Comparing packaging bids on price alone is how operations end up with packaging that technically meets the specification and practically does not work. A scorecard fixes this, and it does not need to be elaborate – six rows with weights, filled in the same day the bids arrive, while the differences are still fresh.
Row one: landed unit cost
Not the quoted price. Delivered cost including freight, duty and any packaging or palletising charge, converted to a comparable unit. Weight it heavily – usually the largest single row – but not so heavily that the others cannot move the result.
Check the unit the bids are quoted in. Sheet quoted per square metre and per sheet are not the same comparison, and this is a common way two bids look closer or further apart than they are.
Row two: specification compliance
Does the bid meet what you asked for – thickness or grammage, density, dimensions and tolerances, colour, any treatment. Score pass or fail rather than partially, and be strict: a bid that meets eight of nine requirements is a different bid and should be marked as such, not averaged in.
Watch for substitution. “Equivalent to” is not “the same as”, and it is worth asking what specifically is equivalent.
Row three: lead time and reliability
Quoted lead time, and whether it is a commitment or an estimate. Ask what proportion of orders ship on the quoted date – a supplier who will answer that is telling you something useful about themselves.
Also: where the stock sits. A supplier holding safety stock is offering a materially different service from one making to order, and it is worth points.
Row four: commercial terms
Payment terms, minimum quantity, price validity period, and the escalation mechanism. Terms worth more than a few percent of order value are worth points on the scorecard – thirty days versus prepayment is a real cash difference and should be scored as one.
Row five: quality and after-sales
What the warranty says in specifics, what the claim process requires, and – the question that actually discriminates – what they do when something goes wrong. Ask for an example. A supplier who can describe how a problem was handled is worth more than one with a longer warranty document.
Row six: total relationship cost
Sampling responsiveness, technical answers, documentation quality, language and time-zone friction, and whether they will hold stock for you. Soft, but it predicts how the next two years go better than any other row.
How to use it
Weight the rows before you see the bids, not after. Fill it in the same day. And do not let a large price gap silently decide the others – if the cheapest bid scores badly on compliance, write down that you accepted that trade-off, because you will be the one explaining it later.
The specification items worth scoring are described in packaging spec-sheet terms translated, and the commercial rows in how to read a packaging quotation.
A workable set of weights
Landed cost around forty per cent, specification compliance twenty, lead time and reliability fifteen, commercial terms ten, quality and after-sales ten, relationship cost five. Adjust to taste, but keep cost below half – if it dominates, the scorecard is a price comparison with extra steps.
Fix the weights before the bids arrive. Adjusting them afterwards to produce a preferred result is easy to spot and it destroys the value of having done it.
What we can do
We supply PP corrugated sheet and will answer all six rows in writing rather than only the first. Send us your scorecard and we will fill it in ourselves – including the rows where we are not the strongest bid.