What does innovation look like?

Efficiency, Modeling, and Speed

Doing more with less continues to drive packaged goods manufacturers. We've advised food producers, personal care companies, healthcare firms and apparel manufacturers on packaging efficiency, lightweighting, automation and product rationalization. We've consulted on projects across North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America, and it's been our experience that the dynamics facing the global packaging industry are more common than might be expected. Getting the fundamentals right can make the difference between a successful, profitable result and disappointment.

We worked closely with a start-up pet food company to design, source and procure packaging that would be sold to one of the largest pet store operators in North America. As a new entrant into the market, the company developed innovative filling and sealing systems, and our work complemented those new-to-market production systems, leading to a successful launch.

Processing Efficiency

Packaging lines must keep pace with the production lines to which they are paired. Knowing how to design and integrate those lines is an operational imperative for consumer products companies.

We've worked across multiple product segments and geographies to assist clients in aligning and validating their packaging operations to complement their production line speeds. In some cases, this has led to shifts in line staffing; in others, lines have been reconfigured. In each case, the goal has been to maximize quality throughput and minimize capital outlays.

Productivity Enhancement

Optimal use of human resources drives profitability for consumer products companies. Too often, packaging decisions drive ineffeciency and wasted time and materials.

Strategic capital investments are key to finding the right balance between human resources and manufacturing equipment.

We've advised companies seeking to reduce their labor pool, and we've guided their assessment of machinery and systems to boost worker productivity.

Packaging Innovation Along the Supply Chain

Innovators understand that change requires not just buy-in from creative leads, but adoption throughout the supply chain. Finding new ways to put materials to use means questioning the former ways of doing things and challenging conventional thinking,

Raw materials manufacturers must look beyond their immediate customer and envision the impact their products have on distributors, transpotation companies, retailers and consumers. Thinking beyond the immediate commercial transaction drives deeper insight and opens up the company to new designs that foster customer engagement and consumer satisfaction.

Packaging designers need to stretch the limits of materials and forms so that new ways to package goods can come off the design table and reach the market they're created to serve.

Automated Distribution

Automation in retail distribution will be a driving force in the coming decade. Retailers of all sizes are investing heavily in automated systems that allow them to trim inventory and speed delivery to stores. This trend will have massive repercussions on the way consumer products are supplied to retailers, how those products are handled and on the market for corrugated packaging and other shipping materials. Our on-site, hands-on experience with retail packaging and distribution gives us unmatched insight on these important trends.

With these heavy investments in automated distribution systems, retailers are also shifting their acceptability standards for transport packaging. These standards are becoming tighter and much less forgiving. While manual rework was previously quite common at distribution centers, this manual rework is becoming extremely rare. This will require consumer products manufacturers and packaging suppliers will need to work together more closely to meet the shifting needs of retailers.