online ordering hub with API capability for automated ordering.
• Food safety: Every container is meticulously cleaned and inspected at our service facilities, ensuring compliance with strict food safety standards. 

Ensuring asset availability and flexibility   

With pooled reusable packaging, Tosca ensures that your business always has the necessary packaging precisely when and where it’s required. Here’s an in-depth look at how we provide both availability and flexibility for our clients.

Demand forecasting and dynamic inventory adjustments

Ensuring you always have the right amount of packaging on hand is a delicate balance. Too much inventory ties up storage space, while too little can disrupt your operations. We address this challenge by closely monitoring the days-on-hand inventory at your sites.

We collaborate closely with your team to understand your business cycles, peak seasons, and unique operational needs. Using this data, we anticipate your packaging requirements well in advance.

However, we understand that forecasts are not always perfect. Market conditions, customer behavior, and unforeseen events can cause significant demand fluctuations. That’s why our system is designed to be dynamic. You can adjust your packaging orders anytime, ensuring that your supply aligns with your current needs without the risk of over- or under-stocking.  

Seamless ordering via the Tosca Hub

The Tosca Hub serves as your centralized control center for your reusable needs. This intuitive platform allows you to place orders, view inventory, and track shipments with just a few clicks. To streamline the process further, our system can integrate with your existing forecasting tools via API. This means your forecasts can flow directly into the Tosca Hub, automating the order process and saving you valuable time. 

Optimized shipment planning and delivery

Logistics efficiency is critical to maintaining supply chain reliability. Tosca leverages our massive service center network – the largest in the US – alongside advanced routing algorithms to optimize the planning of reusable shipments. This ensures that your packaging is delivered on time, every time, using the most efficient routes possible. 

Each delivery is tailored to your schedule, with specific delivery dates and times communicated in advance. This level of precision minimizes disruptions and helps you plan your operations with confidence. 

Real-time tracking and visibility

In the fast-moving world of supply chain management, real-time data is invaluable. You can track your reusable packaging shipments in real time through the Tosca Hub. This visibility provides location monitoring and status of your deliveries, providing peace of mind. Beyond location, Tosca assets can be equipped for complete traceability—temperature, vibration, shock, etc.  

Dedicated customer success team 

No system is complete without dedicated human support. At Tosca, our customer success team works with your organization to ensure smooth operations. This team provides proactive support, resolves issues quickly, and offers expert guidance to optimize your packaging processes. 

Whether you need assistance with order adjustments, troubleshooting, or strategic planning, our customer success representatives are always ready to help. This high-touch service ensures that your experience with Tosca is seamless and tailored to your business needs. 

Contingency plans for supply chain resilience 

Even the most robust systems face challenges. What sets Tosca apart is our proactive approach to risk management, ensuring minimal disruption to your operations. 

Supplier and wash site redundancy: We have contingency plans for supplier and service site disruptions, with nearby backup service centers ready to step in. 

Lost or stolen reusables recovery: Our tracking systems help recover lost reusables [LH1] [LH2] quickly, minimizing losses. 

Distribution center challenges: Whether rejections or unexpected issues, we have processes to resolve DC-related disruptions swiftly. We also work with food banks that accept rejected foods to minimize waste.

Food safety protocols: If a safety concern arises, our rigorous processes ensure the affected containers are identified and isolated immediately. 

The sustainable and cost-efficient advantage of pooled reusable packaging 

Switching to pooled reusable packaging offers a unique combination of sustainability and cost-efficiency that goes beyond initial price considerations. Tosca’s solutions create a lasting environmental impact by reducing CO₂ emissions through fuller truckloads and eliminating landfill waste with assets that can be reused over 100 times. Additionally, our innovative designs reduce food waste by preserving product quality with proper ventilation and stack strength while cutting water use by over 50% compared to single-use corrugated packaging. Even at the end of their lifecycle, 100% of our assets are recycled, ensuring a fully sustainable process. 

Whether moving to reusables as a step in automation, creating greater efficiency, better protecting your products, or enjoying their bottom line and sustainability impact, pooling with Tosca ensures a smooth path to conversion and ongoing supply certainty.