Shelf Space: Let's Go Exploring

Our stories this month take us from a refurbished mill building in Providence, Rhode Island where Admiral Packaging has done a masterful job of adopting and implementing lean manufacturing practices, to some key trends in flexible packaging, and on to some of the options available for coating and laminating. This issue also rolls out two new monthly departments to help provide practical and actionable information, as well as insights into trends and data related to package printing and converting.

This month also offers an overview of ICE USA, the big converting exhibition taking place in Orlando next month. Shows like ICE are excellent venues for networking, gaining new knowledge, coming up with new ideas, and seeing first-hand how equipment and software might be able to deliver real value and productivity for your business. Being a technology junkie, I love cruising the show floor and getting up close with equipment, seeing how things work, and asking questions, but very often it is the conference sessions that are the real gold. These are the places where perspectives are gained and ideas are born. I often find myself frantically scribbling down notes on new thoughts while listening to the speaker. In fact, it was in some conference sessions last year that the concepts for several magazine articles got started.

Conferences are also places where, free from the day-to-day demands of running a printing and converting operation, you can seek out new opportunities, look at your business in a new way, and even question the status quo. You see something new, ask a question, or even hear someone else ask one, and something “clicks” in your head. And you suddenly have a different way to think about a process, problem or challenge. Or maybe just see a new opportunity.

It’s only January but that means it’s time to begin selecting the finest work your shop does in labels, folding cartons, flexible packaging, and corrugated containers and entering it into the 2015 packagePRINTING Packaging Excellence Awards. Look for detailed information next month, but start thinking now about work you’ve done that stands head and shoulders above the rest. We’ll have several industry experts as judges to pick out the best of the best. So stay tuned for more info and get ready to roll out your top work! We can’t wait to see what you send us.

I came across an old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon the other day, the last one of a comic strip considered by many to be one of the best of all time. In it, Calvin and Hobbes are outdoors, toboggan in hand, looking a landscape of freshly fallen snow.

“The world looks brand new,” exclaims Hobbes.

“A new year, a fresh clean start,” agrees Calvin. “A day full of possibilities.”

They jump on the toboggan.

“It’s a magical world, Hobbes, ol’ buddy,” says Calvin as they charge down a hill. “Let’s go exploring!”

This adventurous approach is one we should all keep in mind as we stand on the edge of 2015. The packaging and converting world is constantly changing. New and emerging equipment and software are carving out niches where they add value. Established technologies, processes and procedures are evolving to meet changing demands. There is much to explore. It is indeed, a day full of possibilities. pP

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