The Polarity of the Packaging supplier and the Machine Packer

Most often than not for the large volumes of your Brands, we need heavy mechanisation on the packing and the filling lines and at the same time you need a large volume packaging supplier. It is interesting to see how the two are at the polar ends and very often large projects get hugely delayed just trying to get the two meet at the Equator.
Recently a very large project was to be worked upon paperboard and needed very special creases on the board to ensure proper running on the machine and above all a proper pack formation and a stable pack in the hands of the consumer. The volumes being large the Packaging supplier was very clear that the paperboard needs to be in the long grain. On the other hand given the complexity of the pack, the machine supplier was very clear that the paperboard has to be in the short grain. The Packaging supplier explained that in case they were to supply in the short grain the machine speeds are to come down drastically and impact the costs adversely. They agreed to supply in the short grain but came up with the issue of the ability to supply the required volumes given the machine speed retardation.
Negotiations of any sort did not work and every discussion led into a deadlock. The big question, where should we go from here , scrapping the project was not a solution given the competition pressures and going up to the Board and expressing this confusion was too much of an embarrassment for the senior managers.
These experiences are not uncommon and one could relate many more, however the solutions are extremely difficult and the challenges become insurmountable.
Often the solutions exist but need a technological breakthrough , which is time consuming and also cost consuming. One could say that one needs to build in timelines according to the project requirements, but the other side is the market pressures to implement the packaging change right away. You need both the supplier and the packer as both have their technical edge and unique competencies.
This polarity needs to be bridged, we need to work at an approach that the two parties can look at a single point or perhaps make an effort to look at a single point. One clear point emerges that on should not be dependent upon a single source for anything. A constant and persistent effort should be made to have alternatives and build competencies accordingly.
One clear challenge for the Sourcing manager should be supplier development and he needs to put in energies into building up multiple long term relationships in the supply chain. On the other hand the Organisation should seriously discourage rigidities , as this leads to the polar positioning.

Print Runs- whats done cannot be undone

Many a times, one believes that certain issues would be resolved during the print approvals on the bulk machine. I am reasonably sure that you would be mostly disappointed. Whatever needs to be done to get your Brand design right has to be done before hand or at the pre- press stage. Thus a lot of stringent preparation and detailing leads to success on the press. To begin with the mandatory text, get every word, punctuation etc all perfect, as changing at the time of the press run is costly and time consuming, plus also there is a chance of just missing out and you may be saddled with incorrect text packaging. The artwork and the ability to think through is critical, one needs to have the experience to predict as to what are the likely results due to a particular level of screens or the colour sequence. This has to be got right at the time of the pre-press or else whats done cannot be undone at the time of the bulk run.
It is a healthy practise to do a semi bulk proofing on a separate press to analyse the likely results and build in corrective actions. I have had several incidents when the lack of this understanding has resulted in costly print run failures and above all huge loss of time.
Plan to treat the bulk printing as a final and commercial run rather than an opportunity to do creative iterations or subjective value additions.
Very often by a stroke of good luck one hits upon something interesting during the print run and can feel reasonably elated about the outcome. It is always advisable to doubly check if that will sustain,very often what looks good may have scuffing problems or may have odour or may not glue well or may not run well on your packing lines etc. You will be surprised as to how many unimaginable issues crop up and become serious problems and bottlenecks.
The critical role is for each and every element to get the print run successful - the printing machine, the inks, the people running the machine and the knowledge they have and above all the printing plates and the printing cylinders. Each of them needs to work in unison and in perfection to ultimately get things right. Try to have a colour swatch approved and a colour matching be done offline, thus ensuring that the inks are in total readiness. Check the cylinder prints or the pulls as they are fairly indicative of the likely on the machine results. Rarely can we correct things, if the inks of the printing plates / cylinders are not just right.
Yes , I have seen rare examples of extraordinary wisdom ,when the knowledge of the People on the machine has helped to overcome the blemishes and get things undone. Yes it happens but rare !