Manufacturing is a fast-paced industry that sees its major players always on the move. Innovation drives the manufacturing and packaging segment of every business, from beverage producers to pharmaceutical outlets producing cartons Covid-19 vaccines every day. The industry is always changing to keep up with the demands of the consumer marketplace, and the primary space where this chance occurs is in the automation and data science behind the effort.

From Roivant, led by CEO Vivek Ramaswamy, to Jeff Bezos’ Amazon, which ships more than 2.5 billion packages each year; packaging, shipping, and product fabrication is a living organism that evolves with the consumer.

Covid-19 has changed the industry for good.

The coronavirus pandemic has permanently altered the way that consumers think about and procure goods and services. More and more customers are shifting their primary solution for purchases both large and small to online outlets. Amazon is at the forefront of this changeover, but they are by no means the only business to benefit from the increased digital purchasing trend.

Startups are going totally digital with their services, opting to splash out on their online presence and product chain rather than a physical location. This has been growing as an attractive option for businesses for years, but the after-effects of a global pandemic that pushed the world into varying degrees of lockdown for virtually the entirety of 2020 has reshaped the consumer landscape in this new year.

Rather than venturing out to big-box retailers, customers are opting to either frequent their local community shops or buy online. This means that packaging requirements across industries are going to have to improve as we continue to ship more and more goods around the U.S. and internationally.

A box sealer machine is a great way to tackle this bottleneck that can quickly become a fly in the ointment for a smaller facility. Case sealers are a fairly standard piece of equipment in manufacturing grounds and at large scale facilities – like at Amazon warehouses – yet many of the smaller retailers still box up goods by hand in order to ship them out to the customer. You will quickly find that building cartons and sealing them by hand is a time-consuming task that eats away at your ability to focus on the customers themselves.

By engaging this task with an automated case sealer, you can free up vital team members to continue doing digital outreach and customer service tasks that are essential to drawing in new revenue and building customer loyalty.

Utilize a firm leadership structure to ensure tight targets.

2021 will also mark a year of tight margins for many businesses. After the cataclysmic shutdown of much of the global economy, businesses all across the United States will have a narrow cash flow and expense outlook, for at least the first half of the year. Using a goal-setting framework like the OKR method enlisted by Google is a great way to ensure that your team is meeting its targets and keeping within these narrow expense to revenue goals that will keep your business afloat as you look to rebuild.

The OKR methodology gives team leaders the ability to set overarching goals and midstream measures of success that are scalable and trackable at any given point in time. This way, your team is always aware of its progress toward the outcomes that will help you achieve the successes you’re looking for.

The future of the manufacturing and packaging industry is fraught with hiccups and bumps in the road. But businesses that survive the revival period in the first part of 2021 are poised for incredible growth opportunities going forward.