Recently, we had the opportunity to attend the PACK EXPO Las Vegas — an unmatched collection of packaging innovators featuring more than 25,000 people and 1,600 different companies showing exhibits for 40 different vertical markets packed into more than 630,000 square feet of space.
Simply put, packaging is a key part of any product, and it’s evolving at a rapid pace. So let’s take a look at two areas of technology-driven evolution in packaging, and explore ways accounts receivable factoring can help your company stay ahead of the curve.
1. Robotics
Robotics can streamline your manufacturing process, lower overhead costs, cut down on errors and mistakes, and boost the bottom line in critical ways. Industrial automation is simply paving and accelerating the road to the future innovation — and it’s a pretty exciting highway to drive.
At PACK EXPO, we were treated with an endless parade of automating packing equipment. High-speed packaging feeders. New inspection conveyors. Vertical and horizontal baggers. Combination scales. Countless different types of vertical form/fill/seal equipment, in fact. The common theme in everything we witnessed was efficiency and ease-of-use. Robotics are faster, more cost-effective, more accurate, and more flexible. In hyper-competitive industries, packaging robotics can make the difference between leading the curve and falling behind your rivals for good.
2. Green Packaging
Every business would love to do every aspect of their business in the most earth-friendly way possible, but unfortunately it’s just not always going to be feasible. Thankfully, technology is making it easier and cheaper to do exactly that. Green packaging can be good for the earth, good for your customers, and, increasingly, good for your business as well.
For example, a favorite feature at PACK EXPO was the Reusable Packaging Pavilion. One company showed how they had partnered with a popular chip company to create 100-percent compostable chip packaging, which it proudly introduced to customers on Earth Day 2010. The partnership was successful in finding a product that worked at an affordable cost — two challenges that the chip company alone would have had difficulty conquering. Furthermore, the nifty new eco-bags were welcomed by heavy media attention, further boosting sales and return on the company’s initial investment.
In other words, the future is bright in packaging. But getting your company to the cutting edge requires no small amount investment in state-of-the-art technology and equipment — or in partnerships with innovators who can make your big ideas reality.
Here at Vertex Financial, our manufacturing factoring services can finance the big leaps your company is ready to make. We can even lend against milestone and progressive billing as well. Contact us for more information.
