Growing without losing pace: operations management in the packaging industry

🔍 Article co-created with Luis Ruben Villalobos Helo, General Director at INTERFILMS Excel Foam Mexico (🇲🇽 Mexico), and Augusto Unzaga, host of Keru Podcast

🎙️ This article was inspired by Episode 29 of Keru Podcast.

Keru Podcast, created by Globalita.io, is a series of conversations (in Spanish) with industrial leaders from Latin America about management, technology and decision-making in complex environments.

01The hard part is not operating… it is scaling

In highly competitive industrial markets, such as packaging, operating efficiently is no longer enough. What defines a company’s viability is its ability to scale without becoming disorganized, expand without losing control, and grow without sacrificing margins. This is the core of the challenge facing operations management in the packaging industry.

From his role at the head of INTERFILMS & EXCEL FOAM Mexico, Luis Rubén Villalobos Helo Mexico puts it bluntly:

“In a B2B business, if you don’t have operational control, what you gain in volume you lose in adjustments.”

The sector demands precision, speed and adaptability. There is no room for improvisation. The value promise to the customer —consistency, delivery, technical specification— depends directly on internal operational stability.

But as operations grow —new plants, more production lines, territorial expansion— complexity also multiplies. Bottlenecks appear, conflicts between areas, misalignment between sales and production, and above all, continuous pressure on margins.

That is why scaling demands more than selling. It demands redesigning.

02A silent bottleneck: the disconnect between production and sales

One of the most critical problems in operations management in the packaging industry is the lack of integration between what the customer needs and what the plant can deliver. In B2B environments, where every technical specification counts, this disconnect can cause rework, delays, and loss of trust.

Luis Rubén Villalobos Helo INTERFILMS & EXCEL FOAM identifies this point as a constant source of tension:

“If the sales team sells something we cannot produce the way it was promised, we are creating an operational problem that nobody sees until it blows up.”

To address this problem, INTERFILMS & EXCEL FOAM implemented a cross-validation model before confirming special orders. Any change in specification had to go through a technical committee made up of production, quality and sales.

This approach parallels the Obeya model of the Japanese Lean system, where all key areas meet in the same space (physical or digital) to align decisions in real time. The logic is clear: if everyone takes part in the design, everyone takes care of the result.

In B2B manufacturing companies, this principle is vital. Early integration prevents late friction. And above all, it protects the operating margin.

03The trap of reactive growth

When an industrial company starts to grow in volume, it is common for it to do so reactively: more operators are hired, another line is added, a new warehouse is rented. But if that expansion does not respond to a clear operational design, growth can become its own enemy.

Luis Rubén Villalobos Helo Mexico experienced it firsthand:

“Poorly structured growth has you putting out fires every day. You don’t have time to think, only to run.”

The solution was not to grow more slowly, but to grow with architecture. INTERFILMS & EXCEL FOAM restructured its operating model by applying principles of the Value Stream Mapping (VSM) approach. This tool —part of the Lean Manufacturing system— makes it possible to visualize a product’s entire value stream, from the customer’s order to delivery, identifying waste, waiting times and redundancies.

Based on that analysis, three key elements were redesigned:

1. Operational layout: to reduce unnecessary internal movements.
2. Planning system: to balance loads across lines.
3. Role structure: to empower supervisors with greater responsiveness.

The result was a more agile operation, less dependent on general management, and with greater visibility of key indicators.

04Regional expansion in B2B manufacturing demands more than logistics

One of the major goals of INTERFILMS & EXCEL FOAM Mexico has been its regional expansion in B2B manufacturing, covering multiple states in the country and projecting a presence abroad. But far from being just about moving product, the key was replicating operational culture.

According to Luis Rubén Villalobos Helo INTERFILMS & EXCEL FOAM:

“Copying processes is not enough. You have to transfer a way of thinking, a way of leading and a way of taking care of the customer.”

This principle led to the creation of an internal replication model: before opening a new unit, a “minimum viable system” was designed that included not only machinery and layout, but also a culture of quality control, maintenance protocols, and the logic of industrial customer service.

This approach is inspired by the concept of “mirror plants” in the Toyota Production System model, where one plant must be able to replicate the standards of another regardless of location, thanks to a shared system of thinking and operating.

In B2B manufacturing, where every customer expects reliability, that consistency between plants is not a luxury: it is the foundation of growth.

Operating without being there: the manager’s role in expanding plants

As a B2B company grows, especially in the packaging sector, it becomes physically impossible for the general manager to be everywhere. This is one of the strongest tensions in regional expansion in B2B manufacturing: how to guarantee operational consistency without constant presence.

Luis Rubén Villalobos Helo Mexico recognizes this challenge as one of the turning points of his leadership:

“If the operation depends on me being there, then I don’t have a system. I have a team waiting for orders.”

The solution was to move from a directive model to a systemic one. What does this mean in practice? That each plant must operate as an autonomous cell, but within a common framework of indicators, culture and priorities.

This approach is anchored in the principles of Hoshin Kanri, a Lean Management goal-deployment methodology that aligns strategic goals with operational actions at every level of the organization. Under this system, each supervisor knows their contribution to the overall result, without needing to wait for daily instructions.

At Novapak, this philosophy made it possible to consolidate a regional structure without duplicating dependence on the general manager. Less presence, more consistency.

05Delegating with method: training technical leaders to grow

One of the highest risks in operations management in the packaging industry is growing without developing middle leaders. When teams grow but leadership does not develop at the same pace, operational quality drops and organizational wear increases.

Luis Rubén Villalobos Helo Novapak MX tackled this point with a clear strategy: train his supervisors internally before any promotion.

“We don’t delegate tasks, we delegate responsibilities. And that requires technical and mental preparation.”

Inspired by the TWI (Training Within Industry) approach, a training program was structured around three modules:

• Effective instruction: teaching key tasks without ambiguity

• Method improvement: detecting inefficiencies and proposing solutions from the shop floor

• Healthy working relationships: building leadership based on respect and clarity

This program not only strengthened the performance of middle managers, but also reduced turnover in critical positions. The logic is simple: when a leader knows what is expected of them and has the tools to deliver it, their confidence is reflected throughout the team.

06Quality without bureaucracy: designing systems that run on their own

In industries such as packaging, where volumes are high and tolerance for error is low, guaranteeing quality without bureaucracy is an art. The solution is not to add more controls, but to design quality systems integrated into the process.

Luis Rubén Villalobos Helo Mexico explains it this way:

“Quality control cannot be a police force. It has to be part of the process design.”

To achieve this, Novapak adopted the principles of Jidoka, one of the pillars of the Toyota Production System, which proposes giving processes the ability to stop when an anomaly is detected.

Applied to Novapak’s context, this translated into:

• Self-inspection stations with visual criteria

• Automatic stops in the event of calibration deviations

• Operational training to identify nonconformities

This approach reduced internal rejections by 40% in one year, while empowering operators to take an active role in quality, without the need for constant external inspections.

07Knowing the real margin: when costs are invisible

One of the structural problems in operations management in the packaging industry is underestimating hidden costs: rework, waiting, downtime, false starts. All of them affect profitability, but they are not always visible in the income statement.

In regional expansion, this problem gets worse. Each new unit adds complexity, and if it is not measured properly, it can become a source of silent loss.

That is why Novapak incorporated the concept of Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) as a cross-cutting metric. This tool, used in Lean Manufacturing, measures the real effectiveness of equipment by considering three factors:

• Availability: how much time is it actually running?

• Performance: at what speed does it produce versus the ideal speed?

• Quality: what percentage of parts are good the first time?

With this metric, non-obvious losses were detected, such as micro-stoppages for adjustments or slow format changeovers, which directly affected the margin without being reported.

Thanks to this data, investments in automation were prioritized that not only increased volume, but also improved profitability per unit.

08Final reflection

Expansion should not be synonymous with improvisation. And profitability should not depend on the constant presence of the general manager. In the case of Luis Rubén Villalobos Helo Novapak MX Mexico, operations management in the packaging industry becomes a platform for sustainable scalability when it is based on method, technical leadership and systems that run on their own.

Regional expansion in B2B manufacturing is not just logistics. It is replicable culture. And for that to happen, the manager needs to stop putting out fires… and start designing structures that don’t create them.

🔁 Keru is a podcast created by Globalita.io, where we talk with those who lead Latin American industry from the inside.

Are you designing an operation that needs you… or one that can grow without you?