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Evolution of a Box Maker
November 1, 2008 By: Mark Arzoumanian Paperboard PackagingArt Durand was your prototypical "people" salesperson. His relationships meant the world to him. He worked in the box making industry for decades, including Twin Town Box Corp., which is now Green Bay Packaging in Coon Rapids, Minn. Twenty-one years ago he decided he wanted to provide customers with more personalized service. So he started a 50,000-sq-ft sheet plant, Northwest Packaging (NWP), with two partners, some family members, and a dozen employees.
 The interior of this display was printed on the six-color Apstar rotary diecutter. Then labels were applied using an Automatän laminator. NWP successfully matched the yellows. |
Today, the St. Paul, Minn.-based operation takes in $18 million annually, runs about 12 million sq ft per month and has expanded to 150,000 sq ft (including a 75,000-sq-ft warehouse).
Durand died in August 2007. Today his son, Steve, who started in the box making industry in 1979, is president. Another son, Mark, who has been in the industry for 32 years, is the coordinator of sales and production. His daughter, Karen, is in charge of finance.
Steve was a teenager when he started in the industry; his father gave him a job directly out of high school so he could help finance his college education. He began in design and also was a corrugator scheduler and manager at Green Bay Packaging. Art would be proud to see that his sons and daughter not only continue to grow NWP but still value people, whether employees or customers. Steve remembers him saying, "We're friends to people that have no friends."
 Gilo Menjivar, the Apstar's operator, can run the rotary diecutter from the machine's main console (in the background) or from the computer screen on the stacker from A.G. Stacker. |
"We take an interest in you and your company, not just your purchase orders," Steve says. "Our biggest asset is our people. In our 21 years of existence, we've only lost six office employees. Many of our press people have been with us from day one. They're empowered to run their machines as if they were their own. Here you're not a number, you're a person."
Last February, the company helped a flower account that found itself in a bind the Saturday before Valentine's Day. That afternoon the client ran out of boxes to ship its flowers. Steve was called at home. As soon as he found out, he ran out the door, went to his warehouse, loaded the (already made) boxes on a truck, and sent them on their way.
 Sheet Plant within a Sheet Plant |
NWP does a lot of warehousing for its customers, which allows it to service them the same (or next) day. For the past 12 years, it has run a vendor-managed inventory program where customers don't place orders, they just release them.
Steve takes pride in his employees' excellent listening skills. Once they determine the nature of the customer's problem, they then work closely with them to arrive at a solution. The plant employs a structural and graphics designer and finds that graphics production (using Artios software) is becoming a larger percentage of its overall mix every year. The designers also find that they receive a lot of redesign requests.
 A sampling of some of the latest work NWP has produced on the Apstar rotary diecutter. |
No Quoting and Hoping
"We don't quote and hope and we don't participate in online auctions or bidding wars," Steve says. "We develop relationships through redesigning and custom programs so there's less packaging. We also design into relationships; our customers count on us for that."
Steve is following in his father's footsteps. Art always stressed the importance of relationships and integrity. But Steve realizes that if NWP can't deliver a quality box consistently, even the best of relationships will fray. And nowadays delivering that box means going beyond slapping a couple of colors on it. Quality box printing is the name of the game today. That's why in recent months NWP has immersed itself in the world of fine printing. Initially this move came through the acquisition of a 66-in. by 125-in., six-color Apstar rotary diecutter, which was purchased because the Durands recognized their need for more rotary diecutting capacity and enhanced graphics capabilities.
In recent years the plant found itself struggling each fall to keep up with the rotary diecutting demands from some of its large customers, many of whom are in the recreational, retail and industrial industries. It found itself doing three- or four-color jobs in two passes on its workhorse 110-in., two-color Serenco rotary diecutter, purchased 15 years ago. With this additional diecutting capacity came a sudden introduction into the world of fine printing. It also opened up display production opportunities. Today, displays account for 15 percent of the plant's revenues.
The search for a rotary diecutter began in the used equipment market, followed by a quick study of three new rotary presses. The new presses were ruled out because of price. That's when the Durands visited Tri-Lakes Container Corp., Pierceton, Ind., to see the Apstar, which is made by Dong Fang in China and sold by Haire Equipment and Design, Merrillville, Ind., run. They liked what they saw but had some concerns.
Mark Durand's big concerns about the Apstar centered on upgrading opportunities and communication with Haire after the installation is successfully completed. So he was happy to learn that a lot of the machine's parts are readily available from U.S. suppliers, including Sun Automation (feeder) and Siemens.
While a few debugging issues occurred (and were easily resolved), the machine's November 2007 installation was simple and straightforward.
"Frankly, it has been fun," Mark says. "It has opened up a huge new market for our sales guys. It's a sound machine that prints a great box. We can now offer a combo platter; one customer [an outdoor sporting goods company] went from a two-color to a four-color job, plus spot printing."
With the Apstar and its Automatän label laminator (bought three years ago), NWP can now offer its customers direct print and labeling options that work on either containerboard or chipboard.
Initially Surprised
Steve admits he was initially surprised by the Apstar's many sensors, which make certain the machine is properly set up for a job before it will run. But these sensors also will signal the operator when anything goes wrong with the machine (a jammed sheet, for example, or a safety violation) and allow for online diagnostics and precision registration. The operator can register a job to 1/64 of an inch and the diecutter will hold it with "literally amazing" precision, Mark says.
The operator also can save setup specifications on the machine's computer screen. Setups can take as little as 5 to 10 minutes.
Once the sheets are rotary diecut and printed (from the bottom), they flow into a stacker from A.G. Stacker, Weyers Cave, Va. The stacker has a computer screen that allows the operator to run the rotary diecutter while positioned by the stacker. What the operator sees on this screen is an exact replica of what's happening on the diecutter screen. Any adjustments that need to be made on the diecutter (speeds, registration, etc.) can be made from the stacker's computer screen.
As soon as the Apstar was installed, the plant's 65 employees knew that this diecutter would be treated differently from other equipment on the plant floor. First, it was installed in a separate room. Second, employees were trained to take a minimum of three hours each week to clean the machine. This includes changing filters, cleaning grates, and wiping the machine down, among other tasks.
"The operator [Gilo Menjivar] calls this his baby," Steve says. "And I tell him [and the others that operate the diecutter], 'This is your baby, guys.'"
Nowadays, Menjivar and his crew are producing multi-color process jobs of up to 100-line screen.
Nevertheless, the Apstar has room for improvement, Mark says. For example, the quick-change anilox roll system isn't really quick change, even though that was touted as one of the machine's selling points. He was told they could be changed in an hour, but Mark found that three hours was closer to the truth.
And what about future plans? NWP, which just developed a new website (www.nwpkg.com), has added new conveyors throughout the plant and might expand its diecutting capability even further. While these moves will surely help it to remain profitable, it's the people skills that Art Durand taught his family that will lead to more rich relationships.
