PMMI Researches Opportunities and Challenges in Packaging Part I

Earlier this year PMMI (Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute released a research report on the opportunities and challenges for the packaging machinery industry. They held focus groups at the end of 2012 and identified 10 top priorities facing the packaging industry. The first three items on the list were:

1. Urgent need to address workforce availability and skill sets at all levels. How is your company dealing with workforce availability? Some geographical areas will be challenged more on this topic than others, but all will be affected in one form or another. The smart companies will invest in growing their workforce from within by assisting in employee education and formulating career paths to help their employees stay happy, focused and challenged for long term employment.
2. Continuing emphasis on sustainability and lean plant level operations as a “new normal” was the second item on the list. It is vital for all companies to identify every opportunity to create their product in the most efficient and effective manner without wasting resources. I recently read about a company that makes its product ‘out of thin air’ literally. They utilize wind turbines to power their plant saving them tens of thousands of dollars annually while helping the environment. Your competitor may be able to build a similar product to yours for less money (thus sell it for less) if they learn to harness ‘free energy’. Don’t let them beat you to the punch.
3. Fulfilling needs of a changing demographic, attitudinal, and behavioral consumer marketplace. Is your company keeping up with your customers’ changing needs? For example, the aging US baby boomer population needs easy to open pharmaceuticals. At the same time, many US families include multiple generations living in the same household, creating a need for harder to open pharmaceuticals for small children. How can these two opposite needs be met in the same packaging?

 For more ‘Opportunities and Challenges’ noted in the PMMI report, contact PMMI at www.pmmi.org, or read the next installment in my Part II blog.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.