Growth is exciting. More orders. More visibility. More demand. But at a certain point, growth also exposes the cracks in systems that once worked just fine. One of the first places those cracks show up is in packaging. What worked at 1,000 units a month can quietly break down at 10,000. Labor gets tight. Errors increase. Lead times stretch. And suddenly, packaging turns into a bottleneck instead of a support system. That’s often the moment brands realize their packaging strategy needs to evolve. It’s not because something is “wrong,” but because success changed the rules. At Ashtonne Packaging, this shift is something we see again and again: brands growing into a new operational reality that demands smarter packaging decisions.
As unit sales climb, labor content inside your packaging process becomes one of your most important cost drivers. The question is no longer just, “Can we get it packed?” but “How efficiently can we scale this without burning people out or blowing up costs?”
This is where brands should actively look for bottlenecks:
* Manual box building slowing line speeds
* Hand-loading products causing inconsistent outputs
* Pallet building tying up high-value labor
* Repetitive motion tasks increasing injury risk
A 2023 McKinsey operations study found that manual packing steps can consume up to 30–40% more labor hours once order volume scales, even when the packaging itself hasn’t changed. Once those pressure points are visible, it becomes much easier to justify engineering changes that create real, measurable improvements.
Smart packaging engineering can transform your operation. We’re not just talking about big ideas. We mean practical solutions that when implemented can reduce labor dependency and unlock consistent throughput. Depending on your product and volume, some innovative ideas might include:
These are strategic shifts that protect margins as volume climbs. In many cases, a single automation point can free up multiple labor positions and immediately stabilize production flow.
As your brand scales, your message almost always evolves. New positioning. New retail channels. New customer expectations. But many brands forget to update one critical piece of that evolution: their packaging graphics.
Every growing business knows the value of automation to ease operations. That doesn’t come without growing pains of its own. Automation often changes packaging formats. SKUs get downsized. Case counts change. Tray styles evolve. And when those changes happen, materials deserve a fresh evaluation too. This is where light-weighting and source reduction become real financial tools. Reducing material thickness, optimizing board grades, or eliminating unnecessary components can create meaningful savings at scale. When done correctly, brands can lower:
Most brands don’t outgrow their packaging because they failed. They outgrow it because they succeed. But sustained success depends on whether operations are allowed to mature alongside demand. Reviewing labor content. Engineering smarter packaging flows. Introducing automation- ready formats. Updating graphics. Reanalyzing materials. These are signs of a brand stepping confidently into its next phase. Growth changes everything. Smart packaging ensures your infrastructure is changing right along with it.
If your business is growing, it makes sense to get ahead of any issues that growth can cause. We’ve helped many businesses revamp their packaging process because of past growth, and in anticipation of more of the same.
Remember, good packaging protects products. Great packaging protects reputations. Click here to read what our customers have to say. We’d love to talk with you about what is going great, and what issues might be lying in wait around the corner. Even if you are happy and satisfied with your current packaging partner, it never hurts to get a second pair of eyes on things. If you’d like to compare notes, we’re all in. Give us a call at 877-522-6937 or contact Ashtonne Packaging , and let’s talk about what we might see in your future.