How to Develop Packaging Operations for Maximum Effectiveness with Alicemarie Geoffrion

Episode Description

In today’s episode of the eCom Logistics Podcast, we welcome Alicemarie Geoffrion, President of Packaging for DHL Supply Chain in North America. For this part of our Women in Supply Chain, Retail, and Ecommerce series, we dive into packaging operations and what has changed for the packaging space over the last few years.

Alicemarie talks about the different innovations and practices that are now shaping packaging operations today. She shares her insights on the automation and technology trends being used in the space and improving sustainability processes all throughout.

ABOUT ALICEMARIE

Alicemarie Geoffrion is President of Packaging for DHL Supply Chain in North America where she is responsible for growing end-to-end packaging operations to drive innovations, create efficiencies, and realize savings for customers. 

She is also a member of the DHL Supply Chain North America Board. In her role, Alicemarie leads a team focused on helping customers increase return on their packaging investment through a holistic, integrated approach that has been proven to lower total costs, increase agility needed to meet changing demands, support late-stage customization, and enhance sustainability through continuous innovation.

Before stepping into her current role, Alicemarie worked in DHL’s Strategy group where she developed sector and product-specific strategies to drive top and bottom-line growth for all North American Operations. She was also the Head of Global Solutions for DHL’s former Williams Lea Tag division. Prior to joining DHL Supply Chain, Alicemarie held positions as a management consultant, she led multiple strategy and operations projects for customers across industries and served as Vice President of eCommerce/Business Solutions for a Merchandising Fulfillment organization.

Alicemarie earned both a bachelor’s degree in Management Science and an MBA from Case Western Reserve University.

HIGHLIGHTS

• 05:46 How has packaging evolved over 20 years?
• 13:04 Brands now navigate packaging differently in this omnichannel era
• 18:48 Innovation in packaging specifically in terms of labor
• 27:00 Trends in the packaging space outside of automation and technology
• 33:54 High expectations for sustainability agendas 

QUOTES

14:10 Flexibility is essential in the omnichannel world today – Alicemarie: “You have to be flexible to understand what it is that the customer wants and you have to have the right processes and the right equipment in place to allow you to make those changes very quickly.”

22:27 Turning to automation for more efficiency and productivity – Alicemarie: “Although we still always need labor, we need to start to balance it differently so that we can leverage the automation and the technology more so that we don’t ever get to a point where we have to say to a customer well we don’t have the capacity because we didn’t get the labor.”

Find out more about Alicemarie in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicemarie-geoffrion/
• Website: https://www.dhl.com/us-en/home/supply-chain/solutions/packaging.html