Acknowledgement

This research was supported by NOBLE PACKS CARTON

MAKERS. We thank our colleagues from IB&M UET Lahore who
provided insight and expertise that greatly assisted the research,
although they may not agree with all of the interpretations of this work.
We thank Lecturer: Mr. Aftab Shoukat for assistance with
particular technique.
We would also like to show our gratitude to the NOBLE PACKS
CARTON MAKERS for sharing their pearls of wisdom with us during
the course of this research, and we thank 3 “anonymous” reviewers for
their so-called insights.

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 Table of Contents
1. Noble Packs Carton Makers 02
2. Mission Statement 02
3. History and Owners Experience 03
4. Products 04
5. Supply 04
6. Manufacturing 05
a. Manufacturing Process 06
b. Pasting Machine 08
c. Rotary Machine 09
d. Slotting Machine 10
e. Pin Machine 10
7. Distribution 11
8. Customers 12
a. How to choose Customer 12
b. Sample for Customer 13
c. Supply to Customers 13
d. Customer Order Process Diagram 14
9. Information Handling and Decision Making 15
10. Decision Making 16
11. Company’s Information and capacity Contents 17
12. Information Handling: 17
13. Flexible Machines: 17
14. Distribution Network 18
15. Manufacturer Storage with Direct Shipping 19
16. Response Time 19
17. Product Variety 19
18. Product Availability 19
19. Customer experience 20
20. Time to Market 20
21. Order Visibility 20
22. Return ability 20
23. Inventory 20
24. Transportation 21
25. Facilities and Handling 21
26. Information 21
27. NOBLE PACKS STORAGE WITH DIRECT SHIPPING 22
28. Our Experience 23
29. Recommendations 24

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NOBLE PACKS CARTON MAKERS

Noble Packs Carton Makers factory is located at Lahore in Farooq

Industrial State at Ferozpur Road Lahore. It was established 1997. The
main working of this factory includes manufacturing and trading of the
finished goods i.e. cartons and rolls. Also supply of raw materials and
semi prepared product is done. It is a customer driven company.

MISSION STATEMENT
Providing 'Quality Products, Excellent Service, Competitive Prices and Prompt
Delivery'

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HISTORY AND OWNERS EXPERIENCE

Noble Packs was founded by Nazar Hussain in 1997. After retiring from the
Pakistan Army, they shifted to Lahore. One of their friends advised him to visit
another friend’s factory who taught them the carton making art and its workings.
After learning all the major field aspects he started working on his own at a rented
place with two machines for carton making. For first three months, the company
received no order from any company. The first order was from the Rice mills for
400 cartons. After that orders started coming from the spinning mills and garment
factories.
There are a lot of competitors. Over 2600 carton making factories are setup
in Lahore out of which 1700-1800 are functional. The others are closed due some
lawsuits and other problems. Out of the functional factories 700- 800 are the most
active competitors but NOBLE PACKS edge is the quality of the services and the
product.
After 6 years the company bought its own place and started working there.
The company now owns 2 corrugators, 2 pasting machines, Rotary machines,
slotting and pin machines.

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PRODUCTS
Noble Packs manufacture single ply, double ply, triple ply, five ply, seven
ply corrugated cardboards to accommodate any shipping needs, they have different
flutes to satisfy any specific requirements, also cartons can be printed with
graphics in 1 to 2 colors printing and screen printing.
Their main products: Corrugated Cartons (RSC) of all sizes and types, Die-
cut Boxes, Pined Boxes, Paper Packaging Products.

SUPPLY
The company supply’s finished goods i.e. cartons as well as semi
manufactured material called rolls.
The paper used to make cartons is of both imported and internal. Outside
covering of carton is done by imported paper while inside covering is done from
the home made paper.
Main suppliers of paper from outside Pakistan are Brazil, Sweden, Australia,
Italy etc. Various types of papers are imported from various suppliers. Paper reels
are imported that are on a later stage of manufacturing converted into rolls.
Different types of papers are waterproof and non-water proof also representing
different type of quality.
A carton is made from 3-7 ply’s depending upon the customer’s request.
NOBLE PACKS manufactures cartons from the size of an iron to a Refrigerator
hence making it possible to make any types of cartons. It supply’s according to the
customer needs, as said earlier being a customer driven company. Customer
demand is always known so production is done in reaction of customer needs.
Certain customers are on-going customers always places order once in a month
when their inventory needs replenishment. Like any company for the first time
asks for 30000 cartons although it needs only 20000 cartons and keeps 10000 as
safety inventory in case if NOBLE PACKS is unable to provide due to any
problems. And the circulation continues every month after that with 20000 cartons.

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 The semi manufactured product i.e. rolls are bought and the respective
company itself makes it into cartons by processing making NOBLE PACKS more
efficient as it only manufactures half of the product and then sells it to buyers for
other processing.
The papers imported from other countries are delivered to their Distribution
Centers mainly situated in Karachi. After that the papers are acquired in
accordance to their need in the factory through trucks. Also products delivered to
the companies are delivered with rented trucks. The rent is divided among both the
parties as per decided in the contract. 20 factories or more have no corrugator,
that’s why they directly take the rolls from NOBLE PACKS. Different types of
raw materials are used as per instructions provided by the customers.

MANUFACTURING
The manufacturing process includes corrugators, pasting and rotary
machines, slotting machine and Pin machines. NOBLE PACKS owns all these
machines that’s why it supplies both finished and the semi manufactured product
i.e. rolls to those factories or companies who don’t own corrugators for rolling
function.
The company owns 2 corrugators, 2 pasting machines, Rotary machines,
slotting and pin machines and has the capacity to produce cartons of any size as
well as any quantity. For instance, the company can produce more than 400000
carton rolls and cartons. However, if the workload is more the company hires extra
staff to lessen the load.

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MANUFACTURING PROCESS:
The first step involved in the manufacturing process is done by the
corrugators as shown in the Figure below.

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 The corrugator converts the raw material i.e. paper reels into rolls making
them 2 ply or 5 ply’s as required by the customer. Two paper reels circulates at one
time and are joined together by sticking them together by adhesives like sodium
silicate, starch adhesive. The two paper reels are pasted together with the help of
the corrugator.

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PASTING MACHINE

The pasting machine pastes the two ply’s made by the corrugator with a
third paper thus making a paper roll. This is a 3 ply carton. If the customer wishes
to have a carton made up of 5 or 7 ply’s then the same 3 ply carton rolls is pasted
with another 2 ply roll from the corrugator and so on if needed.

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ROTARY MACHINE

The Rotary machine bends the carton paper according the size desired by the
customer. It consists of horizontal and vertical bending. Three things are kept in
mind while determining the size of carton, its length, width and height. Also the
waste paper is cut in the rotary machine. For example, if the size of carton is
10/10/10 meaning 10 meter of length, 10 meter of width and 10 of height then 10
of height and 10 of width plus an extra 1 meter is added for fine finishing.
Similarly, 10 of length and 10 of width multiply by 2 plus 2 is done as carton is in
a cube shape that’s why we multiply it with 2 for finishing.
(10 + 10) x 2 + 2

Length Width Extra paper for finishing

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SLOTTING MACHINE

It eases the bending and is also used to cut the bends.

PIN MACHINE
As the cutting of the paper and their corrugation is in the form of sheets, the
Pin machine is used to fold that sheet and convert that sheet in box shape cartoon
by suture the one side of sheet with other one. The use of pin machine depends
upon customer order. Some customers do not want pin in their carton. They prefer
some glue material to attach the both sides of sheets.

After passing through all these machines the cartons are sent to the printing
press for the printing of the cover of the product that needs to be put into it. The
covers format is given by the customer company to the printer press.
After printing the cover, the carton is fully manufactured and delivered to
the required customer and the contract is finished.
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DISTRIBUTION
NOBLE PACKS does not have any Distribution Center. As it is situated in
the heart of Industrial area of Lahore, it can supply directly to its customers from
the factory. The customer places an order for cartons or rolls and the company
sends it directly through trucks to factories for packing or more processing in case
of roll supplying to those factories who cannot make rolls themselves but can do
further processing needed after roll making. Thus by delivering directly to its
customers, NOBLE PACKS have created a very good Customer Relation as well
as goodwill for its good quality of cartons.

Distribution cycles are also determined by the customers who want to

continue their supply monthly like if a company wants 20000 cartons, it’s up to
them whether they want their cartons to be delivered monthly, weekly or daily
basis.

The trucks are rented for making deliveries. Separate locations have separate
truck rentals for example if any order comes from Sargodha Mills, trucks making
deliveries from Sargodha to Lahore are hired as they also have to go back to
Sargodha and don’t want to go empty. That same truck won’t be used for making
delivery to Gujranwala but trucks that are available for Gujranwala region will be
hired. Trucks for different locations are present for hiring.

It acts as a retailer also because it directly sells its product to its customers.

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CUSTOMERS
Customers being the most integral part of supply chain. The customers of
NOBLE PACKS based on pull strategy. After receiving the customer orders, the
manufacturing process starts. Main customers of NOBLE PACKS are as follow:
 KOHINOOR SPINNING MILLS
 CHAKWAL SPINNING MILLS
 BRIDO COSMETICS
 PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES
 ELECTRONIC GOODS MANUFACTURERS

NOBLE PACKS value their customers by being more responsive and efficient.
Customer orders are fully satisfied by making an accurate sample of their desired
product design. Product designs depend upon the customers. Different Companies
and factories have special need of diverse size and shapes of cartons.

HOW TO CHOOSE CUSTOMER:

The first thing they do is get a list of all the companies, firms and factories
that use corrugated cartons. Then the marketing starts, they visit each location and
give them a brief introduction about their product, then ask them to try Noble
packs. If anyone is interested in Noble Packs, they provide them with samples
either printed or plain so as to tell them that this is the kind of product they are
getting at this particular price. If Noble packs can provide them with a better
quality product with low cost, then they would love to do business with them. The
personnel from Noble packs then bring the samples to the factory and then the
samples are analyzed.
The factory provides the clients with some samples so they have an idea of
the product that will be delivered to them along with a quotation. The samples are
then examined and approved by the clients after testing for bursting power etc. The
testing is done by applying pressure to the samples to check how much weight they
can carry and at what level they will burst. If the sample is approved the order is
then given to Noble Packs.

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 Customers are selected by first negotiating with them about their desired
design. Terms and conditions are initially decided and then adapt them in written
form. Financial matter regarding customer orders decided in this phase.

SAMPLE FOR CUSTOMER

NOBLE PACKS makes the samples of customer desired order and then after
confirmation of the sample from the customer, the manufacturing process for the
whole order starts.

SUPPLY TO CUSTOMERS
Customer orders are delivered according to terms and conditions as decided
in contract. Delivery charges decided by both the parties according to contract.
Large containers are usually hired for this purpose as cartons need unique
temperature.
Noble Pack’s customers come from a varied range of industries including
electrical, toys, food & drink and etc. their products are highly recommended and
adopted by many national and international corporations.
Some of Other Major clients of Noble Packs are:
 Vimto
 Grease
 Fruit Exporters

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CUSTOMER ORDER PROCESS DIAGRAM

LOCAL IMPORTED PAPER

RAW MATERIAL

SUPPLIER

NOBLE PACKS
Manufacturers &
Distributors

CUSTOMERS (INDUSTRIES
WAREHOUSE and FACTORIES)

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INFORMATION HANDLING AND DECISION MAKING
Proper organization of information is done. Proper planning is done before
the company has to make decisions regarding new investments like producing huge
orders or buying new machinery for increasing capacity of the facility. NOBLE
PACKS focuses on both being responsive and cost efficient.
Information infrastructure involves direct communication with its suppliers
and to whom it is supplying. Flow of information, funds and product is done in all
the stages of the supply chain. Information is provided to the supplier when an
order is placed for raw materials acquisition. Funds are also flowed by NOBLE
PACKS and the supplier delivers the product i.e. the raw material (reels).
Contracts purchase orders, material acquisition orders are all done on paper
basis and in writing so that proof can be provided if any fault occurs. NOBLE
PACKS maintains its information system on single computer based database
system which includes the company’s all classified information relating its assets,
its most loyal customers, order information, financial statements, and budgets both
current and forecasted.
The flow of information, product and funds when NOBLE PACKS acts as a
supplier is when the customer places an order for cartons or semi manufactured
product. The customer provides information that when, how, where, how much,
what is the product needed and also tells the price it is willing to pay for that order
and product. Negotiations are done if any changes have to be made for any aspect
of the supply chain as which delivery system must be used (air, road). Who will
pay the rent? If shared, what will be its division? All this information is flowing
through the supply chain during a single transaction. And product is afterwards
delivered to the desired location.

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DECISION MAKING
The company’s decision making is done with the consent of its financial
managers, lawyers, labor union heads and the Chairman itself. If the company is
thinking of taking a huge order of making cartons a meeting is called of all the
above mentioned people and opinions are taken. The financial manager provides
information whether the company has the financial resources to cater such an
order, the lawyer makes the contract and check if there’s any unwilling clauses in
the contract or any ambiguity that can make negative consequences. The labor
union head provides information whether the labor number is enough to do the job
or not. If not more skilled labors are hired for the specific job. All the decision
making is done on the basis of having a proper information infrastructure and
proper planning which NOBLE PACKS does not lack.
NOBLE PACK also makes decisions in respect of purchasing the raw
materials from different suppliers. These decisions are in accordance with the
financial basis as established by the Chairman. This means the NOBLE PACKS
also behaves like a customer when making transactions with its suppliers.
Noble packs make decisions when it is behaving like a customer about paper
quality from suppliers, inbound transportation of raw material and about the space
required for the raw material in the factory. Important decisions were made for
timely fulfilling of customer orders which increases the NOBLE PACKS
popularity in the market. The decision about facilities is also made by the NOBLE
PACKS owner. He prefers the warehouses in the perimeter of factory which
decreases its extra capacity cost.
In decision making, NOBLE PACKS thinks several times in order to align
their manufacturing process and order fulfilling date. The maintenance of the
factory and its machinery needs proper weekly decisions which enhance the life of
the machinery. NOBLE PACK pays special attention in making decision regarding
with its budget in which yearly budget is being made which included all the
expenses and revenues of the firm. And all these decisions are made by the owner
of the Noble Packs.

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COMPANY’S INFORMATION AND CAPACITY CONTENTS
The company is situated in Lahore’s Farooq Industrial State at Ferozpur
Road. It consists of two corrugators, two pasting machines, Rotary machines,
slotting and pin machines. All these machines perform separately to make end
product i.e. cartons. The company also owns 1 machine that performs the function
of making cartons in just 1 place. This machine plays the role of all corrugators,
pasting, rotary and pin machines.
The facility’s capacity is to produce any number of cartons from the size of
an electric iron to an air split or refrigerator. The facility has the capacity to
produce unlimited cartons provided that there is time. It can meet any orders of any
number of cartons.

INFORMATION HANDLING:
All the information is handled by company manager as guided by the
chairman. Information is passed to low level employees by managers about the
working. Information regarding customer’s orders is completely operated by
chairman of the NOBLE PACKS.

FLEXIBLE MACHINES:
As mentioned earlier carton for electric iron to refrigerator can also be made
as machines have flexibility of changing the length of cutting and pasting.
According to factories law, any production facility or factory must have a
green corner in its premises so NOBLE PACKS also have a green patch inside its
premises.

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DISTRIBUTION NETWORK:
NOBLE PACKS distribution network is highly responsive and efficient
because customer orders are fulfilled timely. Distribution network of NOBLE
PACKS is Manufacturer storage with direct shipping and manufacturer storage
with direct shipping and in-transit merge. In this Option, Inventory is held with the
Noble Packs in warehouses which is located in the premises of factory. The raw
material came from supplier is kept in factory warehouse and process along the
manufacturing as per order of the customer. Customer orders are delivered through
trucks from the warehouse. NOBLE PACKS saves its warehousing cost as
warehouse is located in the factory.
NOBLE PACKS evaluates the impact on customer service and cost as it
compares different distribution network options. The customer needs that are met
influence the NOBLE PACKS revenues, which along with cost decide the
profitability of the delivery network.
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 Although customer service consists of many components, we focus on these
measures that are influenced by the structure of distribution network which is
distributor storage with carrier delivery.

MANUFACTURER STORAGE WITH DIRECT SHIPPING

In this option, product is shipped directly from the NOBLE PACKS to the
end customer. Information flow from the customer, via the retailer or agent, to the
NOBLE PACKS, and the product is directly shipped from the NOBLE PACKS to
the customers.
The biggest advantage of drop-shipping is the ability to centralize
inventories at the NOBLE PACKS. One of another advantage which NOBLE
PACKS have is that the retailer and agents level is also owned by them.
Which results in the accurate inflow of information and accurate
manufacturing according to that information?

RESPONSE TIME
The response time of NOBLE PACKS by this distribution network is not so
faster because it has only one warehouse which is in the premises of factory
located at Lahore and also Response time may vary from product to product, thus
complicating receiving.

PRODUCT VARIETY
NOBLE PACKS capacity of making different product for different
customers provides large product variety. Because cartons are made in 3 -7 ply. It
depends on customers to tell NOBLE PACKS which type of variety they want.

PRODUCT AVAILABILITY
It is easy for NOBLE PACKS to provide a high level of product availability
Because of aggregation at Noble packs.

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CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
It is very good in terms of delivery to the customer’s place. But it is note
good if customer requirement for carton is very high so the other manufacturer is
needed to fulfill customer requirement.

TIME TO MARKET
If Noble packs designs some new kind of carton, then it can quickly show it
to their customer because already the link between customer and NOBLE PAKCS.

ORDER VISIBILITY
It is more difficult for NOBLE PACKS to visible the location of order but
also it is very important from the customer services perspective.

RETURN ABILITY
As NOBLE PACKS manufacture only customized products by showing the
sample first. By this there are very rare chances for return ability. If any one of the
order would be returned, then it is very expensive and difficult for NOBLE
PACKS to implement.
This distribution network of NOBLE PACKS also affects the cost factors.
The description is as follow.

INVENTORY
NOBLE PACKS inventory cost is very less because of aggregation of inventory at
warehouse which is located in the boundary of factory. So there is no need to open
other facility which increases the inventory cost,

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TRANSPORTATION
NOBLE PACKS has high cost of transportation because of increased
distance and disaggregate shipping. As we wrote in our project that different order
comes from different customers which is fulfilled according to the terms and
conditions decided first. So different customers have different time of fulfilling
order. Then the transportation would be according to that time. Which higher the
cost. For example, NOBLE PACKS sends it transportation for order which is given
at 20th of the month. And if any order is given to 26th or 27th, again the
transportation will move to fulfill that order.

FACILITIES AND HANDLING

NOBLE PACKS has lower facility cost because of aggregation of inventory
at the warehouse located in the factory. Some saving on handling costs if NOBLE
PACKS can manage small shipment or ship from direct production line. But this
won’t happen because there are too many orders to fulfill and handling of
warehouse for these orders increases the handling cost.

INFORMATION
NOBLE PACKS information infrastructure is quite good because the agents
and retailers belong to NOBLE PACKS. And much of the information handled by
the NOBLE PACKS itself. So there is no need to do significant investment in
information Infrastructure to integrate NOBLE PACKS and its retailers.

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 NOBLE PACKS STORAGE WITH
DIRECT SHIPPING

NOBLE PACKS Agent/Retailer of

Manufacturers NOBLE PACKS

CUSTOMER CUSTOMER

KOHINOOR BRIDO COSMETICS

SPIINNING MILL

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OUR EXPERIENCE
This project was a wonderful way for us to understand the importance and
basic concepts of the subject being applied in practical life. It gave us a real world
experience to help us in better application of what we have learned regarding this
course and other management courses as well e.g. human resource management,
marketing etc.
It was a very interesting and learning experience as we never thought what
actually goes behind making a product. There are so many Nitti gritty details to
analyze that it is difficult for one to understand if one has not seen and analyzed
the process in person.
We are grateful to our teacher Sir Ashiq Abbasi for assisting and supporting
us whenever needed and also giving us such a wonderful opportunity to understand
and explore a different side of the business.

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RECOMMENDATIONS
After thorough analysis of Nobel Packs, we came up with some recommendations
which will help the company to excel. The recommendations are:
 As all the Manufacturing process is being done by manual labor, the
company should now move toward Automation process by training their
employees the skills and techniques. This shift will help the company in fast
production by producing large orders in less time making the client more
satisfied and responsive.
 The company should hire some Marketing expertise for it to expand
nationwide according to the owner the finance is not the problem, the
problem is to go in the market in search of clients so this problem is being
solved by hiring marketing force which will help the company to get new
clients and increase their business in terms of both Manufacturing as well as
trading.
 The company is young so it needs to think over these issues mentioned
above in order to grow and become more active in the market.

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