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Table of Contents:
- Katelynn's Background
- Trillora’s early design process
- Compliance as an opportunity, not a hurdle
- Individual retailer requirements’ effect on design
- How Trillora balances compliance with cost and customer goals
- Common packaging optimizations
- Collaborating with other teams to ensure success
- How Trillora ensures packaging is successful
- Key takeaways
Can you tell us about your background and how you became a Senior Packaging Engineer at Trillora?
I have a BFA in industrial design, and I’ve been interested in packaging design since I was in college. I used to help my friends in other programs design their soft goods projects, sketching out rough patterns and helping them build them out. I’ve also been working with CAD programs since high school, so that experience helped build my interest even more.
My first job in this industry was as a temp in the Fisher-Price product design department, and that job and the experience I gained helped me get a permanent job as a Packaging Engineer there. I’ve worked in a few different roles since then, and I’ve learned a lot during my career.
When a customer comes to Trillora to make their packaging compliant with specific regulations, how do you get started?
The first thing we do is work closely with our clients to make sure we know which regulations they have to comply with to understand every part of the supply chain, from where the packaging is manufactured to the moment it reaches the customer. We’re not solely thinking about compliance; we’re also looking for how we can make that packaging more cost-effective and better at protecting the product.
We also spend a lot of time analyzing every part of the packaging. We document opening the packaging with pictures, measure everything, and weigh the packaging and all its components. To an outsider, it might seem weird to take pictures of us opening a package, but it gives us so much insight into how it functions and what the customer experience is like!
Sometimes, we’ll even go look at how the product is packaged and handled at the distribution center. Seeing how the packaging is handled is helpful information. We might see a master outer carton turned the wrong way, or maybe there is some unexpected crushing, or the packaged product sits in the warehouse for a long time before distribution.
All of this information helps us design packaging that is compliant and still protects the product throughout the entire process.
Some brands see compliance as a frustrating hurdle, but it sounds like you treat it as an opportunity. Can you talk more about that?
Redesigning packaging for compliance is a great opportunity to rethink how you’ve been doing things. Too many brands don’t know what’s going on with their packaging. It might be provided by their product factory, in which case it’s usually whatever packaging is cheapest and easiest for them. Or it might be outdated with a lot of opportunity to incorporate newer, more eco-friendly materials that weren’t around when it was first designed.
Many rules and regulations also require changes that end up being better for our client than they might realize at first. For example, many environmental, social, and governance (ESG) requirements include rules around reducing packaging weight, which usually results in lower CO2 emissions and less water consumption.
“Redesigning packaging for compliance is a great opportunity to rethink how you’ve been doing things…and a lot of rules and regulations also require changes that end up being better for our client than they might realize.”
Reducing the weight of packaging with lighter materials or a smaller package also reduces costs for the client or allows them to pack more product into a master outer carton (MOC), so it’s a win for compliance and a win for the customer’s bottom line.
How do individual retailers’ requirements factor into the design process?A lot of times, these requirements are stricter than ESG regulations. Retailers want packages to be under a specific size so they fit on shelves or displays, they want a specific number of items in every MOC, and if they’re a business with a reputation for being eco-friendly, they want you to use specific materials and designs that are recyclable or sustainable.
The good news is that, like with ESG compliance, with some creativity and smart planning, these requirements can help us design more cost-effective, better-performing packaging. We have a lot of experience designing within these retailers’ specifications, and so we’re able to decide how best to design around them without sacrificing on cost or how well the packaging protects the product.
Do you ever find it difficult to balance compliance requirements with cost-effectiveness and your client’s goals?
It can be challenging at times, especially when conflicting requirements come into the mix. For example, one large outdoor retailer that sells a lot of our clients’ products has strict packaging requirements. They want less inner packaging in the master outer carton (MOC), like paper or polybags, which can be hard to accomplish if the retail packaging is minimal. But balancing all of these different factors just requires more creative thinking, but we always look at it from the perspective of the overall goal.
“It can be challenging at times…balancing all of these different factors just requires more creative thinking, but we always look at it from the perspective of the overall goal.”
For example, if the client has to reduce unrecyclable foam material as much as possible, we might decide to remove that material completely and go with slightly heavier packaging that can be curbside recycled and limits the product’s movement. While we end up with a heavier package, it’s compliant while still protecting the product and reducing damage rates.
What are some of the most common optimizations that you and your team make to packaging that you’re redesigning?
A big one is that brands often don’t manage their MOC program very well, so they can end up with literally hundreds of MOC sizes. This can be challenging for a distribution center to manage, and they may decide to put products in any size MOC that fits them. Consolidating those MOCs can make a huge difference in freight costs and product damage rates.
Coincidentally, some recent packaging regulations require brands to reduce empty space in their packaging as much as possible, so leaving MOCs up to your product factory creates a lot of compliance risk.
The other one we see a lot is that packaging doesn’t evolve along with the product. So even as the product is tweaked or redesigned or has additional components added to it, the packaging stays the same. Once the product changes, the packaging is no longer optimized for protecting it, which can lead to a lot of issues.
Do you collaborate with other teams or organizations when designing or testing packaging?We have a testing lab to make sure the new packaging can withstand being loaded and unloaded, dropped, having other boxes stacked on top of it or underneath it, sitting on freight ships, spending time in humid or extremely hot environments, and more.
We also have an implementation team that really understands the ins and outs of what we do. They work closely with suppliers and know what they’re capable of, so we work with them to make sure the packaging we’re designing is actually practical for our customers.
We also work with or are members of a few other organizations, like the International Safe Transit Association and the Sustainable Packaging Coalition. We have a lot of experience in-house, but it’s good to draw on resources from groups with even more specialized knowledge. We like to go that extra mile to make sure our customers can be confident that our design meets all of the specs they’ve laid out.
Once the packaging has been redesigned, how does Trillora make sure that it’s being produced and packed correctly?Unlike most other packaging companies, we also produce packaging and deliver it to the product factories, and even train those employees on correctly using it. We spend a lot of time optimizing product packaging and transport packaging, but if it’s not executed correctly, all that goes to waste. So training factory staff is a really important step.
We also monitor data like damage rates, freight efficiency, and compliance metrics to validate that our design is successful or determine if we need to rework any part of it. I think that’s one of the big benefits of working with us; we manage the whole process, not just the packaging design. So if there’s an issue with your packaging, we’ll see it and we can fix it.
All of this means that we’re constantly learning, too. Since we specialize in working with companies that produce products in Asia and ship to the US and Europe, a lot of what we learn in the production and delivery areas can be applied to our packaging design.
Key takeaways:- Trillora works closely with the customer and thoroughly analyzes their current packaging to identify improvements for the redesign.
- A packaging redesign is a great opportunity to optimize for compliance, cost, customer experience, damage rates.
- Retailer requirements can make a redesign more complicated, but with Trillora’s experience and creative problem solving, they’re able to design compliant packaging that doesn’t compromise on quality.
- Many brands have packaging that has not evolved along with the product or packaging programs with an unmanageable number of packaging sizes, which increases costs.
- The Trillora packaging design team collaborates closely with the Trillora testing and implementation teams, along with outside organizations to validate their designs.
- Trillora also produces and manages packaging once the design is complete, ensuring it’s implemented correctly by product factories.
- Trillora also monitors data to identify any ongoing issues so that we can fix them.
Ready to get expert feedback on your current packaging?
Request a packaging review to see what Katelynn and the rest of the packaging design team can do to improve the cost and efficacy of your packaging.
