The University hosted last Tuesday 7th the VIII conference Logistics. Organized by the School of Economics and the Chair of business Volkswagen Navarra, with the participation of Juan Montal, director general of Saika Pack; Fermín Leache, director technical Alambres Pamplona (ALPA); and Eduardo Corella, president of the Logistics Cluster of Aragon (ALIA) and partner-director of Operinter Zaragoza. The event, attended by more than 100 students and industry professionals, addressed the latest trends in packaging and product movement. 

Eduardo Corella spoke about the Aragon Logistics Cluster (ALIA), which has more than 150 members, as an entity focused on improving the competitiveness of companies in the sector through collaborative and innovative projects. He spoke of Aragon as a logistics hub and highlighted the "opportunity to position Zaragoza as a hub for southern Europe". He also called for solutions to the problem of rail freight traffic in Spain.

Corella also referred to the new legal frameworks affecting packaging policy and pointed out that the pandemic has changed the variables on which logistics pivots. "If before it was price and deadlines that marked the lines, now sustainability, digitalization and partnership have emerged as pillars on which the activity is based," he said. 

Digitization as a means and not as an end

Along these lines, Julián Montal, director general manager of Saica Pack, spoke about innovation and sustainability in corrugated packaging. He referred in his speech to four challenges and trends in service and product improvement from the logistics point of view: eco-design, anticipation, flexibility and digitalization. 

Montal advocated mono-Materials packaging "to make packaging more efficient and sustainable in both its conception and its circularity" and stressed the importance, in terms of management, of anticipating situations by making use of the information and planning tools available to companies. He also urged to overcome the model FIFO - that the merchandise stored first is the first to be distributed - as a method of management of stock and decoupling processes, and spoke of digitalization as an opportunity as long as it is at the service of operations. 

Finally, Fermín Leache, director technician of Alambres Pamplona (ALPA), spoke about the design of containers for the transport of automotive parts. He referred to aspects such as durability, distance or loading mode as factors that have to be taken into account in the manufacture of the product. In addition, he stressed that recycling, reuse and space utilization are core topic in this subject of elements, essential in the management of logistics.