Simplify your cost estimating and carbon modelling, using pioneering new technology.
We strive to help our clients achieve excellence, both commercially and environmentally, through our FORENSIK suite of web based tools.
Our vision is to become the world leader in CO2e and cost measurement. Transparency, Integrity, Passion, Patience, and Ethicality are our core values which our business functions around.
Benchmark Consulting was founded because of the growing demand for transparency and the need to understand how the cost drivers in the packaging industry, ultimately influence the unit price.
Our mission is to provide packaging cost and CO2e transparency that enables sustainable decisions for people, planet and profit, equally. Leaving the planet in a better condition when we depart, with a legacy of continued improvement.
Cost drivers are often turbulent, as a result the total unit price is far less predictable. This can be due to fundamentals such as; oil, pulp, supply versus demand and energy, or downstream to raw materials; inks, adhesives, freight or currency. Given this complexity, the professionals working in both the procurement and sales are spending an increased amount of time managing price movement and less on total cost. This situation is exacerbated as new procurement and vendor representatives are in the role for ever decreasing lengths of time. As a result, state-of-the-art tools are critical to ensure a truncated learning curve is achieved, in addition to driving commercial best practice as a standard operating procedure throughout the organisation.
Our team have deep functional and industry expertise, we are passionate about taking on commercial challenges that matter to our clients. Drawing on over 80 years’ experience in the packaging industry, the team at Benchmark Consulting have consolidated their knowledge to develop a universal estimating and ‘should-cost modelling’ tool. Along with other tools and techniques, our aim is to aid in efficient decision making for purchasing and sales professionals.
FORENSIK – COMMERCIAL CALCULATOR
Drive commercial excellence across your group, with a market-leading web based solution.
• Business performance & cost data, captured as a simple average through to complex matrices for all cost drivers.
• Workflow tools for; approvals and escalation, won and lost, enquiries and market intel capture.
• Group contribution margin scheme, aligned with your P&L can be customised and standardised throughout your group.
With minimal clicks of a mouse complex estimates can be assessed for all manufacturing processes: extrusion, print, lamination, bag/pouching, slitting, corrugation, pre-print, post print, diecutting, folding and glueing. For corrugate and solid board, a CAD plug-in automatically interlocks (nests) blanks on a sheet to optimise sheet size & machine width.
All estimates are numbered for future reference and follow a journey through the system from enquiry to estimate, approval/escalation workflow, and ultimately to a quotation.
Market intel can be registered against each estimate such that, if business is lost, this can be captured, then amalgamated in group wide automated reports to aid in negotiations with end clients.
Further to routine daily estimating, Benchmark’s commercial calculator is capable of calculating many thousands of scenarios in a matter of minutes. Coupled with fully customisable reporting (output in Excel), large complex tenders and on-going price management of complex commercial relationships, can be managed seamlessly.
Over our 10 years in operation the team at Benchmark have refined their installation and roll-out process. In collaboration with the client, a commercial audit on each manufacturing location is conducted, ensuring legacy calculation errors are eradicated and the business strives towards commercial excellence in the future.
FORENSIK – SHOULD COST CALCULATOR
Utilising our extensive database and market knowledge, the Benchmark team can cost model most material categories in the packaging industry.
• Estimate the prices one should expect to see at the Stock Keeping Unit level
• Provide bespoke benchmark reports that compare actual cost to what the current price
With minimal clicks of a mouse complex estimates can be assessed for all manufacturing processes: extrusion, print, lamination, bag/pouching, slitting, corrugation, pre-print, post print, die cutting, folding and glueing. For corrugate and solid board, a CAD plug-in automatically interlocks (nests) blanks on a sheet to optimise sheet size & machine width.
All estimates are numbered for future reference and follow a journey through the system from enquiry to estimate, approval/escalation workflow, and ultimately quotation.
Market intel can be registered against each estimate such that, if business is lost, this can be captured then amalgamated in group wide automated reports to aid in negotiations with end clients.
Further to routine daily estimating, Benchmark’s commercial calculator is capable of calculating many thousands of scenarios in a matter of minutes. Coupled with fully customisable reporting (output in Excel), large complex tenders and on-going price management of complex commercial relationships, can be managed seamlessly.
Over our 10 years in operation the team at Benchmark have refined their installation and roll-out process. In collaboration with the client, a commercial audit on each manufacturing location is conducted, ensuring legacy calculation errors are eradicated and the business strives towards commercial excellence in the future.
FORENSIK – CO2e CALCULATOR
A first to market, low-cost solution, to calculate the CO2e for the packaging industry
• Provide a carbon footprint measurement at a SKU (design) level.
• A bottom up mathematical model, sourcing data from world leading CO2e databases.
• Calculate a single design reference to many thousands in one process.
Being able to calculate the CO2e has been a passion at Benchmark for some years and thanks to the dedication of our extended team that includes PhD research from the Sustainable Energy Technologies at the University of Nottingham, raw material data from Ecoinvent along with energy data from IEA and energy usage from some of our packaging producers, Benchmark has mapped the entire process from source to Packer / Filler / Brand factory gate.
We have identified all the direct and indirect CO2e emissions related to the production of each packaging SKU (stock keeping unit) and provide a breakdown of the CO2e value at every stage of the packaging production process.
The calculator makes full use of our commercial cost modelling functionality and tools; using excel templates for machines, materials, production consumables and delivery profiles. We can receive thousands of specifications into our software within a few minutes and return CO2e values for each unique specification considering the specific order quantities.
The main cause of Global Warming is directly associated with emissions and carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), which is the standard unit of measure that is used to assess the potential harm to our planet. It is now possible with our web-based software solution to measure the impact from packaging. Our hope for the future is that with accurate measurement, businesses can actively strive to reduce their CO2e impact.
