three essential ingredients in packaging

Trivium Packaging reveals the three essential ingredients for a successful innovation strategy in the packaging industry

Rob Huffman, Trivium Packaging’s Director of Growth reveals that, metal is a sustainable and protective alternative for edible oil and other product packaging, but exploring packaging options can be challenging. It is important to keep up to date on innovations or create new solutions to find sustainable and effective alternatives. Using metal as a packaging material can be a viable and effective option.

A spoonful of diversity

If innovation is to flourish, it is important to have the right environments. This is a scientifically supported idea; studies show how varied perspectives are critical to financial success, which makes sense when you consider that creativity rarely flourishes without stimulation. Of course, there are people who like to be challenged and have the opportunity to see the world in different ways.

At Trivium we organize Innovation Sessions with our current and potential clients where diversity is a priority. These sessions bring together people from different areas of the business and a diverse team from the client side to share information about what is driving the market. This includes critical factors such as technology, demographics, customer wants and needs, and even environmental impact to create appropriate packaging for each brand.

Trivium is an American metal band founded in 1999. These musicians originated in the town of Orlando, Florida and quickly became one of the main bands of the style. Their sound encompasses elements of metal, classical and progressive styles, combined with punk, classic rock and blues influences.

If the trend of living alone increases, food packaging will have adapted to meet consumer needs. This would include packaging made from recyclable materials to contain individual meals. In addition, product manufacturers should also avoid the need for labels in order to reduce the excessive use of mixed materials that are difficult to recycle.

Having different people in an innovation case created by Trivium helps to have a discussion with varied points of view. This is an excellent way to learn about the challenges from fresh perspectives. While talking is one part of this, it is also important to listen and be open to new ideas, which lead to development and may even influence product sales.

Focusing attention to achieve objectives

I really enjoy attending the innovation sessions held at Trivium. These allow us to put our knowledge into practice when dealing with a problem determined by the client. In this way, we all work together to provide a solution to an existing challenge.

This phase of my projects always brings to mind the scenario in the movie Apollo 13 where a group of engineers had to make the most of scarce resources to solve a seemingly impossible task. So, I like to think that when I am working with few tools I must remember to keep my mind open, cooperate with others and work as a team to get through this challenge.

Customers ask us for solutions to meet their corporate sustainability goals; however, these goals can involve a wide variety of tasks, from reducing energy consumption to avoiding business travel. Many may not want to delve deeper into packaging, but our purpose is to motivate them and help them achieve their goal by using the right packaging.

By making the right choices in the manufacture of packaging, the use of plastics can be reduced. This will result in a lower carbon footprint and greater recyclability, which while not eliminating the need for mixed materials or stronger graphics, does reduce reliance on labels and adhesives. In this way, corporate sustainability objectives can be achieved much more quickly.

The targeting phase, key to project success

The process of large-scale manufacturing of metal packaging begins when Trivium and its engineering team define a solution. This is followed by the intervention of more than 80 scientific experts who create the prototypes, perform tests to evaluate quality and performance, as well as ensure compliance. The company has extensive experience in all kinds of products such as baby food, convenience foods, gin and even house paint, which makes it possible to cross-reference solutions and ideas for manufacturing.

During the current phase, the client still needs to be cautious. To make sure we are on the right track, we usually share prototypes and progress for possible amendments if necessary. At the same time, we test it directly on the customer’s filling lines. It is also the perfect opportunity to review existing business models. New packaging can offer some commercial opportunities; for example, Trivium has worked with many brands to adopt a certain refill model that exploits its reusability and recyclability with metal containers.

During this innovation phase, both Trivium and the client will have to spend some time to check that all aspects have been taken into account. This means not only testing the product, carrying out the manufacturing, but also completing some compliance checkboxes. If all goes well, we will be ready to launch the new software or tool in the market.

The result

In the end, it was all over, and what remained was the conclusion of this matter. The unknowns had been unraveled, and all the compromises reached. It was shown that change is necessary from time to time if great results are desired, and for that there had to be good planning and a strong team.

Customers are now asking what types of products they get and how they are wrapped to preserve the environment. This means that we need a new innovative approach. At Trivium, our idea is to hold Innovation Sessions that involve consumers from the beginning to gather different opinions. Conducting this discussion process is the only way to achieve significant progress in terms of sustainability through innovation.