Feature by Lon Johnson, Vice President of New Product Development
Colbert Flexographic Packaging Corporation
Flexo-bility in Pharmaceuticals
Success in the pharmaceutical carton market can be achieved through flexibility and use of today's flexo technologies.
Colbert Packaging Corporation, based in Lake Forest, Illinois, has built its reputation around quality and service to the pharmaceutical/health care industry. Back in 1959, when Bud Colbert formed the company, he knew he had to cultivate this most-prized segment of the folding carton market. Now, 41 years later, Colbert maintains a customer base that reads like a "Who's Who" of the pharmaceutical and health care markets. In this article, I will focus on how Colbert continues to excel in this ever-changing, high-profile market.
First, to produce high-end packaging for the health care market, you must put yourself in your customers' shoes. What drives their industries? What rules and regulations must they follow? And most importantly, what are their expectations?
In the past, companies relied on experienced help with a keen set of eyes. Now our focus is on bar code scanners and glue-detection monitors. However, all the new equipment money can buy still won't guarantee a quality job. Skilled workers that have been thoroughly trained must be your company's most valued commodity.
Any quality auditor worth his salt will make a beeline for the production workers and ask them a series of questions designed to determine their range of knowledge. Some of my fondest memories have come during an audit, just listening to an employee explain line clearance or opening force testing.
Once you are confident that you have the right mix of people, it's time to evaluate internal systems, as well as your equipment. At this point, let us follow a typical carton project from start to finish, stopping along the way to review each process involved in manufacturing. However, before we can begin the process, we cannot forget that someone was responsible for selling the order, bringing together the customer and converter.
Years in the Making
Selling pharmaceutical/health care packaging is no easy task. A solid relationship is built over many sales calls and a great deal of confidence-building. Customer relations can take years to solidify, and they require an enormous amount of effort by both parties. The effort typically is in the form of multiple sales calls, plant tours, plant audits and then, if you are lucky, a sample research-and-development order. This is a very important step, but for the purposes of this article, I am simplifying the process.
Let's assume the carton order has been placed. The first stop before production is customer service. The customer service representative is responsible for assembling a job jacket by compiling and organizing all of the customer's information and sending it to production for manufacturing.
At Colbert, we begin production at the digital stage. Our imaging department provides a wide range of services, including proofing and computer file management. This new technology has allowed us to manage graphics from inception and translate files back and forth via the Internet.
We also use the Internet for soft proofing. This allows our customers to review and alter copies right at their own location. And we've installed remote digital printers at our customers' sites that are calibrated to match our printers. This method provides customers with a quick hard copy of the proof to circulate among their various departments for approval. Also encompassed into the prepress is a complete CAD/CAM structural design department. By combining these two processes, Colbert has blurred the lines of technology using both departments to create a final product.
Colbert has quickly embraced computer-to-plate technology. With the addition of our new CREO thermal computer-to-plate (CTP) system, we have removed many print variables, thus enabling us to produce with less margin for error.
The new CTP provides absolute control over the imaging process. Digital file integrity provides a precise reproduction from job to job - a prerequisite for health care packaging. With Colbert's digital workflow and numerous prepress capabilities, our customers can use the workflow that best suits their needs.
Once the job has reached print production, Colbert has determined which form of manufacturing will be used. Colbert houses a wide variety of equipment for folding carton converting. Our new flexographic division has added an extra dimension to our overall capabilities, which we call our "flexo advantage." For this article we will follow a carton produced at our flexographic division.
A Good Fit for Flexo
Many pharmaceutical jobs are run offset as well, however, an offset discussion could lead to another feature article. We employ the same Good Manufacturing Practices and Standard Operating Procedures at all of our manufacturing locations. Our goal is to manufacture each customer's product in the most efficient and practical manner possible, and each job is evaluated to determine which process is most appropriate.
By converting folding cartons flexographically, we employ a roll-label mentality to the converting process. Label presses were originally manufactured for quick makeready from run to run by using a cartridge type of system. The new carton press manufacturers have adapted that same mentality. Our flexo presses were designed for an easy transition between jobs. Each print deck can be exchanged in a matter of seconds, as the print decks encompass both printing plates. The new makeready then involves a complete changeover of both copy and color.
Pharmaceutical business fits this flexographic format. An essential criterion for deciding to convert flexographically is short-run jobs with multiple copy changes. The other major consideration is backside printing. With many companies using the backside of folding cartons for patient information, inline backside printing is critical.
The flexographic process not only prints but diecuts and strips away all the excess paperboard waste. This inline process has been embraced by the pharmaceutical industry because it removes many additional handling and manufacturing steps involved in the converting process. Cartons are monitored from beginning to end electronically for both registration and presentations of copy. This also provides customers with the added security that copy is present and accurate.
After the cartons are printed and diecut, they are organized in movable carts. This cart is designed for each handling and provides necessary security for each lot. The carts have a built-in cover that completely shrouds each load. The product is rolled into finishing completely secured and segregated in this staging device.
Finishing the Job
The final step in production is finishing. At this point, the cartons are ready to be folded and glued. As simple as this may sound, the process is much more involved. Our gluers are equipped with several electronic devices designed to prevent a host of possible problems. At the beginning of the gluer is a monitor designed to reach bar codes and detect presence and position of glue.
Pharmaceutical customers require that all cartons be scanned for copy. Each item is given a distinct bar code for scanning, thus eliminating any change of mixed lots. The scanner also detects missing copy. The gluer operators perform a series of tests designed to challenge the accuracy of the monitoring equipment.
The second phase of testing is for glue. We add a special chemical to the glue, which gives off an effervescent light that is detected with a camera. This allows us to monitor each carton that we produce, ensuring our customers 100% accuracy in glued products. We also have the capabilities toattach labels, onsets and E.A.S. tags inline, and this same line produces a product known as a carton/sert. We attach product information inserts, imbedded into roll labels of various sizes to folding cartons. This process is also monitored closely with a series of vision cameras detecting presence of copy as well as accuracy of the copy placement.
Each year technology advances and the health care industry's expectations continue to expand. Today there is no margin for error, inventory and lead times have been greatly reduced and "just in time" is just that.
As Colbert Packaging continues to grow and excel in producing high-end pharmaceutical packaging, we must maintain the mindset of our customers. We must never forget or ignore the high level of detail required to service this segment of the packaging field.
(Reprinted from the June 2000 issue, Boxboard Containers International. All Rights Reserved.)