Greiner Packaging International, a division of Greiner AG, is a leading European manufacturer of rigid plastic packaging for the food and non-food sectors. With over 60 years of experience, the company operates 30 locations across 19 countries and employs approximately 4.900 people. In 2023, Greiner Packaging International reported sales revenue of €845 million, accounting for nearly 40% of Greiner AG’s total turnover.[1]

The product portfolio consists of cups or bottles, printed or with a sleeve, with or without a barrier effect.

As Greiner Packaging International expanded internationally, so did the complexity of its operations. However, this growth was not matched by a unified supply chain framework. Each plant had developed its own approach to supply chain management, resulting in inconsistent processes, varying levels of maturity, and a lack of alignment across the organization.

Without a central framework to drive improvement, initiatives remained siloed. Local optimization often took priority over group-wide goals, leading to internal competition for resources, fluctuating service levels, and inefficiencies in production capacity utilization. Furthermore, the absence of a structured tactical planning process meant that capacity allocation was frequently reactive – responding to issues as they arose instead of anticipating and preventing them.

This environment made it difficult to scale effectively and hindered the company’s ability to respond flexibly to customer and market demands. The need for a more mature, integrated supply chain became clear, not just to resolve current issues, but to support long-term, sustainable growth.

Greiner Packaging International teamed up with our experts at TenglerConsulting to build a modern, professional supply chain organization that could support its strategic ambitions.

The project began with a comprehensive benchmarking of five selected production sites. Using data and process analysis, we evaluated the maturity of each plant’s supply chain management and prioritized the pain points. This diagnostic step created a shared understanding of where improvements were needed most. Monetary evaluation of the potentials helped prioritize the path forward.

Based on this insight, we designed a group-wide supply chain performance management framework. This included clearly defined supply chain KPIs, a standard approach to measurement, and clarified roles and responsibilities for managing performance. Just as importantly, the framework embedded a structured continuous improvement process – providing a way to not only identify when performance drifted off course, but also understand the root causes and take corrective action.

We also introduced an integrated business planning (IBP) process, piloting it in a selected plant to test and refine the approach before rolling it out in the group. This planning process created a forum for cross-functional alignment, enabling proactive, tactical decision-making on capacity allocation and product prioritization.

To support this new way of working, we helped establish a professional supply chain organization. This included defining the right central and local roles and ensuring that planning responsibilities were clearly aligned with decision-making authority.

Finally, we implemented differentiated service offerings and supply strategies tailored to specific customer and product groups. For example, for the bigger part of demand a customer order decoupling point was moved from finished goods warehouse to production of semi-finished goods. This enabled Greiner Packaging International to better meet diverse market needs, ensuring high responsiveness where it mattered most, without overextending resources.

With a clear organizational structure and an integrated planning process in place, the company made a fundamental shift from reactive firefighting to proactive, cross-functional decision-making. Management could now reach consensus on tactical capacity planning, reducing internal conflicts and unlocking smoother operations.

A key prerequisite for this success was the design and implementation of the integrated business planning (IBP) process – established both locally and centrally. This process foundation not only enabled immediate operational improvements, but also laid the groundwork for digitalization. Based on the newly defined roles, responsibilities, and planning cycles, a clear functional requirements specification was derived. This allowed a structured tool selection based the implemented planning process as “proof of concept”. The team decided to go for SAP IBP and the following system implementation was highly targeted and efficient.

Plant performance became more transparent, allowing for more targeted support and better resource allocation across the network. The differentiated service approach improved delivery performance for key customers and products, while also freeing up capacity for strategic market development. The switch from “push” to “pull” mentality in SCM – enabled by the decoupling point optimization – led to a substantial reduction in working capital.

At the pilot plant, where the planning process was first introduced, the new approach created transparency for a performance comparison between sites. This visibility enabled data-driven adjustments to production planning—specifically, aligning capacity to actual demand and reducing shift patterns where appropriate. These targeted changes led to a significant improvement in overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), clearly demonstrating the operational potential of the new planning model.

“Right from the start, TenglerConsulting clearly showed us what needs to be done to build a supply chain for tomorrow. From process optimization, planning, organization to integrated planning – the big picture.

The step-by-step execution of the project goals is highly professional and the involvement of our team absolutely implementation-oriented.“

Source:
[1] Greiner, 2025: “Greiner Packaging | Key figures 2024” [Accessed: 7 May 2025].

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