Plants of the Future

Whether you call them “factories of the future,” “cutting-edge,” or “forward-thinking,” a small group of industry leaders share an overarching commitment to remaining at the forefront of what is possible—and what may become possible—in packaging. Their unique approaches highlight the range of opportunities available for companies willing to take the lead.

Committed to the Cutting Edge

John Kelley, president of Dusobox, says his personal commitment to the cutting edge came about while talking with a Dusobox employee. “I’m third-generation in this business,” he says. “I think my commitment to what we’re doing now started when I joined the company after college. I sat down with one of the original employees of Dusobox that my grandfather had hired. She said, ‘Your grandfather’s done X, Y, and Z, and your father’s done X, Y, and Z. So what do you want to do?’ At the time, I’m sure I had a deer-in-the-headlights look! But that led to me asking how we can best help our customers. How can we make a one-plant, multigenerational family business relevant to major brand owners? How do we bring more value to customers and introduce our thinking to a broader customer base? These are the questions that continue to drive me, my brother, Richard, and our entire leadership team.”

If you’re striving to be futuristic and ‘bleeding-edge,’ you’ve got to have a good manufacturer standing behind your equipment. —Michael Drummond, Packrite

While focusing on the cutting edge was the next step in Dusobox’s growth as a mature company, a commitment to the cutting edge was fundamental to the core vision behind Packrite. Michael Drummond, founder and president of Packrite, notes that he launched his company specifically to be a forward-thinking supplier to the industry. “We started as a company that would help other companies be more successful with all they do,” he says. “We created something that was different from what anyone else had ever done before.”

At Vanguard Packaging, CEO Mark Mathes decided that it was a choice of being cutting-edge … or else. “What drove me was the desire to still be in business in 10 years,” he says. “You’re either going to do it or you’re going to get eaten up. In today’s world, anybody can be anything. The lines between independents and integrateds has completely blurred. Yes, there is always a place for well-run, niche-based companies. But if you put this technology in, even the small guy can play big.”

Embracing Innovation

One good reason to operate a step or two back from the cutting edge is the cost commitment involved in constantly implementing the latest technologies.

Mathes admits, “We don’t even look at equipment available today. If you can buy it today, it’s already obsolete. We have already begun to put out POs for equipment that’s two years out.”

“The technology in our industry is changing so fast, you’re always trying to catch up,” echoes Drummond. “I remember one time when we bought some equipment from a major machinery supplier. By the time I went to Europe to see it before it shipped, they had introduced a new model!”

Among the machines that help to shape Packrite’s factory of the future, Drummond mentions a Bobst Asitrade, custom-built to meet Packrite’s needs. “We followed that with the Masterfold 170 with a double Gyrobox, the only one of its type in North America, which we bought three years ago. Then we bought the Mastercut 2.1, which is one of 12 in the country. In 2016 we installed the Masterflute MF324 Asitrade single-face laminator, which is ‘bleeding-edge’ technology.”

Of course, choosing the right “bleeding-edge” equipment means matching new functionality to a packager’s real-world needs. Drummond notes that the Masterfold 170 features a cloud-based tracking option for all its gluing information. “If we ever had a quality problem, we could go back into that cloud-based information and trace that back to the specific glue error that may have occurred.”

You’re either going to do it or you’re going to get eaten up. In today’s world, anybody can be anything. The lines between independents and integrateds has completely blurred. Yes, there is always a place for well-run, niche-based companies. But if you put this technology in, even the small guy can play big. —Mark Mathes, Vanguard Packaging

Dusobox has made a similar commitment. “On our production side, every piece of equipment is state-of-the-art, with the most advanced quality-control features,” Kelley says. “We’ll image every sheet. We’ll inspect every glue point. If there’s any fault, it never gets to the customer. We are embracing zero-defect packaging.”

Mathes, though, believes the days of huge, multiple-machine installations are likely coming to an end. “We installed a WSA pre-feeder behind a brand-new Latitude. This pre-feeder is about 30 percent smaller than any other we’re aware of. Space is money. With the right four or five pieces of equipment and the right scheduling of the plant, you can do with 100,000 square feet what it used to take 200,000 square feet to do. In addition, we put in an extremely high-speed laminator, which enabled us to eliminate three traditional laminators, and we still increased capacity. Then we put in a high-speed short-setup flexo-folder-gluer, eliminated others, and still increased capacity. I took a total of about six shifts of work down to two shifts. That has translated to the bottom line.”

Forward-thinking companies are not dependent on equipment manufacturers for all of their innovation, however. Dusobox, for example, has teamed with app developer Augment to create an augmented-reality app they use as both a design and marketing tool.

Augmented reality (AR) is the concept behind such popular entertainment apps as Pokémon Go, which allows smartphone users to “see” Pokémon cartoon characters “in the wild” as they explore their own neighborhood, and Instagram filters, which allow smartphone users to add masks and makeup effects to their own selfies in real time. Dusobox designers can design and render near-​photorealistic 3-D images of a client’s proposed point-of-sale display, then, using their AR mobile app and an iPad, show the client exactly what that display would look like in a real-world environment—without actually producing a single physical prototype.

Kelley credits Dusobox’s Jason Hays with spearheading the app’s development and the company’s relationship with Augment, a company that had previously focused primarily on furniture and hard goods, not retail or point-of-sale. “Now we can get into collaborative discussions regarding POS needs and work with a team in real time, as opposed to days, weeks, whatever,” Kelley says. Such pre-prototype visualization also saves money. “It allows everyone to achieve the largest dividends by capitalizing on the dollars previously wasted on trying to get it right without visualization first.”

Outside the Box

“Cutting-edge” need not apply only to shiny new hardware installations or the latest innovative software.

Vanguard is operating out of a 600,000-square-foot manufacturing, fulfillment, and assembly plant that is roughly 150 feet underground. Part of a so-called Subtropolis business park located in previously mined limestone caves, the company has taken full advantage of its unique location to create a work environment that reflects a cutting-edge commitment to sustainability.

The plant’s thick, natural limestone ceiling provides geothermal insulation that maintains an average temperature of 76°F. Polished concrete floors eliminate the need for carpeting. All installed lighting came from overruns from other construction projects. Vanguard reduced ink waste by bringing ink mixing in-house and repurposing leftover ink by using it to create black ink. (According to the company website, “Vanguard uses a pine tree rosin-based ink from BCM Inks. Pine tree rosin is a byproduct of the papermaking process and is collected at the mill.”)

A similar approach to sustainability is in evidence at the above-ground Advance Packaging in Grand Rapids, Mich. Like Vanguard, Advance relies on an in-house “ink kitchen” for color blending and ink reclamation. In addition, inks are water-based, with ink solids removed in an on-site water-treatment facility.

The company’s devotion to sustainability extends far beyond ink. For example, outdoor landscaping was designed to reduce the need for watering; heat generated by the corrugator/scrap system is reclaimed and redistributed to heat nearly the entire facility; the corrugator runs at reduced temperatures to lower energy use; glues are corn- and water-based; scrap from corrugating/converting is baled and recycled; and an automatic conveyor system diverts power only where needed, practically eliminating hi-lows in production. Even shipping routes are designed for optimal delivery times and decreased fuel consumption.

Meeting the Challenges

“Having a futuristic company doesn’t just happen,” Drummond admits. If you’re striving to be futuristic and ‘bleeding-edge,’ you’ve got to have a good manufacturer standing behind your equipment.”

In addition, you need a team of well-trained and committed staff. “Your people are the key to making all of this technology work,” Drummond says. “We constantly retrain.”

For Drummond, being cutting-edge also means making education and research an integral part of his own day-to-day management. “Every day, I review the technology. I make sure I’ve got information about the latest trade shows and know who’s showing what. I go to Drupa and SuperCorrExpo®. I invite suppliers in and listen to what they’ve got to say. And I have a great team of people who look at what’s going on and what we’d like to see.”

Having a team fully invested in pushing the envelope is critical to success. “It’s very much an absolute, companywide commitment that you’re going to do something somebody else hasn’t done,” Drummond points out. “Your employees have got to be willing to take on the challenge.”

The factory of the future will continuously foster and incubate innovation within out industry. — John Kelley, Dusobox

Growing Forward

Every cutting-edge company will follow the path that best fits its culture and its clientele. But Kelley believes certain key points may turn out to be foundational moving forward. “The factory of the future will continuously foster and incubate innovation within our industry,” he says, highlighting photorealistic renderings, augmented reality, digitally printed prototypes, and manufacturing processes that transcend multiple platforms—for example, flexography printed directly on the substrate, lithography laminated to the substrate, and digital printing directly onto corrugated, all in service to the goal of maximizing brand consistency. “Our factory of the future will continue to focus on the leading-edge thinking and investments that allow our customers—the brands—to maximize their strength and growth.”

Mathes suspects the changes will be even more transformative for the industry. “I think the ‘factory of the future’ isn’t going to look anything like it does today, even five years down the road. Plants that are chock full of equipment are going to discover that four or five pieces of high-speed equipment running around the clock will do. There will be far fewer employees on the production side and much higher equipment efficiency. We will have robotics heavily involved in our industry as well.

“Ten years down the road, cutting-edge factories will be running a lot of hybrid equipment. We’ll see a flexo-folder-gluer with a digital station, a hybrid combining flexo and at least four- to six-color digital. Imagine what a great hybrid machine you’d have if you could put flexo as your background and just use digital where you need the four-color process. I don’t know anybody working on that right now, but I bet you’ll see one at the next SuperCorr in four years.”

The factories of the future do not choose that role to inspire envy among their peers or to suggest that all packagers should aspire to what they have achieved. Not every packager can be cutting-edge.

“Unless you’re a WestRock or something like that, most people don’t have the resources to invest in all the technology,” Drummond points out. “Not everybody can spend $25 million on equipment! Packrite was created to service that marketplace, so multiple companies can take advantage of that ‘bleeding-edge’ technology. We fill in the gaps, so other companies can expand their offerings without investing a huge amount of money.”

The specific gaps requiring the help of a cutting-edge partner will vary from packager to packager. And not every cutting-edge company offers the same set of services. Kelley recommends that AICC members seeking such partnerships take the time to meet other members and learn how they can help to fill in specific gaps. “It’s a very collegial environment,” he says. “More often than not, you’ll be able to find one of the leading-edge members to help.”

Of course, the industry has room for any number of up-and-coming companies striving to join those at the leading edge. For Drummond, they will remain colleagues, not competitors. “If they build up to the point where they’ve got enough business to buy, say, a specialty folder-gluer like we’ve got, that’s great! If somebody else is doing well with this approach, it will pull the whole industry up.”

Robert Bittner is a Michigan-based freelance writer and frequent contributor to BoxScore.