We all take it for granted in the supermarket, but shelf-ready packaging hides a myriad of features and capabilities, all of which must be balanced to deliver the best possible outcomes for suppliers, machine builders, producers, vendors and, of course, the end consumer.
Packaging equipment specialists need to combine functionality, aesthetics and sustainability, and then bundle them into a concept that delivers ease of packaging, ease of disassembly/unpackaging, maximised visual appeal, brand championing, and optimum sustainability. It’s a science test, an engineering project, an art form, a materials study, and a marketing exercise all rolled into one.
But what makes good shelf-ready packaging? It’s not just what you see on the shelf, it’s the machine builder’s domain expertise and packaging design capabilities, coupled to multiple styles of advanced packaging technologies, all of which must be bought together under a holistic viewpoint of the entire product and packaging lifecycle.
Indeed, the developmental process is not simply ‘start to end’. Instead, packaging designers and machine suppliers have to look both backwards and forwards along the value chain to ensure that all stages and functions are fulfilled in the best way possible. A feature or choice at one stage can affect another much further down the line, so all possibilities need to be considered. This development process is never a straight line.
Cama's packaging design team is recognised globally for its innovative, eye-catching and functional ideas. Offering this expertise as a free service – part of the full capabilities package – it has helped some customers reinvent their marketing concepts, and saved others tons of materials and costs, while delivering stronger packaging that weighs less than the format it replaces.
Design with the end in mind
Right from the outset, you need to consider the very end. With sustainability and reduced materials use so high on the agenda, you always need to keep one eye on the ultimate fate of any of the packaging you create. Will it be reused or recycled? This immediately defines the scope for the material selection, not just in terms of type, but also the amount.
The next step is to consider the product being packaged. What shape it is, what’s it made of, is it fragile, does it have any strange requirements, how does it need to be presented? Any one of these can have a profound effect on the packaging design and the type of packaging technology deployed. For this reason, you need to look at companies that offer a broad range of packaging formats, not just variations on a theme, which you may have to license.
You need to factor in machine capabilities too. Some products, counts, presentations, and packaging styles are suited to top loading, others to side loading. You must also think about multi-flavour packages – with multiple in-feeds – or even bypassing, for bulk packaging and buffering. Look for a supplier that offers a wide range of technologies, machines and styles, otherwise you will find them trying to adapt you to their limited array of machines and capabilities, rather than them adapting their machines to your specific products and precise packaging needs.
Next you need to look at how the packaging is palletised. Does it offer the best possible layer count? How does it nest together? What sort of weight can it handle? How many layers can you add without damaging the lower levels? Does it need to be displayed on the pallet? As well as greater efficiency, this feeds into sustainability too, as more boxes per pallet result in lower logistics and fuel costs per product.
When it hits the supermarkets, how easy to use are the tear-offs and have they been designed to tear off cleanly without damaging the rest of the box? In the supermarket setting, time is money, so time spent wrestling with poorly designed boxes that aren’t fit for purpose all adds up; and supermarkets are certainly not scared to vocalise their annoyances and issues.
Think smart
Smart devices, connected machines and system integration provide the real operational value, including high-level line performance monitoring, production data collection, recipe and orders management, and product traceability. By offering full connectivity from field level, through control, supervision and management levels, all the way up to the enterprise, seamless data flow allows companies to make instantaneous line-side decision and modifications, based on real-time operational data.
Smart devices also deliver the capability to embrace the capabilities of edge computing – the fourth pillar, where we are working on creating an additional layer between the machine (control) layer and the factory (supervisory layer), which will allow customers to aggregate output from the field level and turn it into data that delivers more significant information to the higher levels. This information can be exploited for both security and intellectual property purposes, as well as being used to collect historical information for analytics, trend reporting and predictive maintenance, where the data can be collected in historian packages for shift and day-based analyses, to spot trends and anomalies.
From a hardware standpoint our machines excel too. Cama's Breakthrough Generation (BTG) concept is setting the standard in secondary packaging, with machines that deliver modular, scalable frameworks that offer easy entry and access, coupled to a hygienic machine design. Within this framework, contemporary automation solutions, including advanced rotary and linear servo technology, are tightly coupled to in-house-developed robotics, to deliver the all-important flexibility and adaptability required by modern packaging operations. Cama is also an OEM partner for Rockwell Automation, so control-level familiarity in North America is never a problem.
In the crowded world of retail shelves, shelf-ready packaging is often referred to as a silent salesperson. It goes beyond simply housing and protecting a product; it's a strategic tool that can significantly impact sales and brand perception. So it makes sense to employ the best possible people, knowledge, tools, and machines for the job.
