Packaging Workflows: 3M IPT

W.W. Henry Takes Advantage of 3M's Powerful Integrated Packaging Tool Software to Increase Efficiency and Centralize Workflow

The 3M Integrated Packaging Tool is a Web-based, centralized packaging information system for high- or mid-volume manufacturers now in its second year of existence outside of 3M. The program was designed specifically to improve package design workflow and reduce errors at 3M five years ago, and is now available to companies worldwide.

The Integrated Packaging Tool from 3M is the first Web-based software system focused entirely on packaging. Other IT systems, such as Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), are focused narrowly on the product. Because the Integrated Packaging Tool is packaging-focused and based on packaging business rules, it enables efficient packaging execution, supports global languages, and enables on-demand printing and product tracking.

The main benefits of the Integrated Packaging Tool are its ease with enabling compliance, managing product surety, expediting time-to-market, and reducing packaging costs. The Integrated Packaging Tool manages the entire packaging process, including (but not limited to) development of the packaging specification, integration with the artwork process, routing and approval, and delivery of print-and-apply information to production facilities.

Mike Haldane, business manager for 3M's Industrial Services and Solutions Division, explains that the software was developed internally at 3M in 1999 by a team of IT, packaging and industry professionals. The original system was developed to help 3M centralize its own packaging operations in delivering more than 55,000 products all over the globe. That system grew into a program that could be a repository of all packaging and labeling information, customer requirements, product ingredients, and unique product identifiers.

Because all data are centralized, the opportunities for error are greatly reduced, which also significantly reduces the risk of recalls. However, manufacturers still need to plan for recall liabilities, so the ability to efficiently track each and every package or pallet is critical. As a product makes its way through the manufacturing process, it can be marked with a unique identifier, such as a barcode or an RFID tag. The Integrated Packaging Tool can record that product identifier at every step of production and distribution. If a recall were to arise, an operator can run a report on the product in question and locate it anywhere in the distribution channel.

The Integrated Packaging Tool program essentially integrates the entire packaging design and execution process, and also integrates with existing PLM programs. The main front-end modules of Integrated Packaging Tool are a Structure Library and Artwork Library, with repositories for archives and organization for digital on-line management. The system stores the elements as data, not documents, making it easy to modify the information on the package or label, without needing to send the work back through a disconnected artwork or specification system. Marrying these two entities are the Item Specs module, which supplies design information and production specs for the buyer, and the Bill of Materials module, which includes all the information needed to build the package.

Streamlining the design process

For more than 60 years, The W.W. Henry Co. has produced flooring adhesives and installation products for the flooring trade. With four manufacturing plants across the U.S. and a network of wholesalers, distributors, and retail chains, the company faced a challenge of standardizing its management of case labels for shipment.

Each of W.W. Henry's manufacturing plants maintained an individual database, resulting in redundancies and multiple entries for the same product. When a labeling error occurred, it caused confusion both internally and externally with W.W. Henry's customers. In addition, maintaining the database of labels separately often resulted in each plant having to recreate labels due to incompatible file or printer formats.

W.W. Henry now uses Integrated Packaging Tool to create and manage case and shipper labels for approximately 300 SKUs. Integrated Packaging Tool allows streamlined packaging management, which reduces manual processes and errors and increases effective design and content management. According to Ron Juncal, director of process improvement at W.W. Henry, Integrated Packaging Tool fit the company's needs to a T. "The 3M Integrated Packaging Tool was not only easy to implement and use, but precisely the tool we needed to resolve our labeling issues," Juncal explains.

With Integrated Packaging Tool's workflow component, changes in the database are centralized, communicated to, and approved by all appropriate parties, thereby resolving the issue of inconsistent formats. Additionally, because Integrated Packaging Tool can be used to manage several types of packaging materials, W.W. Henry can use the application for other projects within the company, or as their business needs expand.

Since implementation, W.W. Henry has a more effective, consistent, and scalable process and system for labels; a single label database; a software system across all four locations; a more efficient cycle time for creating and maintaining labels; fewer labeling errors; and fewer obsolete or incorrect SKUs. "Our IT manager appreciates that the 3M Integrated Packaging Tool is a hosted solution and that it is maintained on the back end by 3M because it frees up the company's time and resources," says Juncal.

The Integrated Packaging Tool first bridged a gap at 3M

"We are like many of the companies we call on... We felt the same pains that our customers were feeling," Haldane remembers of the early germination of Integrated Packaging Tool. 3M faced the challenge of its own enterprise labeling around the world. With over 100 companies doing their own thing, the task was unmanageable without a software package to manage packaging. After extensive market research, 3M decided that if they could solve their own packaging management issues through an integrated software program, they could market that program to many other companies as well.

To keep Integrated Packaging Tool up-to-the-minute on the compliance side, 3M needs only tap its own compliance team, which has a positively comprehensive global reach. 3M has grown into an extremely diversified company employing 67,000 individuals and serving customers in more than 200 countries around the world. "Once it's implemented globally, we'll have visibility to everything that is happening from a compliance standpoint," Haldane boasts.

Integrated Packaging Tool is a Web-based, centralized, and data-enabled system. The program can also be used off-line, in the event of an Internet disruption, then synchronized after the connection to the main system is re-established. The advantages of it being accessible via the Internet are that individual plant operations can use it to get the most up-to-date packaging specs, and companies can give suppliers access so they have correct materials specifications.

Business rules are enforced with the system and any changes must go through an approval process, with the old copies versioned and archived. Artwork and package design can include label information about ingredients and any regulator-mandated warnings. These vary by geography and are constantly changing, but the Integrated Packaging Tool can help ensure that the information is up to date. The Integrated Packaging Tool also operates in a secure environment, so label and packaging templates, layout, and product information are protected from unauthorized changes.

Modularity allows selective deployment

The Integrated Packaging Tool program is complementary to whatever system a company is already using, and modules of the program can be purchased and implemented separately, if so desired. It's a market reality that most companies need to support multiple databases, disparate ERP systems, and divisional programs. Integrated Packaging Tool is written in XML, an open standard that supports integration with existing IT systems. Regardless, 3M's implementation and support teams offer comprehensive professional services to support the product.

During deployment of any module of the Integrated Packaging Tool program, the implementation team takes their lead from the customer. Because the Integrated Packaging Tool is so configurable, the customer can simply tell the 3M team what they need or what they hope to accomplish, and the 3M project managers configure each module individually.

The most exciting features of the newest version of 3M's Integrated Packaging Tool are the more complete coverage of track-and-trace issues, a drag-and-drop interface, more pre-configured menus, and an "event-driven" workflow. Extra stand-alone modules include Enterprise Labeling for centralized management issues, Smart Device Manager for production-line device issues, and expanded Reporting for data visibility issues.