Good Design Works

Good Design Works Way Outside The Box

Kelly Box has been working with Sanco Industries for many years; designing a wide array of packages from single unit display boxes to multi-unit cell assemblies, to UN certified packs for hazardous chemicals. Recently, a Kelly Box design team member met at Sanco Industries to watch the fulfillment team but one of his new designs through its paces, stressing the importance that “A good package design incorporates every possible user; the way it will be shipped, stored, assembled, and used by the client’s customer.”

Carrie Sheets, the project coordinator for Sanco Industries, noted that there were several key requirements for this job. Their new display will be set up by sales people in big-box home improvement and specialty stores. “First we needed to produce a display that would have a strong graphic presence in a retail environment, and second we needed something that would hold sever one gallon jugs of pond chemicals, and finally we needed a cost effective solution. This pack met all of our requirements beautifully,” Carrie Sheets said. Sanco Industries was excited to learn that Kelly Box had all of these graphic and printing capabilities. For accounts that do not have in-house graphic designers, Kelly Box and Packaging offers graphic design services.

How Does a Good Design Happen

At Kelly Box and Packaging, we recognize that profitable designs are developed by analyzing every step in the manufacturing, packing, shipping, and displaying processes. Understanding how the product will be handled at every step in its life helps our designers find ways to cut costs, reduce labor, trim material, and deliver added value to your customer.

Manufacturing Technology Centre: Designing in the Profits

At Kelly Box, we believe the key to success lies in constantly looking at how the client uses the package. This is why you will find our sales people and designers on the plant floor, at the loading dock, and with the end user working hand in hand with the people handling the products.

We analyze the work, measure the time it takes someone to perform a specific task or function, and identify how the packaging impacts their performance. We then develop a design solution that will reduce labor, improve performance, and save money.

Working together with customer Manufacturing Technology Centre has helped them to “Improve processes and reduce costs” by “Constantly trying to impact how we utilize packaging and constantly bringing new design ideas,” says John Moor, the General Manager of MTC. Moor says “What I like about Kelly Box is that they are as obsessed with packaging as I am with my systems.” He also states that after Kelly Box came to him with a number of different solutions they developed, MTC was able to use these solutions to “Not only save labor, but in many cases the solutions were significantly less expensive as well.”

At Kelly Box, we frequently find customers that are living with poor packaging designs because they do not believe there is an alternative often these poor designs carry costs that are hard to identify by the customer. Kelly Box understands how to identify the bottlenecks and obstacles in any package design, and how to develop solutions that fit the needs of everyone that uses a pack. The key is to look pass the product, past the box, and to see the people that will use the parts.

Listening = A Good Design

With the recent economic downturn, plants slow down but companies get the opportunity to take a close look at a lot of processes that were “good enough” in busy times, but just might have hidden opportunities for long-term savings.

In one case, a company that makes housing products took the opportunity to see if Kelly Box could help them clear some floor space. We evaluated their space and labor options and created three new packs. First, we eliminated a pre-taped Half Slotted Carton (HSC) in exchange for a Friction-Locked HSC. Next, we changed a taped Scored and Slotted tray to a Pre-Glued tray. Finally, we converted another Taped HSC to an Auto-Setup HSC.

Overall, the net result was that we helped the customer save valued floor space, eliminated a box staging section, and reduced the time and labor it took to package their products.

Now might be a good time to let us help you prepare for when things get busy.