May/June 2020 BoxScore: VR and AR Technologies Hold Untapped Potential for Boxmakers and Clients

A PUBLICATION OF AICC, THE INDEPENDENT PACKAGING ASSOCIATION

May/June 2020 Volume 24, No. 3

REALITY SHOWS VR and AR technologies hold untapped potential for boxmakers and clients alike

ALSO INSIDE Focus on Security A Worldwide Whirlwind Members Meeting: E-Commerce Xperience

TABLE OF CONTENTS May/June 2020 • Volume 24, No. 3

COLUMNS

36 FEATURES

36

REALITY SHOWS VR and AR technologies hold untapped potential for boxmakers and clients alike

40

FOCUS ON SECURITY

40

Five critical areas toward fostering a strong safety culture at your facility

44

A WORLDWIDE WHIRLWIND Trade and pandemic concerns are among the greatest hindrances to the global supply chain

44

BoxScore is published bimonthly by AICC, The Independent Packaging Association, PO Box 25708, Alexandria, VA 22313, USA. Rates for reprints and permissions of articles printed are available upon request. The statements and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of AICC. The publisher reserves the right to accept or reject any editorial or advertising matter at its discretion. The publisher is not responsible for claims made by advertisers. POSTMASTER: Send change of address to BoxScore, AICC, PO Box 25708, Alexandria, VA 22313, USA. ©2020 AICC. All rights reserved.

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CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE

4

SCORING BOXES

6

LEGISLATIVE REPORT

10

MEMBERS MEETING

16

ASK RALPH

18

ASK TOM

20

SELLING TODAY

22

TACKLING TRENDS

24

ANDRAGOGY

26

LEADERSHIP

52

THE ASSOCIATE ADVANTAGE

54

WHAT THE TECH?

56

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

64

THE FINAL SCORE

DEPARTMENTS

8

WELCOME, NEW & RETURNING MEMBERS

29

AICC INNOVATION

32

MEMBER PROFILE

60

ICPF UPDATE

Visit www.aiccboxscore.org for Member News and even more great columns.

Scan the QR code to check them out!

BOXSCORE www.aiccbox.org

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OFFICERS Chairman: Jay Carman, StandFast Packaging Group, Carol Stream, Illinois First Vice Chairman: Gene Marino, Rusken Packaging Inc., Cullman, Alabama Vice Chairmen: Jana Harris, Harris Packaging/American Carton, Haltom City, Texas Matt Davis, Packaging Express, Colorado Springs, Colorado Gary Brewer, Package Crafters, High Point, North Carolina Immediate Past Chairman: Joseph M. Palmeri, Jamestown Container Cos., Macedonia, Ohio Chairman, Past Chairmen’s Council: Al Hoodwin, Michigan City Paper Box, Michigan City, Indiana President: Michael D’Angelo, AICC Headquarters, Alexandria, Virginia Secretary/General Counsel: David P. Goch, Webster, Chamberlain & Bean, Washington, DC Counsel Emeritus: Paul H. Vishny, Esq., Chicago, Illinois AICC Canada Director: Rene Annis DIRECTORS West: David DeLine, DeLine Box Co., Denver, Colorado Southwest: Eric Elgin, Oklahoma Interpack, Muscogee, Oklahoma Southeast: Ben DeSollar, Sumter Packaging Corp., Sumter, South Carolina Midwest: Casey Shaw, Batavia Container Inc., Batavia, Illinois Great Lakes: Mike Schaefer,Tavens Packaging & Display, Bedford Heights, Ohio Northeast: Stuart Fenkel, McLean Packaging, Pennsauken, NJ AICC Canada: Terri-Lynn Levesque, Royal Containers Ltd., Brampton, Ontario, Canada AICC México: Pedro Aguirre Martinez, Tecnología de Cartón, Querétaro, México OVERSEAS DIRECTOR Kim Nelson, Royal Containers Ltd., Brampton, Ontario, Canada

DIRECTORS AT LARGE Finn MacDonald, Independent II, Louisville, Kentucky Guy Ockerlund, OxBox, Addison, Illinois Kevin Ausburn, SMC Packaging Group, Springfield, Missouri Nelva Walz, Michigan City Paper Box, Michigan City, Indiana EMERGING LEADER DELEGATES Daniel Brettschneider, CST Systems, Kennesaw, Georgia Cassi Malone, Corrugated Supplies Co., LLC, Chicago, Illinois ASSOCIATE MEMBER DIRECTORS Chairman: Pat Szany, American Corrugated Machine Corp., Indian Trail, North Carolina Vice Chairman: Joseph Morelli, Huston Patterson Printers, Decatur, Illinois Secretary: Greg Jones, Sun Automation, Glen Arm, Maryland Associate Board Director: Tim Connell, A.G. Stacker Inc., Weyers Cave, Virginia Immediate Past Chairman, Associate Members: David Burgess, JB Machinery, Weston, Connecticut ADVISORS TO THE CHAIRMAN Greg Tucker, Bay Cities, Pico Rivera, California Jerry Frisch, Wasatch Container, North Salt Lake, Utah Pat Szany, American Corrugated Machine Corp., Indian Trail, North Carolina PUBLICATION STAFF Publisher: Michael D'Angelo, mdangelo@aiccbox.org Editor: Virginia Humphrey, vhumphrey@aiccbox.org

SUBMIT EDITORIAL IDEAS, NEWS & LETTERS TO: BoxScore@theYGSgroup.com CONTRIBUTORS Maria Frustaci, Director of Administration and Director of Latin America Cindy Huber, Director of Conventions & Meetings Chelsea May, Education and Training Manager Laura Mihalick, Senior Meeting Manager Patrick Moore, Member Relations Coordinator Taryn Pyle, Director of Training, Education & Professional Development Alyce Ryan, Marketing Manager Steve Young, Ambassador-at-Large Richard M. Flaherty, President, ICPF ADVERTISING Information: Virginia Humphrey, vhumphrey@aiccbox.org Opportunities: Taryn Pyle 703-535-1391 • tpyle@aiccbox.org AICC PO Box 25708 Alexandria, VA 22313 Phone 703-836-2422 Toll-free 877-836-2422 Fax 703-836-2795 www.aiccbox.org

EDITORIAL/DESIGN SERVICES The YGS Group • www.theYGSgroup.com Vice President: Serena L. Spiezio Content & Copy Director: Craig Lauer Managing Editor: Jessica Price Senior Managing Editor: Sam Hoffmeister Copy Editor: Steve Kennedy Art Director: Reynaldo Alvarado Account Manager: Max Lalwani

ABOUT AICC PROVIDING BOXMAKERS WITH THE KNOWLEDGE NEEDED TO THRIVE IN THE PAPER PACKAGING INDUSTRY SINCE 1974 We are a growing membership association that serves independent corrugated, folding carton, and rigid box manufacturers and suppliers with education and information in print, in person, and online. AICC membership is for the full company and employees at all locations have access to member benefits. AICC offers free online education to all members to help the individual maximize their potential and the member company maximize its profit.

WHEN YOU INVEST AND ENGAGE, AICC DELIVERS SUCCESS.

Chairman’s Message

Persevering Together

I

am so proud of my fellow boxmakers, our suppliers, and AICC, our Association.

In the middle of March, events related to COVID-19 accelerated at an incredible rate. As we know, the virus itself grew exponentially both in the number of people afflicted and, sadly, in the number of people killed. Governments at all levels responded with varied and numerous orders, some following federal guidelines, others not, some even stretching the imagination if not the Constitution itself.

Our boxmakers and suppliers were in most cases deemed “essential businesses,” although in some states, members had to fight for this designation. They did, and they were successful in keeping their doors open. It’s truly amazing how little politicians seem to understand about supply chains. Members responded to the demand to provide packaging products for food, produce, hygiene, medical, and pharmaceutical goods that must necessarily go to a now homebound populace.

In the midst of the new realities brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and the immediate demands to produce, members rose to the occasion, reassured their employees, took great lengths to ensure their safety, and created clever and flexible ways to accommodate the needs to produce with the needs of employees’ families and the changes wrought in their lives.

The federal government responded with a number of programs meant to alleviate some of the uncertainty created by the situation, even for an essential business. I can tell you, it has not been easy to navigate through these programs—FFCRA, CARES Act, IRS changes, SBA PPP loans—but it is something that we have all done and continue to do as we don’t know yet what we don’t know about the coming months. There is so much uncertainty. Will increases in the above market sectors last? Will these increases offset decreases in orders from customers that have been deemed nonessential? Which direction will the economy go?

Through all this tragedy, economic carnage, and uncertainty, we have all been there for each other. Many AICC members have produced personal protective equipment for their employees and for local care providers and have made these available to other members. We have shared best practices and helpful ideas with each other. We have provided emotional, mental, and humorous support to each other, because crisis leadership takes a toll, and we need to remain resilient.

AICC, your Association, has been there for us as well. It has provided the forums necessary to facilitate so many of the exchanges among members, from a website page updated daily with the information members need to make decisions to a weekly video conference in which you, the members, are the educators. AICC has provided webinars on the relief legislation, HR issues, and business planning. It has created an online community board where members can exchange experiences, ask questions, and provide answers and guidance.

AICC will continue to adapt and create—just as we all will. Stay well.

Jay Carman President, StandFast Packaging Group Chairman, AICC

BOXSCORE www.aiccbox.org

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Scoring Boxes

Other Uses of Containerboard

BY DICK STORAT

I

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BOXSCORE May/June 2020

UID

400

Unidentified Uses of Containerboard

350 Three-year average = 150,000 tons/month

300 250 200 (000 Tons)

n this article, we will discuss domestic uses of containerboard other than that corrugated by America’s boxmakers.

For orientation, the graphic at top right displays graphically the flows of containerboard for the month of February 2020.

While the specific numbers will of course change from month to month, the overall pattern remains pretty much the same.

The left side of the graphic shows mill production, which in February amounted to just over 3 million tons. Of the total production, some may go to inventory at mills, which amounted to 29,000 tons in February.

A substantial fraction of production is made for export and shown as an outflow of 462,000 tons in the diagram.

In February, that amounted to 15% of the total U.S. production, mainly unbleached kraft linerboard grades, some 20% of which is exported monthly.

Imports, mostly from Canada, account for about 4%–5% of monthly consumption. Also, containerboard held in inventory at box plants can contribute to corrugated volume. In February, 48,000 tons of box plant inventory contributed 1.9% of the 2.517 million tons consumed by corrugators during the month. The remaining 2.356 million tons of February’s corrugated volume was supplied by domestic containerboard mills, amounting to 93.6% of February’s consumption and 78% of production.

On top of containerboard that is converted in the U.S., there are uses of containerboard that do not involve corrugation. These are not reported but imputed as the remainder of board produced by mills after adjustment for inventory change and trade flows. It is labeled as “Other Uses” in the top graphic.

150 100 50 0 -50

-100 -150

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

Source: AF&PA, FBA, RSA

2018

2019

2020

In February, these other uses amounted Page 1accounted for in statistical reports. Over time, these other uses amount to about to 162,000 tons, or 5.4% of monthly 150,000 tons per month, and they track containerboard production. These can be with what some industry observers believe considered in several distinct categories. the actual other uses to be.

The first and largest category is actual While these other uses have remained uses of linerboard or medium. The full fairly constant over multiyear periods, spectrum of uses for which linerboard the monthly swings can be quite volatile, and medium are needed is broad, if not

Scoring Boxes

as the bottom chart shows. It plots the monthly imputed other uses of containerboard for the past 26 months ending in February 2020.

The bold line indicating 150,000 tons per year is the monthly other uses averaged over the past three years. This averaging eliminates the wide monthly swings. While some of the remaining variability is part of normal swings in short-term demand for containerboard to be used without corrugation, other factors are involved.

Monthly inventory statistics supplied by mills and box plants do not include containerboard that is in transit on rail cars or trucks between the mills and box plants. If the volume in transit does not change significantly, there will be no effect on other uses. However, if the amount of board in transit rises or falls compared to the prior month, that change in in-transit

containerboard will be accounted for as an additional use or source of containerboard.

Changes from the amount of containerboard initially reported by mills as being made for export will also impact the amount of other uses. If an amount of mill production is reported as made for export but is subsequently diverted to domestic usage at box plants, it will also show up as additional corrugator production and a reduction to other uses.

Sometimes, inventories are more completely counted at the end of a fiscal quarter or year. When that additional inventory “reenters the statistical reporting system,” it will show up as a reduction of other uses. If the more exhaustive counting of inventory yields a sufficient increase of mill or containerboard stocks, the imputed other uses of containerboard

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can become negative, providing another source of containerboard for corrugators.

Understanding the behavior of the imputed other uses of containerboard can be helpful in assessing the relative market balance between supply and demand. For example, evaluating one month’s rise in other uses as future additional rollstock likely to show up in the box plants’ reporting would lead to an assessment that there is more unconverted containerboard supply than may be assessed from the mill and box plant inventory levels alone.

Dick Storat is president of Richard Storat & Associates.

He can be reached at 610-282-6033 or storatre@aol.com.

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BOXSCORE www.aiccbox.org

5

Legislative Report

Bring Manufacturing Back!

BY ERIC ELGIN

I

’m writing this during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when our economy, in the interest of preventing the spread of the outbreak, is in a state of suspended animation. Thankfully, most if not all of us in the corrugated and paperboard industries are considered to be part of the essential infrastructure feeding our supply chains for critical food, pharmaceutical, and medical stocks. We are fortunate to still be working, albeit with heightened sanitation and preventive measures in place.

One of the messages I’ve heard through all the noise of the nonstop reporting is how we have jeopardized our ability to fight this pandemic by our overreliance on foreign suppliers—in this case, pharmaceutical suppliers overseas.

President Donald Trump, in one of the press briefings for his Coronavirus Task Force, said that the coronavirus crisis has taught our country that “we can never again be dependent on a foreign country for our vital supplies.” The president, in this case, was referring to supplies of critical strategic materials. However, if we honestly consider this lesson, we can see how we in North America have become “addicted”—if I can use that term—to a ready supply of cheap imported nondurable goods, most of which are readily available through the many online e-commerce platforms that we have become used to using every day in our homes and businesses.

In saying all this, I think that a silver lining of the coronavirus crisis could very well be a movement of key strategic manufacturing and material sourcing back to North American shores. Back in 2003, Jay Wertheimer, president of Wertheimer Box in Chicago, was chairman of AICC.

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BOXSCORE May/June 2020

During his year as chairman, Wertheimer championed a theme for AICC and our industry: “Make it in America!” This battle cry was in response to what we were seeing then as the mass exodus of manufacturing to lower-cost manufacturing environments in Latin America and Asia. Our government affairs efforts were reborn in those days, when we began our annual Washington Fly-In to ask AICC members to come to Washington, D.C., to plead with their representatives in Congress to repair this exodus by embracing a pro-manufacturing economy that encourages manufacturers to remain and do business on our shores. Our success has been mixed at best, and only in recent years have tax and regulatory policies begun to favor the manufacturing sector

again. Our box business is dependent on a robust manufacturing base, so we have a vital interest in this message.

I do not know what situation we will be in by the time this column arrives in your hands, but let us hope that once this COVID-19 crisis is behind us, we can soberly assess the importance of a strong, sustainable, and North American manufacturing economy and say, “Bring manufacturing back!”

Eric Elgin is owner of Oklahoma Interpak and chairman of AICC’s Government Affairs subcommittee. He can be reached at 918-687-1681 or eric@okinterpak.com.

New Members

Welcome, New & Returning Members!

FOSTER PRINTING KRIS BLACKBURN Vice President of Sales 700 E. Alton Ave. Santa Ana, CA 92705 Phone: 714-731-2000 www.fosterprint.com ROXCEL CORPORATION CARLA BUFORD Sales Operations Specialist 1326 Haywood Rd. Suite 201 Greenville, SC 29615 Phone: 864-434-7616 www.roxcel.com

MY PRESS NEEDS LLC ROBERT WEIDHAAS Founder 3001 N. Rocky Point Drive E. Suite 200 Tampa, FL 33607 Phone: 856-728-5090 www.mypressneeds.com PACKAGING SERVICES INDUSTRIES BECKY KLINE Human Resources Manager 16461 Elliott Parkway Williamsport, MD 21795 Phone: 301-223-6200 www.psimd.com

ST. WORTH CONTAINER INC. CHRISTOPHER CAMARENO Chief Operating Officer 727 S. Wannamaker Ave. Ontario, CA 91761 Phone: 909-390-4550 www.stworth.com BALDWIN TECHNOLOGY DANIEL GILMAN Account Manager 40 Glendale Ave. Hinsdale, IL 60521 Phone: 773-896-6060 www.baldwintech.com

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BOXSCORE May/June 2020

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Members Meeting

Opportunities and Challenges for Corrugated in the E-Commerce Economy

BY STEVE YOUNG

E-Commerce: an Opportunity for Corrugated The sessions opened by offering a view of the total e-commerce economy and an outlook for its growth in the years ahead.

Ron Sasine, a principal in the consulting firm of Hudson Windsor LLP, presented a positive picture of a corrugated industry that, although 2019 saw its growth slacken from the previous three years, will continue to benefit from the growth in online retail sales. The caveat, he said, was that this benefit will be reserved for those companies in the industry with the “best assets and best operations.”

Every year, online sales capture a greater percentage of the $3.8 trillion U.S. retail sales market. According to Statista, in 2013, 6% of all retail sales were online; in 2019 the figure was 11%, or $546 billion, and by 2023 it is forecast to be nearly 14%, or $740 billion. Sasine reported that the e-commerce sales of major consumer packaged goods, or CPG, companies are growing at five times the rate of conventional retail sales and are expected to double by 2024.

Sasine predicted that online grocery sales would be a major driver in the demand for corrugated packaging. He made the case for this by showing how

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BOXSCORE May/June 2020

buying a book four times a year online from Amazon will result in the use of four five-panel corrugated folders.

On the other hand, online grocery purchases made through Amazon’s Pantry unit or from retailers such as Walmart or Target require several boxes every week for 52 weeks. Grocery items, Sasine said, are “bulky, inexpensive, and low-margin” and are not suitable to Amazon’s ship-in-own-container (SIOC) guidelines. As a result, Sasine predicted that as e-commerce sales grow, consumption of corrugated packaging will increase.

‘The Future of Amazon’ Disclosed Brent Lindberg, CEO of Fuseneo, gave an insightful presentation on “The Future of Amazon.” Fuseneo’s focus is to help clients improve their packaging, minimize unnecessary material consumption, and thereby better conform to the new rigors of the online sales platforms.

Amazon, the largest digitally native online sales platform, last year captured upward of 47% of all those online sales; its closest competitor, eBay, trailed at 6%.

Because Amazon dominates this market, it exerts the lion’s share of influence in setting new packaging guidelines for brands wishing to sell through its platform. These standards, also known as “frustration-free packaging,” include new requirements on design and ease of use, both for the online fulfillment and distribution system and for the end-use customer. Lindberg explained that Amazon’s standards look at packaging in three tiers; all three tiers consider the level of handling that must be done in

Spring Meeting Supplier Innovations are located at aiccbox.org/SI2020

Photos courtesy of AICC

A

ICC’s E-Commerce Xperience, which took place February 18–20 in Irving, Texas, brought together brand owners, packaging designers, converters, and suppliers for a comprehensive look at the e-commerce economy and how it will affect the corrugated industry. More than 150 AICC members and industry experts attended.

Ron Sasine of Hudson Windsor presented “The Future of Corrugated: Everything Depends on It” at AICC’s E-Commerce Xperience.

Amazon’s distribution centers and on the customer’s doorstep. Tier one requires that packaging products arriving at the customer’s door be curbside-recyclable where those programs exist. The second tier requires vendor products to SIOC (ship in own container). Neither tier one nor tier two requires any additional packaging modification, or “overboxing,”

by Amazon. Tier three products require some sort of preparation or overboxing to prevent damage or to allow oddsized items to ship more easily through the distribution system, and Amazon currently charges vendors up to $1.99 per

Members Meeting

Brent Lindberg of Fuseneo presented an overview of Amazon’s changing packaging requirements for products sold through their platform.

item for products that must be prepped for shipping in this way.

Lindberg told the AICC audience that Amazon is putting increasing pressure on brands to conform to Amazon’s packaging protocols by requiring International Safe Transit Association-6 (ISTA-6) SIOC test certification for items shipping in their own container. For those items requiring additional product preparation, brands are simply paying the per-item penalty. “They consider paying the Amazon penalties a cost of doing business,” Lindberg said, adding that it’s more difficult to retool their own packaging lines to meet the Amazon standards than it is to pay the penalties.

In the final analysis, Amazon is a data company, employing internal Amazon Serial Identification Numbers, or ASINs, to track every item through its fulfillment and distribution hubs.

Through this data collection, the company is fine-tuning its packaging guidelines to ensure smoother flow

through its automatic sorting and labeling lines. Through a series of illustrations, Lindberg showed how Amazon determines whether an item meets overboxing or SIOC requirements by using dimensions and product weight.

Amazon’s stated goal to become carbon neutral by 2030 means it continues to refine its packaging and shipping methods, utilizing lighter-weight flexible mailers and padded envelopes. While these moves will reduce the company’s corrugated consumption for many items, Lindberg said, corrugated packaging will continue to make up the largest portion of materials used in Amazon shipping. To blunt public criticism of “the box that’s too big,” Lindberg said, some brands are using the box as a way to “delight the customer.” He pointed to examples of brands that have used graphics to suggest that the box has utility beyond a shipping medium—a yoga mat or a child’s toy, for example—to shift consumer perception.

A Brand’s Perspective: What’s the E-Commerce Packaging Sweet Spot?

Jared Butts is senior manager of e-commerce supply chain for The Hershey Company. Butts’ presentation, “Understanding Packaging in E-Commerce Process,” focused on how major brands such as The Hershey Company view the various channels through which their product is sold, from retail to e-commerce platforms, and how the differing characteristics of these channels affect their packaging decisions.

Butts first defined e-commerce, saying that “e-commerce is the conversion of sales on online platforms,” distinguishing it from simply “digital,” meaning sales through online platforms, or “omnichannel,” meaning sales through direct and third-party online platforms and traditional retail stores. He further defined e-commerce as “an integral piece of the digital and omnichannel experience.”

Major consumer brands such as Hershey’s Kisses rely on such

BOXSCORE www.aiccbox.org

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Members Meeting

Jared Butts of The Hershey Company was one of several major brand owners talking about their packaging challenges in the e-commerce economy.

omnichannel sales, Butts said. The company has: its own website, hersheys. com, a business-to-consumer site; retail platforms in traditional retailers such as Target, Walmart, and Kroger; and thirdparty digitally native platforms such as Amazon and Candy.com. To meet packaging requirements of the major brands selling across e-commerce platforms, Butts set out four basic principles to govern e-commerce packaging: 1. Design: Keeping it simple, as most manufacturers are concerned first with cost.

2. Dimensions: Optimizing dimensions saves cost through the distribution and fulfillment system.

3. Dunnage: Don’t use plastic fill or foam peanuts, as the interim user may be in a fulfillment or distribution center.

4. Disposal: Is it easy for the consumer to break down and recycle?

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BOXSCORE May/June 2020

Ultimately, Butts said, it’s important for suppliers of packaging to end users whose products are being sold through e-commerce channels to understand the product—is it premium or not?—to understand the channel through which it’s sold, and to understand the nature of the distribution and fulfillment environment—whether the item requires special handling on the part of the e-commerce platform.

Understand the Stakeholders in Your Customer’s E-Commerce World Joe Fernandez is the senior packaging engineer for handbag maker Vera Bradley.

In this capacity, he manages the brand’s catalog of e-commerce and retail packaging, which deals with movement of the company’s goods in all stages of manufacturing and distribution. In his presentation to the E-Commerce Xperience audience, he addressed the packaging challenges brands

face and the kinds of design solutions that will appeal to internal stakeholders.

According to Fernandez, there are three principal stakeholders in major brands such as Vera Bradley: procurement, operations, and marketing. He described the procurement department as the “bridge to other stakeholders.”

While they are primarily cost-driven, they also are the receiving point for the stated needs of operations and marketing departments. As a result, Fernandez said, bringing cost-savings solutions—ones that reduce packaging materials or weight or can consolidate the number of various designs—is the best approach.

A brand’s operations department is the next stakeholder that packaging manufacturers need to reach. He focused on the new norms of online buying, such as two-day shipping and the rise of highly automated distribution centers. These new norms present opportunities for

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Members Meeting

well-designed packaging to “save seconds” in the fulfillment of each order. He also said that user-friendly box designs are important to workers in distribution and fulfillment centers. “A happy employee is part of your solution,” he said.

Finally, he touched on the brand’s marketing department and spelled out what keeps them up at night. First, “What do customers think of our brand?”

Second, “Is our design consistent?” And third, “How do we communicate the sustainability of our brand?” In answering these questions, Fernandez said that packaging that fits the brand in terms of shape, color, and quality are the principal design solutions that brands will look for. He said that social media presented special challenges in the rise of so-called “unboxing” videos in which brands are highlighted.

Fernandez caused a bit of controversy among the attendees at the E-Commerce Xperience by saying that Vera Bradley had done away with much of graphics associated with their e-commerce packaging, adding that the product itself is the focal point and that the company found no change in consumer buying habits when it reduced graphics and shipped the product in a plain box. After a spirited exchange on this question, he allowed that they may be open in the future to considering a change.

AICC’s E-Commerce Xperience is part of AICC’s annual “Xperience” series, which focuses on industry-specific issues and trends. Watch for more articles from AICC’s E-Commerce Xperience and other Xperience events in future issues of BoxScore.

Steve Young is AICC’s ambassador-at-large. He can be reached at 202-297-0583 or syoung@ aiccbox.org.

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BOXSCORE May/June 2020

Joe Fernandez of Vera Bradley told AICC’s audience that graphics are not a priority in their e-commerce packaging.

OTHER SPEAKERS, TOPICS AT AICC’S E-COMMERCE XPERIENCE AICC’s E-Commerce Xperience featured many more speakers and topics than those highlighted in this article. We will feature some of these in future editions of BoxScore and as new developments emerge in the e-commerce economy.

Thanks to the following members and guest speakers:

• Mark Mathes, Vanguard Packaging • Sarah Meiburg, Paper & Packaging Board • Tania Montesi, H.B. Fuller • Michael Pelletier, Scaling Operations LLC • George Perreira, Whitebird

• Miriam Brafman, Packlane

• Olivia Pietersen, The Packaging Co.

• Richard Brown, The Boxmaker

• Stephen Shannon, HP

• Abby Byland, Dusobox

• Robert Stabler, Koenig & Bauer Durst

• Paul Chambers, Subscription Trade Association • Lauren Frisch, Wasatch Container and Box Essentials

We are grateful to our sponsors & supporters: • Koenig & Bauer | Durst

• Jesse Genet, Lumi

• Poteet Printing Systems

• R. Andrew Hurley, Ph.D., Clemson University

• HP

• Lawrence Ingrassia, Henry Holt & Co.

• Huston Patterson

• Paul Jarrett, Bulu Box

• American Carton Company

• Richard Kelley, Dusobox

• Harris Packaging

• Liz Logue, EFI

• SUBTA, Subscription Trade Association

• Tilia Labs

Ask Ralph

Updating Educational Resources

BY RALPH YOUNG

Y

our Association never fails to bring new, relevant, and updated materials to help you be more successful. We also see this responsibility as speed to market, as we often have a heightened sense of urgency to keep the most pertinent information before you as soon as possible. This is our No. 1 priority.

Sources While the AICC staff offers many news feeds across a broad range of subjects and international markets for the AICC InBox newsletter, another resource you may want to pull up is www.aiccbox.org/ rules, which houses a list that summarizes the organizations and government entities that currently or in the future may have an impact upon your business. If you have anything to add, we would like to hear back from you.

Not that I am the gatekeeper, but with more than 100,000 hits and more than 350 followers, also look to the Ask Ralph blog resource as a key to open the network of fellow career experts on your behalf.

For example, we frequently receive inquiries about warp. The blog community is there to help you determine whether the warp issues you are experiencing are related to moisture, improper starch, starch application, stresses introduced into the liners during the corrugating process by the pulling sections, or cross-direction and machine-direction tensile strength differences induced in the liners at the paper mill.

During our Corrugated Packaging Essentials seminars, there is a short investigation segment into how to select the most cost-effective combinations of containerboards to engineer a 44 ECT.

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BOXSCORE May/June 2020

While we do not know how you currently choose the linerboards and mediums to produce this combined board grade, the margin gap from a more historical method to a more “balanced” method can be a difference of 25% in cost. Lately, we have seen that the most cost-effective method of constructing a 32# ECT minimum can be with a 29/26C/29 structure fibered with 100% OCC. What’s New? We have released the third edition of Understanding the Key Characteristics of Linerboard, avaialble at www.aiccbox. org/store, which focuses on obtaining the highest-quality linerboard and corrugating medium for the purchasing dollar. At the end is your opportunity to download a template page to use with your suppliers to compare characteristics of the containerboards in the marketplace.

You now have the option to evaluate your internal or external sheet and containerboard suppliers.

American Forest and Paper Association and TAPPI have been very cooperative at providing selective data for us for each of the three editions. We would labor in vain without their assistance.

In this revised third edition, the characteristics of 23# and below are delineated.

These grades and characteristics are from my personal resources, as the AF&PA does not collect data on these emerging elements of linerboard and medium production. However, these grades are available and are being used. Our goal is that this brochure will become a valuable resource to AICC Emerging Leaders and Leadership Development Groups.

Looking at e-commerce and digital printing, one may need to investigate

both the strength characteristics and the surface properties of these individual substrates. While digital ink transfer is relatively indifferent to surface smoothness, roughness, and hardness, nanotechnology is even more forgiving than today’s digital. We have two installations in North America, and more are expected. Sustainability has entered fiber-based packaging, and we are well equipped with options in choosing a variety of different containerboard combinations at different cost points to meet known packaging needs.

While not part of this particular document, we can usually answer your questions about greenhouse gases, ocean plastics, carbon sequestering, carbon footprint, and life cycle analysis.

Ralph Young is the principal of Alternative Paper Solutions and is AICC’s technical advisor.

Contact Ralph directly about technical issues that impact our industry at askralph@aiccbox.org.

Ask Tom

Blister Packaging, Part 1

BY TOM WEBER

G

o into any department store, grocery store, or convenience store across the globe—staying six feet apart and wearing a mask, of course— and one of the first things that will draw your eye is the products on display in blister packaging. You’re no doubt familiar with them: thin plastic bubbles mounted to highly decorated paperboard, designed to showcase the products they contain.

There are many reasons blister packaging is so popular. It is unparalleled

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BOXSCORE May/June 2020

at highlighting the enclosed product, often augmenting its contents with attention-grabbing design and colorful graphics. Blister packages put the actual product the consumer will buy in clear view at the point of purchase, helping to generate or confirm buying interest. For manufacturers, blister packaging can be a relatively simple and economical way to get products in front of consumers.

They can also help protect the product when it’s on display and when

it’s in transit. Consumer product manufacturers considering using blister packaging for their products should take into account a number of factors that can impact how effective the packaging will be, both from a marketing and an economic standpoint.

Here are a few considerations you’ll want to keep in mind when determining what kind of blister packaging and blister card composition may be right for your products.

Ask Tom

What Are the Main Types of Blister Packaging?

Blister packages encompass a wide range of packaging options for a host of products found in consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, and food-service applications, to name just a few. When it comes to consumer goods, there are four primary types of packaging: top-of-card or face seal, card-to-card (two pieces), fold-over card (one piece), and hinged blisters, commonly called “clamshells.”

For our purposes, we’ll focus on the two types that feature polyvinyl chloride (more commonly known as PVC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and recycled PET plastic blisters mounted to blister card stock: • Top-of-card. The card is printed and top-coated with a heat-seal adhesive, and the plastic blister is sealed to the print surface. This type of card is the original blister package configuration and has been used in many high-volume small-part packages.

The problem with this kind of blister card is the amount of manufacturing steps that may be required to coat the preprinted sheets.

• Card-to-card. Also known as frontand-back cards, these are blister packs that consist of two separate cards that are bonded together to sandwich the plastic blister flange between them. In

this process, the heat seal is applied to the paperboard on the paperboard’s backside, most of the time requiring a C2S type of blister stock to control the blister coating holdout to ensure adequate adhesion is maintained.

• Fold-over card. Fold-over card packages consist of a single longer card that is folded over at the midpoint to trap the plastic blister between the two sections. In this process, the heatseal blister coating is again applied to the backside using a C2S grade of blister paperboard.

• Hinged blisters. Hinged blisters are completely plastic and typically consist of one plastic blister folded over and are often heat-fused at the edge. They can be difficult to open, usually requiring a knife or a pair of scissors. While this resistance to opening may help reduce shoplifting at the point of purchase, it tends to also result in frustration as we consumers struggle to get them open. (There’s even a name for this frustration: “wrap rage.”)

For What Products Are Blister Packages Best Suited?

The versatility of blister packages makes them an appealing option for a very diverse array of products. They are particularly well suited to small higher-value

consumer goods, products that consumers want to visually examine.

Blister packages are also a great option for products that may have an unusual shape and thus are not good candidates for a folding carton package; plastic blisters can be formed into almost any shape, and blister cards allow them to be hung with a point-of-purchase display or racked for high-visibility display anywhere in the retail establishment, regardless of how asymmetrical the product may be. The rack or hanger holes are easily movable to determine the exact center of gravity of almost any product configuration, which also lends itself to an ease of use and display at the retail level.

As important as choosing the right blister package for the right product is choosing the best materials and coatings for blister packaging. In the next issue of BoxScore, I’ll break down these factors and even offer insight into recyclability and testing procedures associated with blister packaging, all to ensure the best possible utilization of this viable packaging option.

Tom Weber is president of WeberSource LLC and is AICC’s folding carton and rigid box technical advisor.

Contact Tom directly at asktom@aiccbox.org.

BOXSCORE www.aiccbox.org

19

Selling Today

Understanding the Length of Your Sales Cycle

BY TODD M. ZIELINSKI AND LISA BENSON

T

he sales cycle is undoubtedly one of the most critical metrics a company can measure. Without a clear picture of your sales cycle, accurately forecasting sales and growth becomes nearly impossible.

Many factors can impact the length of your sales cycle. Some impacts may be seen right away, such as those created by the current economy or new and competing technologies and products, while others occur over time, such as changes in the way people buy. It goes without saying that the length of the sales cycle can be fluid, and monitoring and measuring your sales cycle must be an active and ongoing process.

Process Is Imperative Even beyond the fluidity of it, the sales cycle is a complex creature. The first step to understanding your sales cycle is to have a clear process that your organization follows consistently. What are the steps in your sales cycle? How do you define the beginning of the sales cycle? Is it when you first enter it into your CRM, at first touch, or at some other point? Consider how your company treats potential leads. If you are dumping trade show leads or purchased lists into your CRM but you’re not doing anything with them, using “entry into CRM” as a starting point will skew your data.

A side note on using a CRM: You will find tracking your sales cycle becomes effortless when it is used consistently by the entire sales staff. Implementing a process that dictates that leads are entered into the CRM and followed through the sales pipeline will make tracking your

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BOXSCORE May/June 2020

sales cycle much easier. It will provide transparency and efficiency and allow salespeople to prioritize opportunities, potentially shortening the sales cycle.

Accurate Data and Expectations Many companies have an inaccurate perception of their sales cycles because they are not analyzing the data in a way that creates appropriate expectations. If your sales goals include closing large sales, make sure you’re looking at data from large sales.

Orders from current customers are typically the fastest to close. You’ve built relationships, they are familiar with you, and they are in your systems already. If included, these can make your new-business sales cycle appear artificially compressed.

Smaller and one-off sales will typically close faster than larger sales. However, if you are looking for six- or seven-figure repetitive deals, you will need to have patience and understand the process can be lengthy. Make sure you are comparing apples to apples.

If you are trying to understand how long your sales cycle is for new business that fits your target-market profile, look at those types of deals independently of others to get a true sense. Sometimes a really large deal will come out of nowhere and close quickly because the company had an immediate critical need. Those don’t happen regularly and should be considered anomalies.

Closing the Whales Takes Time Most companies are fishing for whales— those big six- or seven-figure accounts that repeat annually. Not only do these types of deals take time, but they also take work.

If you are new to an industry or territory, it will take time to educate the market. You will need to have a plan for doing this, which may include content creation, social media, inbound marketing, SEO efforts, outbound marketing, etc. If you have been tracking data, you should have a good idea of how many touches it will take to convert a lead.

nilox If you are trying to wedge out an existing vendor, you will have to do some digging to find cracks in the relationship.

What issues are they having with the current vendor? Is there an opportunity for you to relieve this pain? Even if you lose the first quote, keep trying. Sometimes, you may get a small job as a test, and you will have to prove yourself before you get the full opportunity.

From our experience, it takes an average of six to 12-plus months to convert new prospects for large brown-box orders and six to 18-plus for point-of-purchase display orders.

One key point is that there is a need for constant communication and scheduling of the next steps before ending a meeting with a prospect. For our packaging clients, it takes 15–20 touches (calls, emails, voicemails, direct mail) to get the first appointment, and it can easily take that long to get to the next step of the sales cycle if the next steps are not identified and scheduled before ending the initial meeting.

The key to accurately forecasting your sales and achieving the growth your company desires lies in understanding your sales cycle by having a process in place for it, ensuring your organization is consistent with using it, measuring key metrics, and most of all, having patience.

Todd M. Zielinski is managing director and CEO at Athena SWC LLC. He can be reached at 716-250-5547 or tzielinski@athenaswc.com.

Lisa Benson is senior marketing content consultant at Athena SWC LLC. She can be reached at lbenson@athenaswc.com.

BOXSCORE www.aiccbox.org

21

Tackling Trends

Things Change

BY JOHN CLARK

M

any new cars now come equipped with satellite GPS dashboards that show you the best route from point A to point B. For most of us, it is rarely necessary to turn it on, as we mostly drive the same routes all the time—to work, to school, to the store—normal places we go to again and again. Sometime for fun, punch in a destination and a route you have driven hundreds of times, and see the results.

Most times the optimum route selected by the navigation system takes you the way you always go. But every now and then, you find out there was a better route that you never knew about. Usually the time-savings would be minor and hardly worth noting. Occasionally, the new route is a real time-saver, but if you are like most people, you stay with what you know and avoid the change. We prefer what is familiar over change.

Today, everything has changed with the advent of the coronavirus. Nothing is familiar. Our lives are off-kilter.

Most everyone was caught flat-footed.

Few companies had contingency plans for a pandemic with no remedy in sight.

Schools are closed, businesses are shuttered, travel is disrupted or abandoned, and the phrase “social distancing” is now actually part of our lexicon.

World War II did not stop baseball.

This year, there is a very strong possibility that the full season may be called off.

Restaurants are closed, airplanes are nearly empty, colleges have dismissed early, and the American lifestyle has been altered beyond recognition.

Rethinking Your Business The packaging industry was granted a waiver by the federal government

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to continue operating its plants and producing products. It was deemed critical to the economy for the packaging companies to keep running for fear the entire economy would collapse without shipping containers.

The plants are producing, goods are flowing, but for how long? What happens if someone on your staff becomes infected? Working from home is a viable solution for many information workers, but there is no such option for the machine operators, mechanics, drivers, and dozens of other positions in a converting plant. You can’t take your rotary die cutter and work from home.

Those of us who have spent time in the plants and understand how things really work may have a different view of priorities as opposed to those who have to manage the bottom line. If the president of a company does not show up to work, his absence has minimal impact on the daily production. If his baler operator walks out of the plant, the company is paralyzed in a matter of hours. We have to reexamine and rethink the enterprise.

Cross-training, continuing education, seminars, and documentation are helpful in this regard, but there is no substitute for hands-on experience in every aspect of the business.

Every Marine a Rifleman The U.S. Marines are the pointed end of the sword when bad things happen. They are the among the most respected military services in the world. Every Marine, ranking from private to general is, at their core, a rifleman. They pride themselves on that capability. Regardless of rank or station, a Marine will do what is required.

If you work in the packaging industry, regardless of your position or job title, at your core, you are a boxmaker—and if you are not, you should learn.

Every member of the staff should know exactly what each machine’s purpose is and how it works. Each person in the office should spend time in the plant— working, not watching—to understand how the business and machinery work and how all the pieces come together.

Plant staff should spend time in the office to understand all the work that is done upfront, so that when the order hits the machines, everything is carefully defined and measured to ensure that every order runs perfectly.

And it sure would not hurt if some of the executives learned how to drive a forklift and work a second or third shift sometimes to hone their skills.

Keep the Troops Engaged Though modern machines are amazingly automated, your staff is not. They need to know they are important; they need to know that they are valued and respected. They need to know the sacrifice is shared among all members on the staff equally.

We all hope this pandemic ends soon. But the values of shared sacrifice, cross-department training, and management engagement on the factory floor should be values that continue far past our current challenges.

John Clark is director of analytics at Amtech Software. He can be reached at jclark@ amtechsoftware.com.

Andragogy

Investing in Your Future Is Wise

BY JULIE RICE SUGGS, PH.D.

From left: Kristy Marques, client services representative; Alain Mayhew, account manager; Tim Burgess, structural designer; Caroline Scholz, client services representative; Connie Murray, graphic designer; and Keith Rae, structural designer, pose in front of Moore Packaging’s Core Values Wall with their Packaging School certificates.

“I

am confident much will come from Julie, and investing in her future is wise.” This is one of the best endorsements I’ve seen for a student in a recommendation letter. R. Andrew Hurley, Ph.D., packaging science professor at Clemson University, co-founder of The Packaging School, and incidentally, my mentor, once used this in a reference for me. I have since copied the sentence in every recommendation letter I write for others.

Now working in the field of packaging education, I’ve often pondered the meaning of “investing in their future” from a company viewpoint. Of course, it means giving an applicant the chance to work at said company, but I think there’s a lot more to it than that. Getting the job is obviously the first step, but what about keeping the job and growing into the role?

“Tell me, and I forget. Teach me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I learn,” Benjamin Franklin once said.

Involving an employee in learning stems from a company’s desire to invest in their

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future—both the employee’s and the company’s. Employee training and development becomes the path for investing in that future. Let’s look at some of the ways this plays out.

Education is critical to growth, and online learning beyond traditional brick-and-mortar school walls is a great way to receive education in today’s world.

Research has shown that employee education can increase development and self-esteem. When employees feel like they are contributing to their company, they have a profound sense of value, which in turn boosts their confidence in the workplace. Likewise, it increases their productivity, adding vast benefits to a company. And education can help foster productivity by allowing employees to acquire a wider range of skills. If people learn best when they feel challenged and pushed out of their comfort zone to learn something new, don’t you think it’s a good idea to further their education?

Another benefit to investing in an employee’s ongoing education is a lower

turnover rate within the company.

Deloitte, a multinational professional services network, has done extensive research on this topic. They found that employees feel more empowered and appreciated when companies invest in them, thus increasing their loyalty to the company.

Not to mention the fact that hiring new employees is often more expensive than maintaining existing employees, even when investing in their training.

This type of putting-out-what-you-hopeto-get-back investment also helps stimulate opportunities for internal promotion.

Employees at AICC member companies can take advantage of more than 80 free online courses. As your human resources and training managers look at strategic planning initiatives for 2020 and beyond, have them visit www. aiccbox.org/packagingschool to start registering employees for any online course. Remember, training time counts for employee PPP hours.

Andragogy

Well-trained employees have a larger arsenal of knowledge, allowing them to efficiently cover more areas within the company. The value of internal promotion cannot be overstated—these emerging leaders are already familiar with the mission and culture of the company, so they get the ball rolling more quickly in their new role.

When Stephen Moore, director of corporate strategy at Moore Packaging in Ontario, Canada, received multiple requests for education at his company, he embraced the opportunity to invest in his employees. Moore understood that by working to educate his employees, he would be making them better fit to climb the company ladder and take on more leadership roles. Fortunately, as a member of AICC, education for Moore Packaging was right at their fingertips.

AICC’s partnership with The Packaging School allows for member companies and all their respective employees the value-add of training programs for free.

This program offers more than 80 online courses in both English and Spanish, all related to the packaging industry and the manufacturing environment.

Among these offerings is the Certificate of Packaging Science (CPS), a 12-course online curriculum that teaches the materials, processes, and influences shaping the advancement of the packaging industry. The capstone course brings the previous 11 courses together to create a holistic perspective with Packaging Design Workflow—a key process that requires empathy for all the preceding courses.

After completing all 12 CPS courses, AICC members are eligible for the CPS final exam, coordinated through The Packaging School. The resulting credential is registered, and framed certificates are sent to each earning graduate. This e-learning program provides relevant and comprehensive education on the global role of packaging in business and society.

For these online courses, a technique called microlearning is utilized to break

up difficult topics (corrugated board grades can get pretty tedious) and arrange them into bite-sized lessons for the learner to engage with on any device.

Lessons take the form of infographics, quick readings, videos, animations, discussions, and interactive slides. These unique delivery methods empower employees to complete courses on their schedule, at their own pace. Short, focused sessions can help avoid mental burnout and cater to adult learning styles.

All of it paves the way for the successful implementation of employee education and development—leading to the many benefits we’ve discussed here.

“Professional development is one of the core values of the company,” states Moore. Moore Packaging now has six CPS

graduates and is looking to build up its class of 2020. Moore Packaging thought it wise to invest in the future of its employees—will you be next?

Julie Rice Suggs, Ph.D., is academic director at The Packaging School. She can be reached at 330-7748542 or julie@ packagingschool.com.

Alli Keigley, who assisted with writing this article, is production coordinator at The Packaging School. She can be reached at alli@ packagingschool.com.

BOXSCORE www.aiccbox.org

25

Leadership

Situation Critical: Keep Your Head

BY SCOTT ELLIS, ED.D.

T

his is the first time, in my recollection, that the world has been at war against a common enemy in the form of a pandemic. Most people are quietly doing reasonable things and working for the health of family and community. There is also a noisier group investing in toilet tissue and losing their heads. My grandfather had hours of adventurous poetry committed to memory, and one that he often recited has come to mind this week. It is a verse by Rudyard Kipling that begins: If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you …

The poet went on to describe multiple situations in which presence of mind would win the day. He closed with these lines: If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And—which is more—you’ ll be a Man, my son!

Recalling those words, I am encouraged to keep my head, to plan for the worst

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and hope for the best. Most important is to keep the long view and our core values. We know that, at this point, doing the right thing to curb the spread of the virus will be detrimental to the economy.

And we need to do those things anyway, because we value family and community over prosperity. Confident that this is true, I trust that most remain committed to exiting this crisis stronger than we entered it.

The mixed blessing of busy-ness is that it can be an excuse for delaying focused improvement efforts and raising team members’ capabilities. At this writing, backlogs are full, but it is likely that our essential industry will be faced with idle time before this crisis runs its course.

Some will send workers home to reduce labor costs. In doing so, they may risk losing their hard-won employees to e-commerce fulfillment centers that are hiring workers to respond to increased demand. Others will speculatively pack warehouses to keep workers busy. Those who take the long view will redeem the idle time to do some things they have aspired to all along: They will grow their team’s effectiveness. Here are a

few activities that will help teams come back stronger.

1. Grow problem-solving capability.

Though many may be working from home, they can convene via online platforms for problem-solving and prevention. This may be the time to grow the quality process or get that food-safety certification. Assign cross-functional groups to develop solutions for your top five problems.

If possible, include your expert vendors (they’re lonely).

2. Map the order-entry process to get accurate information to manufacturing more quickly, and shorten the timeline from sales order (design request or estimate) to the production handoff. There is a Value Stream Mapping course on AICC’s Packaging School that will guide the team to map the current state of this process.

Then, they can create a desired future state and an action plan to remove delays, extra steps, and redundancies.

3. Practice changeovers. As any team drills on fundamentals, crews can

Leadership

be assigned to practice changeovers.

An e-learning from the Packaging School called Setup Reduction will show the way.

4. Implement cross-training.

While others are reducing head count, make employees even more valuable and adaptive through cross-training. Create a matrix for essential duties, and use those trained in multiple processes to reduce overtime and the negative impact of illness, vacations, training, and other absences. Consider a continuous run schedule even if shifts are consolidated.

5. Organize for success. Use the principles of 5S to make any administrative or production work center more effective. Make it easy to keep clean, orderly, and

safe. Make expectations and measures of productivity clear and visible. Remove obstacles, and be certain that the tools needed for the job are prepared and easily accessible. The Packaging School course for this is titled Create a Visual Workplace.

6. Assign an individual training plan for team members. Even those working from home can access e-learning in English and Spanish on a wide variety of packaging topics, including manufacturing, safety, leadership, process improvement, sales, and customer service.

Contact me for a custom training form and suggested courses.

Keep your head when those around you are losing theirs. Your presence of

mind is a safeguard against short-term gains and resulting pains. As Packaging School faculty, I am happy to work with you and the AICC staff to provide you with resources to come out of this crisis even stronger.

Scott Ellis, Ed.D., of Working Well provides the brutal facts with a kind and actionable delivery when a leader, a team, or a company needs an objective, data-based assessment of the current state of operations and culture.

Training, coaching, and resources develop the ability to eliminate obstacles and sustain more effective and profitable results. Working Well exists to get you unstuck and accelerate effective work. Scott can be reached at 425-985-8508 or scott@workingwell.bz.

BOXSCORE www.aiccbox.org

27

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Randy Banks Sharp International

757 650 9905 rbanks@sharp-international.com www. friese-rockwelle.de

INNOVATION Education and Development

No Travel Doesn’t Mean No Training

A

ICC began offering free online education to member companies through a partnership with The Packaging School in April 2017. During today’s unprecedented times, virtual training is more important than ever.

As of this writing, employees of AICC member companies have completed 2,876 courses and started an additional 1,646 courses. These courses represent 1,492 better-trained employees, $274,520 saved in training costs, and more than 1½ years of cumulative training time.

“Having the ability to continue training programs at a time of ‘social distancing’ through AICC’s online Packaging School is very powerful for member companies,” says AICC President Mike D’Angelo. “So much discussion today is about business continuity planning—education is another way to ensure the resiliency of your business, certainly in a prolonged crisis and as a matter of good practice.”

Nearly 80 courses are currently online, with more being released each

quarter. There are courses available for every department.

Brian Strauss, human resource specialist at Michigan City Paper Box Co., says, “Whether it’s requiring a new hire to watch—and pass—the Safety Basics course or asking management and office staff to enhance their skills by taking courses from leadership and production to finance and sales, Michigan City Paper Box Co. uses AICC’s Packaging School as a fundamental piece of our training.”

Several of the newest and soon-to-bereleased courses are through the support of AICC Education Investors—Fosber, BCM Inks, Sun Automation Group, Pamarco, JB Machinery, Printron, Absolute, Kruger, EFI, HP, Bobst, and Stafford Corrugated—that offer their time and expertise along with a financial commitment to create an online course in partnership with AICC and The Packaging School.

AICC, with the support of sponsors—EAM-Mosca of Mexico, Cartró S.A., Cajas de Cartón Sultana S.A. de

C.V., and Michigan City Paper Box—is continuing the process of translating more online courses into Spanish.

Learn more about online education at www.aiccbox.org/packagingschool.

BOXSCORE www.aiccbox.org

29

AICC Innovation

Relationship-Building

The Importance of Feeling Important

BY TOM MURPHY

W

encouraging. It’s why they announce each graduate’s name at commencement. Who is more likely to close the account they’ve been calling on, the salesperson who stubbornly insists to see the buyer or the one who greets the gatekeeper by name with a warm smile?

Birthdays and work anniversaries are also ripe opportunities to give your colleagues some unexpected recognition.

Whether they’ve been employed for two years or 20, to take the time to appreciate loyalty will have a resounding effect on morale, not to mention decrease turnover.

ho would have thought a self-help book published in 1936 would be on the Amazon bestseller list in 2020? The timeless classic, How to Win Friends and Influence People,

by Dale Carnegie should be required reading for anyone with a pulse. Despite being written well before the presence of baby boomers, Generation X, and millennials, its anecdotes and quirky tips outlining how to navigate personal relations are profound and shockingly relevant. Throughout the book, Carnegie tactfully educates the reader on key Listen and Be Interested principles to deal with people, creating “Good listener” should be a sought-after a how-to guide for becoming likeable, skill on résumés. People love to talk about agreeable, and a proficient motivator. themselves, and to listen intently is one of This ageless wisdom proves that even the highest forms of respect you can show. though the characteristics of generations Those in any type of sales understand the fundamentally change over time, there importance of maintaining relationships. are universal, unchanged elements to our Providing a quality product or service human nature: the desire to be important at a competitive price will put you and the craving to be appreciated. through the door, but the foundation of You don’t need to have a specific pera relationship starts when you can show sonality type or decades of experience to a genuine interest in the other person win someone’s affection. If great leaders, and their company. This applies outside motivators, and salespeople share one of the workplace as well. If you want to common trait, it’s their astute awareness be a great conversationalist, focus less of how they interact with others. I want on trying to be interesting and more on to share a few key principles from How being interested. Lend an ear whenever to Win Friends and Influence People you the opportunity presents itself, and wrap can work into your daily routine to your attention around the speaker. If make those you encounter feel important you can frequently give your undivided and appreciated. attention, you will quickly make yourself an invaluable business partner and friend.

Remember Names and Dates A simple and obvious way to build rapport is the ability to remember a name. Be Hearty in Your Approbation and Lavish in Your Praise A name is one of the few intangibles This is perhaps the most recognizable someone can truly claim ownership theme of Carnegie’s book. The following of. To hear your name is pleasant and

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BOXSCORE May/June 2020

quote illustrates the concept well: “Once I did bad, and that I heard ever. Twice I did good, but that I heard never.”

Constant criticism is great if you need to stymie ambition and hurt someone’s pride. Of course, this wouldn’t make you many friends and certainly wouldn’t earn you much respect among your employees.

Rather, sincerely praise any and every improvement. If a machine crew did a great job on a complicated order, let them know! Passing out gift cards or a gesture as simple as a handshake is a great way to show appreciation. A positive work attitude can be contagious, and nothing motivates more than having pride in one’s work.

The principles laid out in How to Win Friends and Influence People transcend generations, race, and sex. Whether you are a salesperson who struggles to move past the gatekeeper, are a millennial recently thrust into a leadership role, or want to reap the value from a networking event, if you incorporate some of the tried and true methods I presented, you will be on the path to winning friends and influencing people.

If you haven’t read Dale Carnegie’s book, I highly suggest you do—then pass it along to a friend for their next birthday.

Tom Murphy is director of marketing at Reliable Container Inc. He can be reached at 630-543-6131 or tom.murphy@ relcontainer.com.

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Member Profile

Washington Box

BY VIRGINIA HUMPHREY

COMPANY: Washington Box ESTABLISHED: April 1998 JOINED AICC: April 1999 PHONE: +52 81-1184-8231 WEBSITE: wabox.mx LOCATIONS: Monterrey, Mexico OWNERS: Humberto Trevino

H

umberto Trevino, president of Washington Box, a sheet plant in the industrial city of Monterrey, Mexico, had been under COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders for 13 days at the time of this writing. It was fitting in terms of timing, because it was during a time of turmoil 25 years ago that Trevino started in the paper industry and, soon after, his business.

From Banking to Boxes The boxmaking business was not a venture he ever imagined undertaking. Trevino worked in his family’s thriving financial services business straight out of college.

His path had been laid out for him, and he had no intention of straying from it.

But fate saw a different future for him.

On December 20, 1995, a day Trevino remembers well, newly inaugurated Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo announced the Mexican central bank’s devaluation of the peso. Soon after, the

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Mexican economy experienced 52% inflation, and several large Mexican banks collapsed amid widespread mortgage defaults. In short, it was not a good time to be in the financial services business.

Trevino soon found himself looking for a new job in the middle of a recession.

“In some places, they told me I was overqualified, and in others, there were hundreds of applications for one seat. It was like a nightmare,” Trevino says.

Finally, his perseverance paid off, and he was offered a position with General Electric. The job came with perks, including managing the company’s skybox at Texas Stadium, home of Trevino’s beloved Dallas Cowboys. But the entrepreneurial blood ran strong through Trevino’s veins, as he had also been considering starting his own business.

“I had the opportunity to be a very important executive with a large company, or I could start making boxes,” Trevino says. “I chose to make boxes.”

Humble Beginnings With just US$700 in capital, Trevino got to work. His first customer was Soriana, a popular Mexican grocery and department store chain. They needed a box that wasn’t available in Mexico, but in such a low quantity that importing them from the United States was not cost-effective.

Trevino told them what would become the company’s motto: “We can make it.”

Soriana approved the prototype, and after some tough negotiation with three of the Soriana sharks, Trevino had his first order for 700 custom-made boxes to be delivered each month. He just needed someone to help him make his boxes and a place in which to do it.

Trevino signed a lease on a tiny workspace—about the size of a small bedroom—and built some tables and bought a few knives, a lot of glue, and corrugated sheets. Then he hired a ragtag crew to work for him.

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“There were, at that time, 17 young guys and one ancient guy—85 years old,” Trevino says. “No one knew who brought him, but he arrived for work every day.”

Trevino grew his business solving problems as they came at him. One problem was trying to get the corrugated they needed. Because they required such small quantities, they had to piggyback on someone else’s order. That was too unreliable, so Trevino and his crew built their own first die-cutting machine.

As business increased, so did their need for more equipment. Trevino traveled through the U.S. Midwest, looking for a bargain on used equipment. Their first purchase was an old S&S letterpress built in the 1950s. “I had no idea how these machines worked or about inks,” Trevino says. “I had zero experience.”

Their customer just happened to stop by for a visit as they were taking their first box off their new machine, and the customer exclaimed, “Hey, is this the first time you were making a box or what?”

Trevino laughed and said that while he didn’t own up to it at the time, he did tell him many years later that yes, it was their first time—their first box ever made.

On Expansion Trevino’s son Patricio joined the business about 2½ years ago. He now leads operations, and Humberto has been reassigned to do what he does best—talking to the customers, coming up with innovative

ideas, and developing additional services to offer customers.

“It was pretty tough letting the young guys do things in a different way than how I had been doing them,” Trevino says. “But I finally understood that we need to do things differently if we want different results.”

And so far, those new ways of doing things are working out well for Washington Box. They have four factory buildings, a distribution center on the southernmost border with the U.S. in Matamoros, Mexico, and another distribution center in north central Mexico opening soon.

Trevino had hoped to announce the building of a new plant to consolidate all its operations. However, that plan has been put on hold while he concentrates on getting his business through the COVID-19 pandemic. As of late March, his plant was still operating, taking all the precautions to keep workers safe, but Trevino doesn’t know how much longer that will last.

But Trevino has not let up despite the shelter-in-place orders. He jokes he is working only a bit more than half days now—from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. So, what keeps him going during this time of crisis?

“I guess it’s in the blood,” he says. “I learned from my father. He worked every single day until the day he passed.”

For now, Trevino is focused on building the business for his family,

much as his father did. He hopes that sooner or later, the rest of his family will join the company. The doors are always open to them if they can add value to the business, help it grow, and make it stronger.

Investing in the Industry and the Future Besides running Washington Box, Trevino is on the board of directors of AICC and is a founding member of AICC México.

He is also a frequent speaker at different international forums in countries such as China, the U.S., Brazil, and Mexico, among others, on topics related to the box business and commercial trade among the nations.

But Trevino is not just focused on growing the business. He is also investing in the future by leading two foundations. One is a scholarship program that provides a dedicated mentor, funds for brilliant low-income students, and funds for those students to attend school. The other foundation supports a school for high-achieving students in a low-income town. That school is rated one of the top-10 schools in the country.

Virginia Humphrey is director of membership and marketing at AICC. She can be reached at 703-535-1383 or vhumphrey@aiccbox.org.

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT Humberto Trevino, president of Washington Box, says a significant milestone in his business was the day approximately three years ago when they purchased their first brand-new U.S.-made machine—a beautiful Baysek Air Logic die cutter.

“The first time I saw the Baysek, it was at SuperCorrExpo in Atlanta, and I was in love with that machine,” says Trevino. “For years, I would go back to the company’s booth at every show, and I was like a poor kid in a candy store looking for it. So, the machine got a nickname—Humberto’s girlfriend.”

Naturally, the Helbachs—David, Mark, and Heidi, who owned Baysek—were referred to as “the in-laws,” and they’ve been friends ever since. Trevino says that machine is an integral part of Washington Box operations and is used almost every day.

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BOXSCORE May/June 2020

REALITY SHOWS VR and AR technologies hold untapped potential for boxmakers and clients alike

By Robert Bittner

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irtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are having an impact across a wide range of products and services, from creating unique gaming environments dependent on specialty hardware to enhancing customers’ shopping experiences with nothing more than a smartphone. As these technologies grow, they provide an expanding range of opportunities for boxmakers—applications with the potential to enhance the customer relationship, create efficiencies within the package and display design process, and even streamline overall plant workflow.

Delivering the Wow At Bay Cities Packaging & Design, on-package AR is embraced as yet another way for their clients to connect with their customers interactively, to add a wow factor to select displays, and for brands to establish a connection with their customers at each point of contact.

QR codes—those small boxed graphics that look like an unfinished black-andwhite puzzle—have been the standard AR entry point for years, offering consumers a quick way to acquire additional product information or coupons by scanning the QR graphics with their smartphones or tablets. While Bay Cities still sees interest

in generic QR codes, many of their clients now have dedicated apps that, when pointed at on-package markers, bring AR experiences to life.

“There are a lot of things you can do with an AR experience,” says Nanneke Dinklo, senior director of marketing and branding for Bay Cities. “You can provide additional information, show more product features, offer coupons. Sometimes it’s just about the wow factor, giving people something they can post about on social media, something our client can put on their company website.

“We do this ourselves,” she continues.

“As a company we send out Christmas gifts to our customers, and we’ve used AR on the packaging. Our goal was to entertain them and give them a Christmas feel—with animated snowflakes and Christmas music—but also show them what you can do with this technology.

They loved it.”

Whenever possible, Bay Cities works not only to develop the packaging or displays bearing the AR markers but also to create the complete AR experience, believing that each element is critical to their clients’ success.

“The most important thing is to make sure it works,” Dinklo says, “that the on-package markers will actually open up

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“There are a lot of things you can do with an AR experience. … Sometimes it’s just about the wow factor, giving people something they can post about on social media, something our client can put on their company website.”

— Nanneke Dinklo, senior director of marketing and branding, Bay Cities

the experience. So we need to define the markers on the display or the packaging and then print that for the AR team so they can test it. If somebody wants to use their own agency to design the AR experience, then they still would need us to create the packaging or display to make sure the markers are working.”

Despite the proven appeal for clients and their customers, AR remains underutilized, Dinklo notes. “We still have to educate customers about it,” she says. “We do offer it as an option when someone comes in knowing they would like to add some interactivity but not necessarily knowing what that might be.

We work with them to understand what their pain points are, what they are trying to accomplish, and look at all the ways to help them reach and connect with their customer, including AR. But there’s still education to be done.

“This is still evolving technology. It’s not mainstream yet. I would say that the majority of customers don’t use it.

But when we do use it, it’s typically on bigger programs.”

Even so, Dinklo believes that AR eventually will become mainstream. “Over time, I think it will become something that more customers will start adding.”

Streamlining Design “People know these technologies are out there, but they don’t really understand them,” says Chuck Delaney, managing director of GROW Retail Technologies.

“They don’t automatically understand how they can help their business. So it’s up to

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us to tap into what they’re looking for and then guide them to the best solution.”

Delaney is particularly excited about the potential for AR to help streamline internal packaging and display design. At GROW, his team uses the AR-development app Augment. That app, in concert with a software package and workflow developed in-house by Jason Hayes, dubbed Dynamic Design, makes it possible to quickly create 3D renderings that then can be viewed in real-world settings using tablets and smartphones.

“There are a lot of building blocks involved in getting this up and running,” Delaney acknowledges. “But once you have the foundation, the results are really pretty cool.”

How cool? In one meeting, Delaney recalls being able to create a 3D image of a proposed new display for a client.

“Within less than 90 minutes, we were able to show him a display on screen that, based on his feedback, had adapted to his suggestions for additional product, more height, and greater impact. We could show him the measurements, explain the internal structure, and explore a variety of different graphics. With the help of AR you can eliminate a lot of the early questions.

“I know some people still see AR as a niche technology, with limited use.

In fact, I’d guess that less than 5% of boxmakers currently use it,” Delaney continues, noting that it tends to get used mostly for gamification on client packaging. “But I do believe it will go mainstream as the design side becomes

simpler and as design studios and universities produce graduates knowledgeable about it.”

Still, he notes that it does require an investment in resources, training, and possibly even additional staff. (According to Dinklo, Bay Cities takes an ad hoc approach to AR development, forming and disbanding teams of various sizes, as required, on a project-by-project basis.)

The question is: Do the benefits of building that foundation outweigh the costs?

“I’d ask any plant manager wondering about that to tell me what frustrates them when they start a new display program with an existing or new customer or the extension of a brand,” Delaney says.

“Chances are, the frustrating points could be reduced—if not eliminated altogether—by first designing that display in AR and getting your customers’ feedback at that point. You can design without cutting any corrugated or wasting your time going through about five iterations of something in order to get to this. It’s not unusual to go from initial meeting to a quote in 24 to 48 hours. So if you’re getting to the end result faster, it costs less, and it helps you grow your business, why wouldn’t you want to use it?”

For boxmakers interested in adding AR to their client-facing toolkit, Delaney recommends first using it internally before showing it off to customers. “Ensure that it can become a main part of your process internally,” he advises. “And then I’d suggest a pilot program with a couple of accounts you’re friendly with. Work out the bugs on the few. Then go to the next

type of pilot, expanding your base. Then launch it completely.”

Throughout the process, be patient. As with any new or unfamiliar technology, not everything will work flawlessly from the start. Not everyone on your team will have the same level of buy-in or comfort when it comes to using it. All of those challenges take time to address. “If you’re being careful and smart,” Delaney says, “the whole process is probably going to take you 2½ to three years. Don’t rush it. It takes time for people to become friendly with it and confident with it.”

Maximizing the Workflow Delaney’s clients can point an iPad at an in-store location and immediately see how a prototype display would fit the space, down to the shadow it will cast on the floor. Similarly, customers of online retailer Wayfair can select an item of furniture from the Wayfair website and, using just their smartphone or tablet, point their device at a location in their home to see what that furniture would look like in their actual environment. It seems a small step to go from those examples to using AR to visualize equipment on the plant floor—and then using those visualizations to explore the impact of adding or upgrading equipment or reconfiguring machines to improve workflow and overall efficiency. Yet, despite the apparent benefits, this is an AR application no one seems to be exploring.

“As far as I’m aware, I’ve not seen a supplier use AR with a customer to assess plant workflow or evaluate plant changes,” says Michael Harris, president of KPI Incorporated. He has, however, seen suppliers present a digital 2D layout and give clients VR glasses so they can explore it in some detail. But that approach will take you only so far.

“Machines are getting much longer,” Harris says. “It happens when you add more colors, and it happens because they’re getting faster, so they require

“There are a lot of building blocks involved in getting [AR] up and running.

But once you have the foundation, the results are really pretty cool.”

— Chuck Delaney, managing director, GROW Retail Technologies

additional material handling, both on the feed end and on the delivery side of the machine.” Using AR, a boxmaking plant could evaluate whether or not a big piece of new equipment can fit the space and how best to situate it.

“Plant managers could take into consideration things like overhead space and the locations of air ducts, air and water services, conduits, whatever,” Harris says. “Think too about the incredible expense involved in modern printing equipment. It just makes sense to know as much as possible about the equipment you’ll be using before you make a major commitment. 2D is fine for what it is, but if you’re looking at a layout in two dimensions, you run the risk of interferences that people didn’t catch. Having it in three dimensions lets everybody see what the actual reality will be.

“And if you’re building a new factory,” Harris continues, “you could take images of every piece of proposed equipment and lay them out in a variety of ways within the space to see if this machine really should lead to that machine or share space with this one. Maybe there’s a new workflow that would be more efficient than what you’ve been using or what has been typical in plants like yours. You’d have the opportunity to play around with that, test it, and find the potential pain points. Using a 3D layout should be how box plants are laid out in the future.”

Clearly, the technology already exists.

Every day, retail customers are using it to

figure out whether that coffee table they found online will look best next to their sofa or across the room. So why isn’t this technology being used when million-dollar equipment—not to mention the long-term operational efficiency of a box plant—might be at stake?

Harris believes the responsibility for implementing this kind of plant management-based AR rests with equipment manufacturers. “If you’re going to rely on digital images of equipment—based on complete, 360-degree scans—those images need to be created by and supplied by OEMs to their boxmaking customers,” he says. “Frankly, I think that represents too much of an investment for OEMs to take on right now. But as soon as the first supplier sees value in providing this to their customers, understanding that it makes it easier for boxmakers to do business, you’ll get a lot of [followers].”

“For corrugated, the time is now,” Harris says. “I’d encourage boxmakers to urge their suppliers to continue to innovate and come up with new ways of doing business.” By embracing the benefits of VR and AR themselves, boxmakers can continue to implement new tools for delivering engaging and effective products and services.

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

BOXSCORE www.aiccbox.org

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FOCUS ON SECURITY Five critical areas toward fostering a strong safety culture at your facility

By Dan Pascale, CPP

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hould I have a camera at every door?

Do I need a security officer greeting visitors? Should we conduct activeshooter drills? Do I need visitor badges, alarms, biometric scanners, background checks, crisis response teams? The answer is simple: maybe.

In our work across the country helping very small to very large corporations, government entities, and schools create a more secure workplace, we are often asked these questions. Changes in technology and the number of new products and systems coming to the market can quickly overwhelm leaders who are charged with fostering a reasonably safe and secure environment for employees, visitors, and company assets, while balancing operational needs and budgets.

We have found that sifting through the headlines and sales calls and understanding how to create a program that addresses the unique needs of your company is challenging and can seem so difficult that companies sometimes do not take any action. Even though they may realize that the loading dock door being left open and unmonitored is a vulnerability, it then begs the questions: How about the staff lunchroom exit or the vendor entrance?

If I secure the loading dock, don’t I have to secure those doors, too? How will I do that? Is it worth the expense?

The goal of this article is to reassure you that you can provide a secure workplace in a cost-effective manner that fits your operational needs and corporate culture.

“Being proactive and engaging in a regular process to evaluate plant security can reduce vulnerabilities, identify potential threats, and provide opportunities to prevent or mitigate loss.�

While no program can guarantee there will never be an incident in your workplace or that you will never suffer a loss, being proactive and engaging in a regular process to evaluate plant security can reduce vulnerabilities, identify potential threats, and provide opportunities to prevent or mitigate loss. And while there are many factors to consider, this article will provide five focus areas that will instantly help you understand your current security program and provide you with potential areas to address in the future.

1. Access Control 2. Visitor Management 3. Security Systems 4. Policies 5. Emergency Preparedness

Access Control Arguably, the most important aspect of your plant security program is how you address physical access and how you secure the facility both during and after hours for those who are not in production 24/7. You can accomplish this a number of ways. First, limit the number of

entrances to your facility. In most cases, there is no need for more than two points of entry: one for employees and office staff and another for visitors and vendors.

The primary employee and visitor entrance may need to remain unlocked during office hours to support operational needs. However, even if a reception position exists, in all cases there should be a secondary point of entry for staff.

Mechanical or electronic locks can prevent someone from rushing the door and keep out wanderers or perhaps a visitor who enters while no one is at the reception position. This helps to prevent unauthorized entry to both administrative areas and plant operations. While there are literally dozens of additional security systems such as cameras, alarms, and sensors that will complement your program, the first line of defense is detecting and delaying unauthorized entry to the facility.

Visitor Management Often confused with access control is visitor management. Essential to providing a secure workplace is controlling the

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movement of those you authorize to enter your facility. While there are countless ways to accomplish this, including human interaction or the use of automated visitor management programs, consider the following options: • Scheduling appointments with visitors and vendors.

• Host-meets-guest policy or escorting.

• Visitor badges that clearly identify the level of access and expiration of stay.

By controlling the movement of visitors and guests, you limit the opportunity for both foreseeable and unforeseeable challenges related to both safety and security.

It allows your employees to focus on their tasks rather than wondering who is walking through their workspace and hallways.

Visitor management and accountability are also important when investigating a reported problem, because the collection of visitor identification and record of their stay can help identify or potentially eliminate someone as a witness or victim.

Security Systems The use of electronic security systems continues to grow in popularity as advances in technology and lower costs make them an increasingly practical option. In most cases, security systems increase facility security, protecting our people and other assets at a lower cost than ever before. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to navigate the many systems and “best-in-class” promotions to identify what is most reasonable for your facility, culture, and budget. Whether security cameras, alarms, badging systems, gunshot detection, public address system—there is no shortage of options.

When looking at technology solutions, there are dozens of essential questions to ask before making an investment. Here are few to think about: • Does this product create a more secure environment, or is it “security theater”?

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• Has this product or technology been tested and proven?

• Will this integrate with current systems?

• Does the product require training of our staff?

• Who will be responsible for implementation and maintenance?

• What are recurring costs and life expectancy?

Security systems can help you manage your facility security program in a cost-efficient manner and augment the use of people to create a safer environment; however, it is important to be careful when making investments to ensure the product is reasonable, addresses a need or vulnerability, and is sustainable.

Policies Adding to the safety and security of your facility is having widely distributed policies that set the expectations for employees, visitors, and vendors. These can include simple policies, from wearing an employee identification badge or not propping doors open, to more complex policies such as reporting unacceptable behavior or establishing an active-threat response. Of course, to be effective, policies must be widely distributed, acknowledged, and most importantly, enforced. I consistently visit facilities covered in signs that read “do not leave door open” while I observe a brick propping the door open. While the use of door alarms and/or cameras can help management address these issues, it starts with establishing a policy and having a culture of security in which not only managers, but also peers are enforcing these policies.

Emergency Preparedness Finally, as we are all aware, it is incumbent on our leaders to plan, train, and exercise with employees. We know that

any number of emergencies can occur, ranging from a mechanical failure or structural collapse to a plant fire, explosion, or workplace violence. This broad set of scenarios dictates that you must first have emergency procedures for employees to follow, but you must also have an organizational plan that establishes how you respond as an organization and how you lead, organize, communicate, and ultimately recover to normal operations.

Realizing that security is not the core of your business, it is an integral part of your success. If you have concerns, or if you are hearing concerns or complaints from employees, conduct a self-assessment by examining the priority areas addressed here. In fact, even if you do not have concerns, conducting an annual self-assessment can help you identify new or unrealized gaps in your program. Address deficiencies by weighing the degree of organizational risk, and develop a timeline to implement changes. Assign someone to oversee progress and identify, where appropriate, changes required to policies, but be inclusive and ask for volunteers throughout the company to participate in the assessment.

Dan Pascale, CPP, is executive vice president of Margolis Healy and Associates and is a physical security and emergency management expert with more than 25 years of public and private experience.

Pascale was the featured speaker for a recent webinar, COVID-19 and Business Continuity (The Next 90 Days) Webinar. A recording of the webinar can be found at www. aiccbox.org/covid.

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A WORLDWIDE WHIRLWIND

Trade and pandemic concerns are among the greatest hindrances to the global supply chain

By Lin Grensing-Pophal

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COVID-19. But whether we’re talking number of these applications can be in ust a few short months ago as we the tens of thousands, so the waiting heralded the beginning of a new year tariffs or quarantines, there is only one certainty for the near future: uncertainty. period can be long—“and even then it is and new decade, it was unlikely that likely that the application will be denied.” anyone could have predicted the massive The trouble with tariffs is that there impact that a rogue virus would quickly Tariffs and Global Commerce are so many unknowns, such as how have on countries and companies around Maia Linask is an associate professor long they may be in place or when they the world. of economics at the University of might change. Despite these impacts By mid-March, global economies were Richmond Robins School of Business. and uncertainties, though, Paul Leclair, shutting down (Italy), and such iconic “The tariffs that the Trump adminisvice president and chief economist with destinations as Walt Disney World and tration has imposed on imports from Numera Analytics, says they represent various large Las Vegas casinos were also China have increased the cost of parts announcing indefinite closings. and finished goods sourced from China,” only a mild negative in terms of the impact on global trade. But, he adds: Prior to the emergence of a disease she says. A U.S. company must choose “The problem with tariffs is more the caused by a new strain of the coronaviwhether to pass that higher cost on to uncertainty that they create.” rus—COVID-19—manufacturers were consumers or not.”

The issue is that nobody can predict concerned about current trade situations, If tariffs are announced in advance, what may happen down the road. “If especially between the U.S. and China, U.S. firms try to stock up before the you put tariffs on China at 10% and and tariffs. The potential of a pandemic tariff goes into effect. That’s not always say it’s going to be that way for the hadn’t likely caught the attention of many, possible, though, Linask says, “due to next 30 years, that’s one thing, because but it has now. capacity constraints in China or limited everybody adapts to that and makes As of this writing, as transportation space on freighters.” decisions based on that knowledge,” and commerce are grinding to a close, While companies that import compoLeclair says. “But, if you’re imposing there are few issues that eclipse the focus nents or goods from China can petition tariffs but you don’t know as a business on the ongoing and ultimate impacts of for exclusions, Linask says that the sheer

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“The part I find most interesting is that corrugated has a great sustainability story. … If China doesn’t purchase discarded paper from the U.S. and turn [it] into new boxes, it will change the sustainability story.”

— Michelle Klieger, economist and tariff and trade expert if they’ll be around next year, or in six months, or if it’s going to get worse, all these unknowns create an uncertainty that causes businesses to pause in their investments, because they don’t have a clear view of what the rules of the game will be over a long enough period.”

Despite that uncertainty, Leclair says, he doesn’t predict things to heat up between now and the U.S. presidential election in November. “But, afterward, who knows?” he asks.

In the interim, though, manufacturers are being impacted by one of the side effects of U.S. trade restrictions on China: the ban on recovered fiber.

Recovered Fiber Ban China’s ban on recovered fiber represents another global supply chain issue that directly impacts the boxmaking industry, says Leclair. As a January article in Resource Recycling explains: “Recent actions by the Chinese government indicate the country will likely ban imports of OCC and almost all other fiber grades in 2021. Such a move would come in the wake of industry-shaking mixed paper and plastic prohibitions already in place.”

The piece goes on to share some statistics on the potential impact of the ban. “According to a Resource Recycling analysis of data from China’s General Administration of Customs, in 2016, before China’s import ban, the country brought in roughly 31.4 million short

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tons of recovered fiber. [In 2019], through October, just 9.8 million short tons have been imported into China.”

Michelle Klieger is an economist and a tariff and trade expert; she’s the author of The Demise of Free Trade: The U.S.-China Trade War Explained. The ban, says Klieger, was in direct response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs. “The corrugated industry did not get pulled into the trade war until last year,” she says.

“In response to Trump’s tariffs, China put countertariffs on recyclable products like scrap metals, copper waste, recovered fibers, and paper pulp.”

This has made it more expensive for Chinese companies to import these products, she continues. “After the tariffs went into effect, Chinese purchases declined by one-third.”

Two things have happened since then, Klieger says: • Municipalities have stopped collecting corrugated and paperboard. “It’s too expensive to recycle it, so many places have stopped,” she says.

• Chinese companies have purchased U.S. paper mills so they can produce corrugated and paperboard in the United States and avoid the tariffs altogether.

“I assume these changes will drive up costs or impact quality,” Klieger says. “The part I find most interesting is that corrugated and paperboard has a

great sustainability story. It’s paper and recyclable and reused. If China doesn’t purchase discarded paper from the U.S. and turn [it] into new boxes, it will change the sustainability story.”

But while impactful, issues related to tariffs and the recovered fiber ban are taking a backseat to the most recent concern looming over manufacturers and virtually every other business in any industry around the globe: COVID-19.

COVID-19 and Other Pandemic Concerns First detected in China and now impacting the rest of the world, including the U.S., the virus called SARS-CoV-2 and the disease it causes—COVID-19 —became a public health emergency of international concern in late January, according to the CDC. On March 13, Trump declared COVID-19 a national emergency as schools and other organizations around the country began to feel its impact and the uncertainty related to the best actions to take to protect the public— and their bottom lines.

In February, Pierre Haren and David Simchi-Levi wrote an article for Harvard Business Review titled “How Coronavirus Could Impact the Global Supply Chain

by Mid-March.” “We predict that the peak of the impact of COVID-19 on global supply chains will occur in midMarch, forcing thousands of companies to throttle down or temporarily shut assembly and manufacturing plants in the U.S. and Europe,” the article says. “The most vulnerable companies are those which rely heavily or solely on factories in China for parts and materials. The activity of Chinese manufacturing plants has fallen in the past month and is expected to remain depressed for months.”

It was the middle of March as of this writing, and some of these predictions are beginning to take shape.

Leclair says COVID-19 is the most pressing global trade issue right now.

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“That’s really because it’s basically shutting down the manufacturing industry in China, or part of it,” he says. China is so critical to the global supply chain “because there’s hardly anything you can touch today that doesn’t contain something that comes from China; it’s obviously a key cog in the whole process.”

Chinese authorities, he says, “want to make sure that there’s no second peak in the coronavirus outbreak.”

While short-term travel bans are not likely to cause much disruption in existing supply relationships, says Linask, “as workers are prohibited from returning to work in China in order to control the outbreak, output stalls, and U.S. firms may be faced with a shortage of parts.”

Analytics company Dun & Bradstreet has taken a look at the potential economic impact of COVID-19 on a worldwide basis. Much of that impact has been in the manufacturing realm, according to the report: “Manufacturers are struggling

“There’s hardly anything you can touch today that doesn’t contain something that comes from China; it’s obviously a key cog in the whole process.”

— Paul Leclair, vice president and chief economist, Numera Analytics

to get raw materials to their facilities and product to customers. In addition, many manufacturers will have to delay reopening of their facilities because of quarantines and travel delays detaining workers.”

The report offers some recommendations for manufacturers on how to protect their supply chains in the near and long term:

Near Term • Develop a risk-based assessment to identify and continuously

monitor risks that impact supply chain productivity.

• Assess your suppliers to ensure they will not negatively impact your business.

• Monitor identified risks to ensure a complete and ongoing view of the supply chain and its risks.

• Identify potential alternative suppliers.

Long Term • Build policies and contingency plans geographically.

• Test and revise strategies to address growth and environmental changes.

In Closing The three major forces that Leclair points to—the recovered-fiber ban, tariffs, and the impacts of COVID-19—are issues that manufacturers have no control over, he says. “These factors are basically things that they have to deal with and adapt to.” For now, he says, what that involves is cutting back on earnings forecasts.

Beyond that, for most manufacturers, it’s a wait-and-see environment as they consider ways to source and distribute goods with the least possible impact on their organizations, employees, and customers.

Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Wisconsin-based freelance writer and a frequent BoxScore contributor.

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BOXSCORE May/June 2020

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The Associate Advantage

Attention to Detail

BY JOE MORELLI

JOE MORELLI HUSTON PATTERSON PRINTERS VICE CHAIRMAN JMORELLI@HUSTONPATTERSON.COM

PAT SZANY AMERICAN CORRUGATED MACHINE CORP. CHAIRMAN PSZANY@ACM-CORP.COM

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DAVE BURGESS JB MACHINERY IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIRMAN DBURGESS@JBMACHINERY.COM

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BOXSCORE May/June 2020

I

n 1999, the New England Patriots were considered by some to be one of the most laughable franchises in NFL history. In 2000, the Patriots hired Bill Belichick as general manager and head coach, and under his direction, they have won 17 division titles, nine conference championships, and six Super Bowl titles.

The dramatic change in direction for the Patriots was due to numerous factors—people behind the scenes, hard work, players, stable ownership, just to name a few. One of Belichick’s most notable characteristics, though, is his attention to detail. Hall of Fame quarterback Phil Simms, who played for Belichick when the two were with the New York Giants, is noted as saying, “His dedication and attention to detail are unbelievable.” Belichick himself famously answered when asked about preparing his team, “More important than the will to win is the will to prepare to win.”

AICC Associate members are always looking for ways to differentiate ourselves from our competitors. Today’s large-format package print industry is very competitive. As we have evolved over the years, numerous factors have contributed to our success—stable and committed ownership, skilled employees, and hard work, just to name a few. If you look deeper, though, one characteristic that should stand out as a key contributor of growth for many companies is attention to detail At Huston Patterson in 2007, we established the Robert G. Kowa Theatre as the centerpiece of our training academy.

There, we host ongoing seminars for our employees on not just their specific department within the company, but also on other departments. Along with the continuing education on the print industry, we also bring in speakers from the corrugated

industry to give our employees a big-picture idea of what happens to our product after it leaves our facility. We believe strongly that giving our employees this platform to succeed will ultimately impact the overall quality of craftsmanship in our shop in a positive way.You can never underestimate the value of internal training and education.

Within our sales team, we place a huge emphasis on the preparation it takes to grow our book of business. Gone are the days of walking cold into a prospective client’s office and hoping to get a meeting.

A much more analytic and, quite frankly, challenging approach to sales is upon us.

Researching, pre-qualifying, and ultimately providing an avenue for success should be daily expectations for client services managers (or the equivalent on your staff).

Together, set specific goals for them to succeed and discuss how to make the goals a reality. I heard a quote that applies to sales growth: “A goal without a plan is a wish.”

We, as representatives of our respective companies, get asked often what distinguishes ourselves from our competitors.

The cliché answer I often hear is service.

It is true, but if you peel back the layers to the word “service,” it should mean so much more. The attention to detail within the service, the preparation that has gone into the service, the delicate execution of the service—those are the things that make you stand out. We all should be committed to that type of attention to detail to succeed and should follow the words Belichick is so famously quoted as saying: “We are committed to the preparation it takes to succeed.”

Joe Morelli is vice president of sales and marketing for Huston Patterson Printers and is vice chairman of AICC’s Associate board.

STRONGER TOGETHER As we navigate this crisis, we are here for you.

The COVID-19 Coronavirus has challenged all of us. At TAPPI and AICC, we share in your concerns and remain committed to our industry and to the health and well-being of our members, volunteers, staff and exhibitors. All of which is why we made the difficult decision to reschedule SuperCorrExpoÂŽ and focus on the future.

Announcing

August 8-12, 2021 • Orlando, FL USA Visit supercorrexpo.org for details #StrongerTogether

What the Tech?

The Need for Anti-viral Packaging

BY MICHAEL HARRIS

A

ccording to a laboratory experiment, HCoVid-19 can live on a ‘cardboard’ box for up to 24 hours, and SARS-CoV-1 will survive half of that time. The same research reported that the virus can survive for up to 72 hours on polypropylene plastic. The research, conducted by the National Institute of Health in a Hamilton, Montana, laboratory, outlines that enough of the virus can remain viable to establish a culture in a petri dish. However, more information is needed to determine what level of infectious dosage is required to infect a human from surface contact.

If you think about it, a potential host will have to touch a contaminated surface, while the virus is still living, and transfer the virus to a mucous membrane. Seems improbable—yet very possible—if you think about how a box is transferred from person to person.

There are not too many ways to pick up and carry a box from your doorstep to your kitchen counter. The chances of picking up a box the exact same way as the delivery driver pulled the box out of the truck are very high. Common sense would tell you that the top of the box is the side that could be coughed or sneezed on—and perhaps the most common side that the consumer opens.

The fallout from this pandemic has left us with more questions than answers.

What is it about a corrugated shipping carton that causes a virus to die off at a rate that is three times faster than on a plastic container? What can be done to accelerate the rate at which the virus dies on a boxboard surface? Are there surface coatings or starch additives to make a virus die off more quickly? What packaging designs should be avoided?

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According to a University of Minnesota study, avian respiratory “viruses survived longer on nonporous surfaces than on porous ones.” Does this mean that some paper grades are more virus-resistant? Do digitally printed surfaces repel viruses better than litho? All these questions need to be answered because the consumer has been reading articles such as the one titled “Here’s how long the coronavirus can live in the air and on packages.”

When dealing with invisible threats, we must rely on scientific research to determine what this means to boxmakers.

Who is going to do this research? Who is going to put together the committee to select what substrates should be examined?

A hallmark staple to the corrugated carton is the Mullen-Rated Box Maker’s Certificate showing the structural integrity of the box. This isn’t required by law, but it does give proof that the box has been properly tested and rated as sold.

Required by law are Safety Data Sheets, or SDSs, to inform our employees about the hazards and precautions needed when handling certain products within our factories.

In the future, could there be a certificate showing the anti-microbial and anti-viral rating of the box? Perhaps a “keeping people informed” rating for the carton? The rating system would alert box handlers and consumers about the hazards that exist or the precautions needed when handling cartons.

We are all stakeholders in the corrugated shipping carton industry. The only thing that would take the place of a box is a disruptive technology. We all witnessed the digital print transformation that unsettled the litho-laminating market.

Should we simply advise our customers to use a 60% alcohol solution to spray down their boxes, or should we innovate and research our own way to develop methods of protecting the consumer? Do you think Amazon is looking into this right now? What are you going to do to ensure the future of corrugated packaging?

Michael Harris is president of KPI Incorporated. He can be reached at 317-797-9898 or mharris@ kpiincorporated.com.

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Strength in Numbers

Recession Planning 101

BY MITCH KLINGHER

I

t is now time for all businesses to make the tough decisions that could impact their futures greatly. There are many hazards and some potential opportunities that a significant downturn in the economy present to small and medium-sized businesses, and the decisions that you make now can give you a big boost going forward.

The following are a couple of the basic principles associated with recession planning: • Cash is king. Notwithstanding all that the Federal Reserve is doing to inject funds into the banking system, liquidity is always the biggest danger in a recession. Operating losses will hurt you in the long run, but the inability to meet a payroll or obtain supply of key materials will put you out of business immediately.

• Bad debts due to bankruptcies and other insolvency proceedings are a triple disaster.

• Consider right-sizing your company under the cover of a recession.

• Recessions are usually a bargain hunter’s delight.

• You should be firming up your lending relationships and borrowing money that you need before the credit markets are closed for business.

• When the economy is bad, it’s usually a good move to show some love to your key suppliers and employees.

• Recessions are a time for serious introspection, updating strategic objectives, reviewing tactical and operating plans, and updating organizational goals and objectives.

• And for those of you with strong balance sheets and minimal or no operating losses, this could be the best

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time to go on offense: new equipment, new marketing programs, new lines of business, and anything else that was on your wish list.

Let’s take a little deeper dive into some of these bullet points.

Building Up Cash Reserves Having a lot of liquidity when those around you are starved for cash can give you an advantage in many ways.

Conversely, not having enough cash during a serious downturn can be fatal to your business. My advice is to build up your cash reserves as soon as possible, while you are still able to do it. Current conditions have given most converters some new ways to build up cash: • Recent legislation allows you to postpone paying the employer share of FICA tax until January with no penalty, so for every $100,000 of payroll, you can delay paying $7,650 in payroll taxes. Depending on the size of your company, this can be a pretty tidy sum.

• The Federal Reserve has instructed banks to agree to forbear collecting debt payments for a few months, which can also be a significant amount of money.

• Consider drawing down on credit lines now, because it may be difficult to draw down on them a few months from now.

• Talk to venders about extending the term for early payment discounts.

• Recent tax legislation also allows you to defer the payment of certain retirement obligations.

The ‘Triple Threat’ of Bad Debts 1. First, you will lose the balance that you are carrying in accounts receivable.

2. It is likely that whatever inventory you have on the floor for that customer will be worthless.

3. You may be the subject of a “preference” action, whereby you will be sued under the authority of the bankruptcy court for all of the payments that you received from the debtor for the 90 days prior to their filing for bankruptcy. You will have to defend against these actions, which means hiring an attorney and making sure that you have defenses against these actions. I can tell from experience as a former trustee in a bankruptcy case, most of you won’t be able to

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For more information, contact Mike D’Angelo, President, 703.535.1386 or mdangelo@aiccbox.org.

Strength in Numbers

defend your actions, because the payment of old invoices—outside of normal terms—in and of itself is a preferential payment. That is because not all of the other creditors received payments against their old invoices. This is the time to start managing this process and to make sure that the bills these customers pay are either within normal terms or on a cash-on-delivery basis.

Because of this “triple threat,” you all need to be very careful with how you make credit decisions, manage inventory levels, and apply cash received from customers on account of older invoices.

Right-Size Your Company Now Many of you have accumulated employees over the years who have become less than effective, but you have kept them on out of a sense of loyalty or fear of some sort of wrongful termination action. You need to be careful here and check with your HR professionals and possibly outside employment counsel, but reorganizing your business in a recession by changing head counts, eliminating positions, and revamping departments during a recession is hard for anyone to challenge.

Bargain Hunting Assuming that you have built up sufficient cash reserves, there should be a lot of situations out there in which the offer of a quick cash payment for inventory, supplies, equipment, etc. will get you a substantially better deal, and during recessionary times, you may find a lot of distressed situations that you can benefit from.

Lending Relationships For the past few weeks, most of my clients and friends in the converting business have been focused on obtaining Paycheck Protection loans under the newly enacted Small Business Administration program.

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One interesting takeaway from this process, for me, has been that many of you are simply with the wrong banks. Some of you bank with very small local banks that don’t have the proper resources for companies of your size. Many of you are with very large national and international banks that claim that they cater to the middle market, but they are not nearly as interested in your situation as they should be. This is a time to evaluate these types of relationships and either shore them up or change them.

This is also the time to evaluate whether your borrowings are structured correctly.

A lot of converters feel that bank debt on their balance sheet is a negative, and they avoid it as much as possible. Many others have way too much short-term debt with floating interest rates and short-term maturity dates. This must all be reevaluated as soon as possible to make sure that you minimize the risk of a general tightening in bank credit and maximize the opportunities that may be available during a significant business downturn.

Show Some Love This is the time to meet with all of your key people—vendors, customers, employees, consultants, etc. Find out how they are doing and what you can do to help them. When times are tough, people will remember a kind word, or more importantly a kind deed, from a friend.

If a supplier is hurting, offer to speed up cash payments. If employees are in trouble, offer advances on year-end bonuses or loans, and try to help them work out their problems. Recession planning generally involves cutting everything but the kitchen sink, but remembering the human side of this equation will often be more beneficial in the long run.

Time to Update Your Planning Strategic plans need to be updated as soon as possible in view of significantly changing times. Are there initiatives

that need to be stopped or started?

Operational goals need to be reset in light of the “new normal.” You need to get your key people together and prepare budgets based upon how your company looks under various scenarios with smaller sales levels and possibly reduced margins. Yes, you will likely have to cut costs, but you need to reengineer your operation in an orderly fashion with minimum panic. Get this process started immediately.

Don’t Just Play Defense Once you have your planning done, have right-sized your business, and have straightened out your balance sheet, banking, and other key relationships, it’s time to have some fun. If you can keep your wits about you while everyone else is panicking, you will come out of the recession much stronger than when you entered it. Weaker competitors may need an exit strategy, equipment vendors may have equipment that they have taken deposits on that can no longer be sold to the customer, and talented people may be looking for a better situation. If you are strong and have a good plan going into this, you may be able to improve your overall situation greatly.

The best thing that happened to small and medium-sized businesses was the recession in 2008. Those of you who survived came out of it much stronger, because you were able to cut all the fat out of your operations. The looming recession can also be a great opportunity to those of you who plan for it properly. Safeguard your key assets, and get your business planning into high gear. Most of all, stay safe during these challenging times.

Mitch Klingher is a partner at Klingher Nadler LLP. He can be reached at 201-731-3025 or mitch@ klinghernadler.com.

Thank You Emerging Leader Supporters

These companies are contributing to the future of the industry through the AICC Emerging Leader Program.

The AICC Emerging Leaders program is an exclusive series of training, networking, and leadership opportunities for ambitious young professionals in the paper and packaging industry. With the opportunities and information available in the Emerging Leaders (EL) program, young professionals who are ready to commit to their professional development will have the chance to grow into proven, reliable future leaders in their company and industry.

For more information, contact Scott Ellis at leaders@aiccbox.org.

AICCbox.org/Leader

When You Invest & Engage, AICC Delivers Success.

International Corrugated Packaging Foundation I N T E R N AT I O N A L

PACKAGING

CORRUGATED

F O U N D AT I O N

2020 Teleconference Promotes Corrugated Packaging Careers on 20 University Campuses Photos courtesy of ICPF.

O

n February 27, ICPF conducted its annual Teleconference on the Business of Corrugated Packaging & Displays and the Career Opportunities. Over 500 packaging science, marketing and sales, supply chain management, packaging and graphic design, business, chemical engineering, and other students and faculty on 20 college campuses participated.

After their presentation, industry panel speakers Bryan Hollenbach, executive vice president at Green Bay Packaging, Rich Ford, regional manager at Packaging Corp. of America, as well as student moderator Erin Wilson, Virginia Tech packaging systems and design ’20 (and former ICPF, AICC, Pratt Industries, and Buckeye Corrugated Inc. student intern), addressed live questions from students on each of the 20 campuses.

Participating campuses included Appalachian State University, Ball State University, Bowling Green State University, California Polytechnic State University, Clemson University, Dunwoody College of Technology,

Over 100 Michigan State University students, as well as more than 400 additional students from 19 remote campuses, participated in the February 27 Teleconference on the Business of Corrugated Packaging & Displays and the Career Opportunities.

Indiana State University, Illinois State University, Lewis-Clark State College, Michigan State University, Millersville University, North Carolina A&T University, North Carolina State University, Pittsburg State University, Rutgers University, the

University of Florida, the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of Wisconsin–Stout, Virginia Tech, and Western Michigan University.

Visit www.careersincorrugated.org to view the video of the 2020 Teleconference broadcast.

ICPF Assists Universities in Remote Teaching During Pandemic Restrictions

T

hroughout this past March and April, ICPF assisted its 27 partner universities in transitioning to remote teaching utilizing ICPF’s corrugated curricula online. Through the support of

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BOXSCORE May/June 2020

packaging design software manufacturers, ICPF also worked with faculty to configure systems to allow students remote access to their university’s centralized packaging design software from home.

Software access prior to the pandemic was through the utilization of university computers that are specifically assigned to each campus design lab.

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International Corrugated Packaging Foundation I N T E R N AT I O N A L

PACKAGING

CORRUGATED

F O U N D AT I O N

Student/Executive Corrugated Packaging Dialogue Dinner

T

he evening before the February Teleconference, 31 top students from ICPF’s partner universities around the country joined visiting corrugated packaging executives in East Lansing, Michigan, for ICPF’s Student/Executive Corrugated Packaging Dialogue Dinner. Students from seven universities were nominated by faculty after demonstrating excellence in their course work and an interest in corrugated packaging careers. The students were joined by executives from Green Bay Packaging, Greif, Packaging Corp. of America, Tavens Packaging, BW Papersystems, Pratt Industries, and WestRock. Since the February 26 dinner, several students have indicated that they already have received offers from the corrugated packaging companies that participated. The résumés of the 31 students, along with those of over 200 additional students seeking a career in

During the Student/Executive Corrugated Packaging Dialogue Dinner, Bowling Green State University, Clemson University, University of Florida, Michigan State University (MSU), Rutgers University, University of Wisconsin–Stout, and Virginia Tech students voiced interest in sales, production, and design. Fourteen students, pictured at the following day's breakfast, were provided ICPF travel grants to attend the dinner. Visiting students joined the more than 100 MSU students in the public television broadcast auditorium to view ICPF's Teleconference. Over the past six years, many of the students who have participated in each of ICPF’s dialogue dinners have been directly hired by ICPF Corporate Partners.

corrugated packaging, are accessible to ICPF Corporate Partners by visiting the Résumé Bank on ICPF’s Career Portal.

It is an extensive resource of quality candidates for your hiring needs in 2020 and beyond.

New ICPF Corrugated Packaging Experience Center Video

T

o provide student teleconference participants a unique learning experience in the latest testing and virtual reality technology found among today’s corrugated packaging manufacturers, ICPF recently partnered with Smurfit Kappa (SK). We wish to thank SK executives, trainees, and interns for producing

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BOXSCORE May/June 2020

the four-minute video for ICPF’s 2020 Teleconference. The SK/ICPF video presented SK’s Dallas Experience Center as an example of the technology found among corrugated manufacturing companies throughout the country. To view the video, visit the 2020 Teleconference link posted on www.careersincorrugated.org.

Richard Flaherty is president of the International Corrugated Packaging Foundation.

The Final Score

Our Teams, Our Strength

“M

y head is spinning.” I must have received more than 50 emails in the past month that included that phrase or something similar. Phone calls, too. COVID-19 has created such a period of uncertainty, and AICC members want to know the latest, share what they’ve learned, and interact with their friends and colleagues. Multiple government agencies have come out with a dizzying number of orders, limitations, programs, and directives. Some of these change from day to day, and there is no end in sight.

AICC’s great staff has responded by creating forums and new media to bring our member companies together in ways we had never before been considered. Canceling the Spring Meeting and postponing SuperCorrExpo to August 2021 are unprecedented decisions that had to necessarily be taken. Videoconferencing with nearly 400 AICC members attending is certainly a new experience, as are AICC webinars with more than 150 attendees. Effective as they are for providing vital information, they will never replace what former AICC President Steve Young has so accurately termed the “handshake” nature of our business.

I have a favorite saying that I use from time to time: Know Your Why. We know our why—it’s you.

We have to tip our hats to AICC’s member companies. You are essential businesses—shockingly, it takes a state to declare you so— that have magnificently responded to the demands on supply chains brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. I have seen and heard firsthand the concern that you have for your employees, your customers, your business partners, and each other. We have to tip our hats to the employees who show up for work on the production lines that keep everything going. We have to tip our hats also to their office colleagues, who have to navigate through challenges that come from working out of a home office that doubles as the kitchen table, with the kids in the next room. Graphic Packaging, although an integrated company, posted an image on social media with the following message that, I believe, encapsulates what the independent converter and their suppliers have done and are doing: “Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear hairnets and safety glasses—the dedicated men and women at our mills and plants who are working tirelessly to ensure food gets into homes.”

Heroes for doing their job under conditions we could not have imagined six months ago. Heroes before we even consider the masks, PPE, hand sanitizer, and other products AICC member companies are producing for their employees and for the health care workers and first responders in their communities.

I’ve been thinking a lot about teams since this crisis began. Your teams, the AICC team, the team that we all become on a video conference, a webinar, or an in-person meeting—the industrywide independent printing and converting team. Vala Afshar once wrote, “We are not a team because we work together. We are a team because we trust, respect, and care for each other.”

That is the strength of AICC.

Michael D’Angelo AICC President

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Steady supply gives you an edge Brands require interruption-free supply chains. Our DiamondTopTM white linerboard grades are manufactured on seven paper machines at four mills located across North America. This scope and scale coupled with a strict focus on manufacturing excellence helps ensure continuity of supply and reduces your supply chain risk.

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