Food Manufacturing Interview with Bob Klimko

Bob Klimko, chair­man of Reusable Pack­ag­ing Asso­ci­a­tion Edu­ca­tion Com­mit­tee and Direc­tor of Gen­eral Indus­trial Mar­ket­ing, Orbis Corporation

As the value of plas­tics and other mate­ri­als used to cre­ate reusable pack­ag­ing increases, more and more man­u­fac­tur­ers are deal­ing with reusable asset theft. Food Man­u­fac­tur­ing spoke with Bob Klimko, chair­man of the Reusable Pack­ag­ing Asso­ci­a­tion (RPA), about the growth of the prob­lem and how com­pa­nies can pre­vent asset theft.

Q: What is asset theft?

A: Asset theft is a com­po­nent of a broader term called asset loss. In the reusable pack­ag­ing indus­try, asset loss occurs when assets do not sur­vive their intended asset life. Loss can occur from mis­use of assets, mis­treat­ment of the assets or theft. Some of the theft is pedes­trian, like a col­lege stu­dent tak­ing a milk crate for their dorm room. Some of the theft is more orga­nized with sophis­ti­cated sys­tems that col­lect and redis­trib­ute stolen assets for profit.

Q: Why has asset theft become more preva­lent in recent years?

A: The value of the raw mate­ri­als used for reusable pack­ag­ing is increas­ing, mak­ing them attrac­tive to crim­i­nals. Whether metal, wood or plas­tic, as com­mod­ity prices increase, crim­i­nals are attracted to this type of asset theft.

Q: How is asset theft affect­ing the food industry?

A: Like other indus­tries, the food indus­try is being affected by asset loss and theft, albeit indi­rectly. Reusable assets are hid­den trea­sures within the food sup­ply chain. The pal­lets, con­tain­ers and reusable sys­tems (of vary­ing mate­r­ial types) are used by the food indus­try every day. Although these are truly assets, most com­pa­nies do not mon­i­tor, inven­tory or pay atten­tion to them until extreme loss or theft occurs. Car­ing about empty reusable assets is not a pri­or­ity for most com­pa­nies – until there is an issue.

Q: What is the Reusable Pack­ag­ing Asso­ci­a­tion doing to help min­i­mize asset theft?

A: The RPA has a com­mit­tee called the Asset Loss Pre­ven­tion Com­mit­tee. This com­mit­tee gov­erns the activ­i­ties of the asso­ci­a­tion related to asset loss. The edu­ca­tion com­po­nent includes end user and law enforce­ment edu­ca­tion to cre­ate aware­ness about the asset loss issue, and the shar­ing of the best prac­tice solu­tions that can be deployed to assist with the issue. There is also a newer leg­is­la­tion com­po­nent that will include edu­ca­tion to var­i­ous law enforce­ment agen­cies about the value of the reusable assets and the theft issue. Addi­tion­ally, we are focus­ing on under­stand­ing exist­ing and pro­posed leg­is­la­tion related to asset loss. Finally, the RPA has cre­ated cur­ricu­lum that details the dif­fer­ent types of iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and track­ing meth­ods for users to con­sider to help man­age their reusable systems.

Q: What can com­pa­nies do to help pre­vent asset theft?

A: First, com­pa­nies should under­stand what reusable assets they have and where they are in their given sup­ply chains. In order to under­stand where loss is occur­ring, a com­pany must first under­stand how its reusable assets are used in their sup­ply chains and the processes being deployed to man­age them. Sec­ond, com­pa­nies need to under­stand the var­i­ous types of solu­tions avail­able to help them man­age their assets bet­ter, which in turn will min­i­mize theft. The RPA has detailed the ser­vices avail­able. Finally com­pa­nies can join the Asset Loss Pre­ven­tion Com­mit­tee at the RPA to con­tinue to work on the issues. Most of the meet­ings are via tele­con­fer­ence so the cost is low, and involve­ment would be appreciated.

To learn more about resources and best prac­tices avail­able from the RPA, visit the web­site at www.reusables.org or call 703−224−8284 or email info@reusables.org.

Inter­view by Lind­sey Coblentz, Asso­ciate Editor