Email Jim at jim.thompson@ipulpmedia.com

The title of this column is playing out right now in the packaging segment. Lightweight recyclable packaging is winning out over traditional packaging--and this is being accepted in the markets as an improvement in quality.

This column is something of a continuation from last week with a slightly different slant.

A quality change can create markets. I am so old that when a child, sliced bread was a relatively new thing at the grocery store, and nearly the only way you could buy a product manufactured from wheat. In the 1970's, English muffins and bagels became widespread, off-the-shelf items from the same raw material. Widespread marketing of yogurt, a product of the milk industry, appeared almost spontaneously in 1975. I remember a colleague and I daring each other to eat some of it at lunch one day. The transformation of the telephone from fifty years ago has been dramatic.

Some companies in our industry, primarily ones headquartered in Europe, are deconstructing pulp and creating high quality superior products mimicking or improving upon petroleum-based products.

But what else can we do? I have stated many times, even recently in this column, that paper and paperboard used for its physical qualities is the future of the pulp and paper industry.

Let's look at several possibilities...

The cereal box with which we are familiar in North America. Its basic functionality has not changed in at least sixty years. Many dislike the liner bag that actually holds the product--difficult to open and does not reseal. Seems to be a product whose quality could be greatly improved at a lower cost by clever designers.

Oil cans. These went from a spiral wound paperboard product to a plastic jug about thirty years ago. Seems like a product our industry could retake this segment with a clever publicity and marketing campaign.

Lawnmower decks. Formerly steel, now plastic. Susceptible to grass buildup. Could a stout, throwaway paperboard lawnmower deck be a quality improvement?

The point is, the opportunity to improve products exists continuously, for every product.

In some cases, quality improvement in existing products can result in outsized market share improvements for the inventor.

In other cases, with material substitutions, quality improvement can bring a whole market segment to us that was previously out of reach.

The limit is only imagination.

Be safe and we will talk next week.

If you would like to dig a little deeper, [click here].

________

Other interesting stories: