As India accelerates its manufacturing ambitions, Krishna Marathe, Founder of Swift Technoplast, highlights why industrial packaging, pallet selection, and material handling infrastructure deserve greater attention in the country’s industrial growth story.
India’s manufacturing sector is expanding, but an overlooked challenge may be affecting the efficiency of its factories and warehouses.
According to the Economic Survey 2025–26, India’s manufacturing sector grew by 8.4% in the first half of FY26. More recently, the HSBC India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index reached 55.1 in September 2026, reflecting continued expansion in factory activity.
While conversations around India’s manufacturing growth largely focus on automation, infrastructure, technology, and production capacity, another critical component receives comparatively little attention: industrial packaging and material handling systems.
From plastic pallets and storage containers to warehouse handling infrastructure, these seemingly ordinary components influence how efficiently products move through industrial supply chains.
The Overlooked Foundation of Manufacturing Efficiency
A factory may invest heavily in advanced production equipment, but its operational efficiency also depends on what happens before and after manufacturing.
Raw materials must be stored, transported, and delivered to production lines. Finished goods must move through warehouses and distribution networks without unnecessary damage, delays, or handling costs.
This is where industrial pallets, reusable packaging, and material handling solutions become operationally significant.
Poorly selected pallets can introduce risks associated with load stability, breakage, contamination, and inefficient storage. Over time, repeated handling problems can affect productivity and increase operating costs.
Yet many businesses continue to evaluate industrial packaging primarily on purchase price rather than suitability, durability, and total cost of ownership.
Why Pallet Selection Deserves Strategic Attention
For manufacturers, pallets are often treated as basic procurement items rather than components of industrial infrastructure.
However, pallet dimensions, load-bearing capacity, material properties, and compatibility with handling equipment can influence warehouse efficiency and workplace safety.
Krishna Marathe, Founder of Swift Technoplast, an Indian manufacturer of industrial plastic products and material handling solutions, advocates a broader approach to pallet selection.
His industry perspective emphasises evaluating pallets against operational requirements, including load conditions, handling methods, hygiene expectations, and expected reuse cycles.
Plastic pallets, for example, can offer advantages in applications requiring consistent dimensions, moisture resistance, and cleanable surfaces. Wooden pallets remain suitable for many operations, particularly where procurement economics and specific handling requirements favour their use.
The real question is not which material is universally superior, but which solution delivers the greatest operational value.
The Growing Importance of Hygiene and Warehouse Efficiency
India’s food processing, pharmaceutical, FMCG, and chemical manufacturing sectors face different storage and handling requirements.
In hygiene-sensitive environments, equipment used for storing and transporting materials can become part of a company’s broader contamination-control strategy.
Cleanable pallet surfaces, appropriate material selection, and effective handling procedures can help support hygiene management.
Meanwhile, as warehouses adopt mechanised and automated handling technologies, dimensional consistency and equipment compatibility become increasingly relevant.
These developments highlight why industrial packaging should be considered during warehouse planning rather than treated as an afterthought.
Moving Beyond the Lowest Purchase Price
One of the challenges facing industrial procurement is the tendency to prioritise immediate savings over long-term performance.
A pallet with a lower initial price may not necessarily offer the lowest operating cost.
Businesses must consider replacement frequency, maintenance requirements, product damage, handling efficiency, and the number of reuse cycles.
A lifecycle-based approach can help procurement teams make better-informed decisions without compromising operational requirements.
For an industry increasingly focused on productivity and supply chain resilience, even improvements in everyday material handling processes can create meaningful value.
India’s Manufacturing Future Depends on the Details
India’s ambition to strengthen its position in global manufacturing will require more than investments in new factories and sophisticated machinery.
Efficient manufacturing ecosystems depend on reliable movement, storage, handling, and protection of goods throughout the supply chain.
Industrial packaging may not attract the same attention as artificial intelligence, robotics, or factory automation, but it remains an important part of operational performance.
The broader industry conversation championed by professionals such as Krishna Marathe reflects a necessary shift: manufacturing competitiveness must be measured beyond the production line.
Because a world-class manufacturing ecosystem is built not only on what factories produce, but also on how efficiently they handle everything they produce.