When your brand is small, packaging workflows often hum along just fine. Files are few. Reviewers are known. Compliance is manageable. However, as product portfolios grow, more SKUs, regions, pack formats, etc. come into play. The process that once worked smoothly begins to show signs of complications.

Assets go missing. Reviews stalls. Launches are delayed.
And suddenly, packaging becomes a bottleneck for growth.

If you’re a packaging lead, NPD manager, or part of a regulatory team, you’ve likely seen this first-hand.  

This post unpacks the common issues that show up when brands scale and offers practical ways to simplify your process before things break further.

3 major reasons why growth outpaces your packaging process

While expanding your product line or portfolio sounds exciting, scaling your packaging process along is also important. Even if you don’t invite it, there will be roadblocks.

1. Chaotic asset management

The more SKUs you add, the more assets you manage, such as logos, dielines, legal text, certifications, and artwork variations. Without a proper structure, it becomes nearly impossible to find the right file when you need it.

Where can it slow down your team?

• Searching for a particular artwork file named “final_final_v7”.

• Using outdated or incorrect packaging assets.

• Mixing up regional variants and printing the wrong one leads to costly reprints.

2. Review bottlenecks

With each new product or variant, more stakeholders get involved, including design, legal, product, supply chain, and regulatory teams. Without a defined system, reviews become long, disjointed, and frustrating.

Where can it slow down your team?

• Finding feedback that is scattered across email, Slack, and PDFs.

• Approving packs with inconsistent layouts or branding due to lack of visibility on spec deviations.

• Endless back-and-forth loops that delay signoffs and final approvals.

3. Compliance risks

As you expand into new markets, compliance requirements change, sometimes drastically. Relying on manual checks and lack of user control can cause tension during critical times.

Where can it slow down your team?

• Scrambling to identify who approved the final version during an audit or recall.

• Reviewing numerous packaging labels manually and cross checking with respective guidelines.  

• Launching non-compliant packaging risks in recalls, investigations, and hefty legal fines.

What you can do to streamline your packaging workflow process

These challenges aren’t a sign that your team is doing anything wrong. They’re a sign that your process wasn’t designed for scale. Here are a few ways that can help:

1. Centralize all packaging assets  

Use a shared digital library that stores and organizes every packaging design file, brand element, and regulatory document that is accessible to all stakeholders. When you manage assets in a central location with proper metadata (like SKU codes, product lines, pack formats, or region-specific tags), it becomes easier to classify, search, and retrieve the right file in seconds.  

This eliminates confusion over which version is final, prevents duplication of work, and ensures everyone’s working off the same base, especially across variant-heavy portfolios.

2. Define structured review stages

Define who reviews what, and in what order. Automating this flow ensures that every stakeholder sees the right version at the right time. This helps avoid duplicate or contradictory feedback and moves the artwork through the right sequence, reducing delays and misunderstandings among teams.

3. Automated compliance checks

Not just the quality, but compliance decides the fate of your product or brand. Multi-region launches mean varied labeling requirements such as font sizes, language translations, nutrition table layouts, or country-specific warnings.  

With automated compliance tools, your system can scan and flag issues in real time. Whether you're working with ten artwork or a thousand. This ensures no non-compliant packaging moves forward and reduces costly reprints or market recalls.

4. Maintain a full audit log

Every change, comment, review, and approval in the packaging process should be automatically logged in one place. An audit trail gives you a complete history of what changed, who approved it, and when. This becomes critical for compliance checks, regulatory audits, internal accountability, and learning.

Time to scale smart with Artwork Flow  

Artwork Flow is your one-stop shop to streamline your packaging development across growing portfolios, multiple markets, and fast-paced launch timelines. Here’s what our artwork management system offers to help you scale, without letting your packaging workflow crack:

Digital asset library

• Store all packaging files, including artwork designs, brand logos, packaging specifications, and legal text in a centralized location.

• Use metadata tagging for easy search across SKUs, formats, and regions.

• Maintain version control to avoid duplication and outdated file use.

Custom workflows

• Set up structured, role-based review flows with auto-routing.

• Receive real-time notifications to accelerate the review stage.

• Monitor project progress and user performance using dashboard analytics.

Learn how SADAFCO reduced its artwork approval time by 50% with Artwork Flow

Online proofing

• Use markup tools to leave precise feedback on a specific artwork element.

• Compare two artwork versions side by side to track changes in design or text elements.

• Create checklists to ensure that you cover every regulatory checkpoint.

Smart compliance

• Run AI-powered checks to flag issues in fonts, colors, barcodes, and layout inconsistencies.

• Use custom rulebooks to ensure compliance with your packaging labels with mandatory requirements such as allergens, claims, and nutritional info.

• Speed up approvals and reduce rework by catching compliance errors early in the workflow.

Also read: The essential guide to AI-powered label compliance

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Audit trail

• Automatically log all comments, changes, and approvals.

• Maintain full traceability for compliance and accountability.

• Simplify audit readiness across teams and regions.

With a complete workflow system that can centralize, standardize, and automate packaging processes, you can focus on expanding your portfolio without worry.

If you want to learn more, get in touch with our team.

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