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Update on Paperboard Packaging Council
November 1, 2008 By: Packaging online staff Paperboard PackagingThe Paperboard Packaging Council is a leading trade association serving suppliers of folding cartons and other forms of paper-based packaging, such as laminated small flute cartons, cylinders and rigid setup boxes. Members include converters of packaging, as well as suppliers of equipment and materials used in the converting process. PPC's stated mission is to (1) grow, promote and protect the paperboard packaging industry, and (2) provide member companies with tools to compete effectively in the marketplace. To learn more, call PPC at 413-686-9191 or visit www.ppcnet.org.
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PPC Out and About
In September, PPC President Ben Markens and Tony Petrelli, president of CardPak Inc. and PPC chairman, traveled to Marseille, France, to attend The Beauty of Cartons, ECMA Congress 2008.
ECMA is the recognized body of the European carton industry, serving as the voice of the industry for European cartons, monitoring and addressing industry and international issues. Markens and Petrelli attended the ECMA board meeting, where Petrelli made a presentation updating ECMA on the U.S. folding carton market.
Take Your Carton Off the Shelf...and Into the Spotlight
I The 2009 National Paperboard Packaging Competition (NPPC) is underway! Don't delay – enter today at www.ppcnet.org/nppc. The entry deadline is Jan. 9. Complete competition details also are available online.
Each year, this competition honors the best paperboard packaging designs from the past year. Now in its 66th year, this year's NPPC has some new features that will help maintain its place as the industry's benchmark design competition.
All-new in 2009 is the Eco Award, honoring the entry with the best use of paperboard as a substrate – or in replacement of another substrate – to provide a sustainable packaging solution.
"We're really excited to add the Eco Award to the competition," PPC President Ben Markens says. "Consumers are finally putting energy and effort into replacing plastic with paper in order to increase their use of sustainable packaging. For years, our industry has been offering solutions that meet this challenge, and the industry's premiere design competition should reflect their ingenuity and accomplishment."
 Left to right: ECMA Executive Director Jan Cardon; Pascale Cardon; PPC Chairman Tony Petrelli; Per Lundeen, ECMA chairman and managing director of Sweden's A&R Carton; and PPC President Ben Markens. |
Another outstanding feature of the competition is that one design entry has three chances to be recognized as an industry leader. All entries compete for the Paperboard Package of the Year Award (formerly the President's Award). Contestants can also opt to have their entries compete for the inaugural Eco Award, focused on sustainability, and the prestigious Innovation Award, recognizing outstanding design based on structural integrity and processing that combine to achieve superior form and function. Runners-up to all three awards receive Gold or Silver recognition.
"These parallel judging tracks are in place to accurately reflect – and recognize – the diversity and breadth of creativity of the paperboard packaging industry," Markens says.
Judging for this year's competition will take place in January in Springfield, Mass., near the new home of PPC headquarters. Winners will be announced at PPC's Spring Outlook & Strategies Conference, March 18-20, in Atlanta. For more information, visit www.ppcnet.org/nppc, or contact Kelly Freter at 413-686-9191 or kelly@ppcnet.org.
Your OEE is Showing!
But is it Helping or Hurting Your Business?
I Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is a key pillar in establishing, maintaining, and increasing manufacturing excellence. Whether you are measuring it or not, OEE is impacting your bottom line.
 Kelly Freter, PPC's director of marketing and communications. |
"OEE gets at the base drivers of utilization time, speed, and waste, and equates them in a simple factor that can be understood from the factory floor to the board room," says Bill Bloom, director of business excellence at MeadWestvaco folding carton business and chair of the PPC Industry Information Committee. "The nice part is that it's almost certain that you're already tracking all three today."
Your OEE factor is easily calculated and lets you create an objective baseline measure you can use to accurately map your present effectiveness. You can then use it to set goals and consistently measure your progress toward achieving them.
Availability, performance, and quality are the key components of the formula used to determine OEE. In essence, OEE analyzes planned production efficiency and productivity losses, with the goal of reducing or eliminating substandard performance. Down time loss, speed loss, and quality loss are the factors that help determine your total productivity loss. Every dollar of OEE loss drops right to the bottom; just as every dollar of improvement increases profit by the same amount.
 Miss Folding Paper Box 1952. |
Incorporating OEE into your efforts to increase manufacturing excellence has several additional benefits. OEE's inherent causality will ensure that improving your OEE will directly impact your success. It also seamlessly supports many of the modern manufacturing improvement techniques (including Six Sigma, lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, etc). Because it's easily calculated, OEE can be quickly understood and implemented in your planning structure. It's not subjective or discriminatory, making it easily used for comparison across industries or shared with customers as necessary.
Because OEE can be used as such an efficient and effective benchmark in the paperboard packaging industry, PPC has begun to explore ways to optimize it through a new initiative. PPC's OEE Initiative will continue to evolve under the leadership of the newly formed OEE Task Force. Currently, work is underway to determine the details of the initiative's key components to ensure the most added benefit for PPC members.
For more information, contact Cindy Healy at 413-686-9191 or email cindy@ppcnet.org.
Take Five with Your PPC Staff: Kelly Freter
A long with its headquarters move to Springfield, Mass., in August, PPC has added additional staff members as part of its commitment to expand and enhance service and support to members. Beginning this month, you'll have the opportunity to get to know one of your PPC staff members a little bit better in our "Take Five with Your PPC Staff" feature.
What is your role at PPC?
Kelly Freter (KF): I am the director of marketing and communications. Basically, I work the writing, editing, design, and layout of all PPC's publications and materials (event flyers, TRENDS report, etc.) I am the staff liaison on PPC's Marketing & Communications Committee and the Sustainability Task Force. I oversee PPC's website, as well as the annual National Paperboard Packaging Competition.
When and how did you come to work for PPC?
KF: I started at PPC in the beginning of August. I have a strong writing and communications background, but I am new to the industry. As part of my interview, they had me submit a writing sample about how paperboard packaging in more relevant in the post-9/11 world. I did a lot of research (and learned a lot) for that piece. They liked it – and here I am!
What are you most excited about at PPC?
KF: Everything is new, so everything has some excitement in it. Part of what I really like at PPC is that more I learn about the organization and get to know the membership, the more potential I see for what we can accomplish together. I am also really enjoying learning and working on sustainability issues.
What's one thing PPC members should know about you?
KF: That I am here to help. I'd probably be most helpful with any marketing or communications issues, like helping distribute a press release, but they have really created a team attitude here in Springfield. Our motto is along the lines of "If I can't answer your question, I'll find someone who can."
What has been your most memorable PPC moment, so far?
KF: There have been several — but I guess I'll choose my introduction to Miss Folding Paper Box. Just after we had moved into our Springfield offices, I was going through a box of old PPC photos that had been shipped up from our office in Virginia. And there I found a picture of a very well dressed Wyoma Winters emerging from a life-size paper box. The caption named her Miss Folding Paper Box 1952. Questions abound, but I'm don't think we're bringing that contest back anytime soon.
PPC At a Glance
January 9: National Paperboard Packaging Competition entry deadline
Coming this fall/winter (more details soon)
- 1. TRENDS 2008 published
- 2. PPC website upgrade
- 3. Customer Satisfaction Survey results
- 4. Technology & Production Forum (location TBD)
Coming spring 2009 (more details soon)
- 1. March 18–20 PPC Spring Outlook & Strategies Conference, Atlanta
- 2. April 20–26 National Paperboard Packaging Week/PPC TICCIT Program
