Sustainable manufacturing with CPQ is an integral way to understand your products better while combating waste
Manufacturers alone contribute over 12% of the total CO2 emissions across the globe yearly. This number is raising global awareness and creating urgency to find ways to become more sustainable either by company choice or by government mandates. With these global imperatives, many corporations are searching for and investing in sustainable technologies.
Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) solutions are a big part of many companies’ sustainability practices. Being able to provide digital transformative efforts can reduce waste, keep lean manufacturing goals, and more. At Tacton we’ve built our CPQ system to incorporate the environmental impact into our configuration process. While we recognize we have a long way to go to combat climate change, a meaningful digital strategy powered by CPQ is an integral part of that process.
Recently we had a chance to talk with Patrice Arnera, our Director of Sales EMEA and Japan about the shift to sustainable practices across the different industries. Patrice has worked with Tacton since 2017 and enjoys seeing companies transform their digital experience and create business value throughout the process.
Let’s start with an easy one: What is sustainable manufacturing?
Sustainable manufacturing is a way of making products that minimize negative environmental impact, conserves energy, and resources. It also considers the employees, communities and buyers the product effects. This can come from optimizing the product and lifecycle management leading to a smaller environmental footprint and social benefits.
How have you seen manufacturers evolve to more sustainable practices over the years?
Sustainable practices have been, and productions have been building over the past decade or so in some industries. Consumers probably noticed this first in their everyday purchases of environmentally friendly products such as hand soaps, clothing, and packaging.
This topic quickly began taking hold in more industrial areas such as manufacturing as it became clear that the environment was changing at a rapid pace. Reducing harmful emissions while making products and helping employees and the community around the site and globally has made manufacturers rethink their efforts.
What are the objectives and targets of your sustainability and CPQ efforts, and that manufacturers are setting?
A few common ones discussed are items like these:
- Reducing the carbon footprint is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to global warming
- Responsible consumption, using resources and energy efficiently
- Sustainable innovation, better known as using innovation to achieve sustainability goals
How does CPQ help manufacturers become more sustainable?
CPQ in general is a way to put together a valid configuration with approved pricing using a combination of rules and workflow.
Tacton CPQ is a unique solution in the CPQ space as it allows users to optimize the configuration of ecofriendly products without compromising the needs of the customer by giving them a full picture of the impact any product will have once it rolls off the production line.
CPQ also enables manufacturers to offer an optimized product that is in line with local regulations on emissions and other sustainability demands in their specific region. With CPQ it’s even possible to allow faster product introductions that are aligned with a changing market.
What can CPQ play in your manufacturer’s overall strategic plans?
Again, in general terms, CPQ will bring efficiency gains in the sales process and will result in much lower costs of sales and higher win rates for its adopters. Here I would like to focus on some of the Tacton specific benefits made possible by its unique combination of constraint-based configuration and its solver technology.
Tacton CPQ finds its strength in optimizing the configured products around the end customer-specific needs rather than just being a validator of technical combinations. As such, it is helping manufacturers make and deliver what their customers really need at optimized costs, price, margins, speed, and resource consumption.
CPQ is also a key accelerator in the new product Introduction or new variance introduction process which plays a major role in being first to market and or being able to react to competition, regulations, and market changes.
What business value have manufacturers seen from their sustainability efforts?
When we apply Tacton’s unique features to manufacturers’ sustainability efforts, manufacturers can track certain parameters such as resource consumption and materials to ensure the most sustainable options are provided during the configuration process around the criteria that really matter for their end customers.
By showing such responsibility, manufacturers have also observed some “soft” benefits such as more demand as customers are more and more looking to work with responsible organizations. Constraints and data management also provides a much faster time to market for manufacturers using CPQ which allows them to better adapt to regulatory changes and innovation which again will translate into a larger volume of sales and a reduction in sales lead time.
Describe a customer who has used sustainable manufacturing and CPQ to reduce their environmental footprint?
One of our customers, Plus Pack has been on a century-long transformational journey. Founded in 1914, this Danish pioneer in the food packaging industry has been supplying its customers with innovative and sustainable solutions that help them stand out.
Check out the full video and more here
With CPQ and sustainability in mind, Plus Pack’s digital strategy centered around CPQ. To deliver 100% recyclable products with zero CO2. With CPQ’s needs-based configuration, Plus Pack finds it easier to offer its customers more sustainable packaging solutions supporting a circular economy. Plus Pack’s sales teams can easily compare different packaging options and to recommend customers the most sustainable materials that are fit-for-purpose as well as fit-for-future.
In closing
Change is coming for manufacturing across the globe. As new environmental requirements from local governments roll out, as well as demands for sustainability from communities and employees manufacturers must take notice. Creating sustainable products and reducing waste is possible using CPQ to ensure every requirement is met before even making a product. Schedule your personalized demo today to learn more about CPQ and sustainbility.