Come join 3C! Packaging at Interphex 2013 in NYC this

April 23-25 at booth # 3939.

* Folding Cartons
* Inserts/Outserts
* Labels
* New Product Launch Experts

Thank you for your interest in attending INTERPHEX New York 2013. INTERPHEX is the leading annual pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical trade show – where intelligence and passion intersect with the full spectrum of industry products and services to create new insights and innovation.

For more details http://www.INTERPHEX.com/DP635

]]> http://3cpackaging.com/2013/03/3c-packaging-at-interphex-2013/feed/ 0 http://3cpackaging.com/2013/01/3c-packaging-one-of-business-nc-magazines-fast-40/ http://3cpackaging.com/2013/01/3c-packaging-one-of-business-nc-magazines-fast-40/#comments Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:15:17 +0000 3c9199 http://3cpackaging.com/?p=1420 Continue reading →]]> 3C! Packaging Among Statewide “Fast 40” Growing Companies in Business North Carolina Magazine List

Clayton, NC – 3C Packaging, an independent privately-owned packaging solutions company specializing in the design and manufacture of custom folding cartons, printed literature, inserts, outserts, and unit dose compliant packaging, was included on Business North Carolina Magazine’s “Mid-Market Fast 40,” a list of middle-market companies throughout the state exhibiting sustained growth.

In determining the recognized companies, Business North Carolina used a number of criteria; chief among these were percentage of revenue growth and percentage of employee growth. 3C Packaging experienced double-digit year-over-year growth in both categories, earning it the distinction of being the only packaging manufacturer to make the list.

“3C Packaging is honored to be included among North Carolina’s most successful and forward-looking companies on Business North Carolina’s prestigious Fast 40 list,” said Joe Elphick, President and CEO of 3C Packaging. “We see it as an acknowledgement of our hard work, and offer our congratulations to the other recognized companies.”

New machinery, expanded services and increased visibility all were contributing factors to 3C Packaging’s growth. In recent years, the company has continued to meet customer demands by investing in additional packaging equipment, including:
• A Heidelberg 102ZP 2c Perfecting 28×40 Press for large format circulars
• A Vijuk MV2011 capable of folding a 40” L x 20” W sheet and up to 210 panels glued
• Two Vijuk Folders – one with a round pile feeder, and other with an SVA feeder
• A Longford Piggyback System with three placers, fully integrated bar code scanning and missing glue detection.

To help expand its roster of services, 3C Packaging also constructed a dedicated ink room, which houses the spectrophotometer, a system that provides greater control of the color matching process to better meet clients’ expectations by delivering superior print results. This spectrophotometer is used to execute 3C’s proprietary “Color by Numbers” concept – the company’s unique approach to the color management process.

Earlier this year, 3C Packaging revamped and enhanced it website, www.3CPackaging.com, and in 2010 the company opened a Concept Design Center in Philadelphia. Providing a means of enhancing customer face-time, expediting front-end solutions and showcasing industry-leading technologies, the center can duplicate the front end processes of the North Carolina headquarters, and is complete with full design/graphic capabilities, a sample-making area and an integrated customer service department.

The Independent Carton Group (ICG), an association of 17 independently owned and operated folding carton companies, today announced that its members have achieved significant monetary savings and environmental benefits as a result of the group’s energy efficiency program with Efficient Lighting Consultants (ELC).
ICG member companies that implemented energy-efficient lighting solutions in their manufacturing facilities, warehouses, and offices through ELC and various other means are collectively saving $1,871,806 in electricity costs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by over 18.1 million pounds annually.
The ICG’s energy efficiency program enabled members to tap into ELC’s expertise in auditing energy consumption, devising conservation strategies, leveraging energy incentives and implementing technologies that provide for the immediate reduction of energy usage – all while remaining within members’ current utility budgets, the group said in a press release.
Across the country, ICG members, many of which have multiple locations, worked directly with ELC to create a custom plan for their facilities and install new energy-efficient lighting, which has resulted in sizeable reductions in members’ electrical costs and carbon footprints. Also, members that had already installed more efficient lighting prior to the ICG program with ELC enlisted ELC to perform a lighting audit and implement any additional measures that would provide for further gains in energy efficiency.
“For nearly 30 years, the ICG has existed to support members, and encourage them to support each other, through group purchasing, supply assurance, educational and networking programs. These programs are deeply rooted in our members’ shared values of high-quality folding carton production, competitive pricing and business continuity,” said Andy Willie, president of the Independent Carton Group, LLC. “The success of this program with ELC demonstrates that we can also count environmental stewardship among our members’ shared values today.”
The ICG members’ $1,871,806 in collective annual savings is the result of over 16.4 million kilowatt hours of electricity they are saving each year. This is equivalent to over 8.4 million pounds of coal and nearly 1.1 million gallons of oil not burned, or the amount of fossil fuels needed to provide 1,976 homes with electricity for one year. ICG members have also helped reduce air pollution and improve air quality by decreasing their greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful environmental pollutants. Gas emissions avoided annually include 33,383 pounds of sulfur oxides, 8,906 pounds of nitrogen oxides and over 18 million pounds of carbon dioxide.
“In addition to considerable environmental and cost-saving benefits, many of our members have told us that the new lighting reflects true colors better and provides for improved color matching. Since we know our members work closely with color matching in the manufacture of folding cartons, we’ve been very pleased to hear about this ancillary benefit of the program,” said Willie.
The ICG recently extended the program to its designated vendors, encouraging them to utilize ELC in support of their own energy efficiency initiatives and inspire even greater aggregate gains. Several ICG vendors, including Clearwater Paper Corporation and Superior Printing Ink Co., Inc., are currently working with ELC through this program. The ICG highly recommends ELC’s products and services to any organization looking to implement efficient lighting solutions with no out-of-pocket expense. Please call the ICG at 203.270.7578 to learn more.
About Independent Carton Group
The Independent Carton Group (ICG) is an association of independently owned and operated folding carton companies. The ICG helps its members provide exceptional products, service and pricing to their customers through group purchasing, supply assurance, educational and networking programs. ICG members include Accord Carton, Accurate Box, All Packaging, Climax Manufacturing, Colbert Packaging, Curtis Packaging, 3C Packaging, Dee Paper Box, Diamond Packaging, Disc Graphics, El Paso Paper Box, Finn Industries, Metro Packaging and Imaging, Royal Paper Box, Sonderen Packaging, Thoro Packaging and Zumbiel Packaging. For more information about the Independent Carton Group, visit www.independentcartongroup.com

3C Packaging has launched a “Color By Numbers” program based in a dedicated ink room at its Clayton, NC, headquarters. The room houses a spectrophotometer, which provides a linchpin for greater control of and results from its color matching processes.

Spectrophotometry is a process in which links are accurately and repeatedly mixed to achieve a match within one Delta E, a tolerance barely perceptible to the human eye. This ensures consistency of color from batch to batch and run to run, thereby reducing the variability of the printing process and simplifying the final stages of client approval.

The converter reports an array of upsides. One is a tightening of tolerances for ink through in-house ink mixing, which leads to less overall ink being needed to produce exacting colors. Another benefit has been the elimination of subjective approval of color tolerances, because the machine handles this electronically.

On a related note, 3C now boasts complete color standardization across entire vendor lines… meaning an individual customer will have the exact same colors, shades, and hues across a full line of cartons, displays, labels, etc., regardless of the print material.

3C Packaging, an independent privately-owned packaging solutions company, has been named the Raleigh-Durham “Research Triangle” region’s fastest growing businesses by Triangle Business Journal.  New infrastructure and an expanded roster of machinery helped 3C Packaging grow by 20% in its 2011 fiscal year, reinforcing the company’s solid reputation for business leadership.

Triangle Business Journal honored the  area’s 50 fastest growing private companies at its annual “Fast 50 Awards,” which were presented in November and recognized entrepreneurial excellence and achievements. The list is available online at www.trianglebusinessjournal.com .

Contributing factors to 3C Packaging receiving recognition include:

• An enhanced equipment line – including presses, feeders and folders – that combine to make the company’s packaging capabilities even more dynamic
• Construction of a dedicated ink room, which houses a new Spectrophotometer – a system providing greater color matching control and superior print results
• A Concept Design Center in Philadelphia to enhance customer face-time, expedite front end solutions and showcase industry-leading technologies

Meeting the Tightest Possible Deadline Through the Best Possible Planning

Tight deadlines are a fact of life for packaging and printing solutions companies servicing the pharmaceutical industry.  Often, these companies find themselves waiting for materials and verbiage to be approved by customers against a ticking clock for order fulfillment.  They are the middle men, the go-betweens, the conduit connecting a pharmaceutical company’s wishes to its packaging lines’ demands.

 Most deadlines are manageable to meet.  Others are more challenging.  And every once in a while, a project arises whose deadline seems impossible.  This was the case for 3C! Packaging of Clayton, North Carolina, this past February, when 3C! faced the challenge of producing five separate components from the same top-five pharmaceutical company over the course of a weekend – totaling more than half a million units in approximately 36 hours.

 “We knew it would be tight – but not that tight,” said Joe Elphick, President of 3C! Packaging.  “I think that project stepped right up to the brink of physical impossibility.  There was enough time to print the units and ship the units – and that was it.  The execution needed to be absolutely flawless for us to achieve our standards of quality and timeliness.”

 It was the work that was done ahead of time that mattered.  Collaborative meetings, a thorough review and re-review of product specifications, and having the equipment available at a moment’s notice were just the beginning.  From there, 3C! Packaging performed trial runs of various launch components during the scant downtime between other pressing projects, and implemented a raw materials plan incorporating not only quality, but quantity and physical location of each quantity – all toward the goal of saving as much precious time as possible without sacrificing exemplary customer service.

And in the interest of going the extra mile, 3C! Packaging executed an all-hands-on-deck manpower strategy – including sales executives, customer service representatives, graphics teams, pressmen, folding crews, quality assurance specialists, shipping personnel – that ran full shifts not only over the weekend, but what was, essentially, a holiday as well.

“It was Super Bowl weekend,” said Elphick.  “Now that’s dedication.”

In the end, final approval came through shortly before 6:00 AM on Saturday, February 4.  Only then, it suddenly did not.  After starting the step-by-step process of proofing, color staining and printing, the operation was halted again due to a last-minute revision.  The machines started up again shortly thereafter, and continued running overnight and all through the next day, with the last bunch coming off the printer as Super Bowl XLVI blared in the background.  And as mandated by the client, all five components were delivered by Monday morning to the packaging lines to be filled with product.

In any launch that involves contract manufacturing, there are always two teams: the customer’s team and the contracted team that its company hires.  The tighter the deadline – the more perfect the execution must be – the more important it becomes for those two teams to coalesce.  Using an exhaustive game plan and realistic drills, 3C! Packaging ensured that its team seamlessly became one with its customers.  The only thing left to do was to go out and execute on Super Bowl Sunday.

CLAYTON, NC – In response to customers’ growing demands for the inclusion of additional product information in their smaller packages, 3C! Packaging, an independent privately-owned packaging solutions company, recently upgraded its Vijuk MV 2011 Outsert System with a special knife that allows for the folding of outserts with up to 210 panels. The machine is one of the first in the U.S. with this capability.

The innovative Vijuk Outsert System is capable of folding both inserts and outserts, allowing 3C! customers to add flexibility to print a large number of panels for end-user instructions.

In addition to folding up to 210 panels, the MV 2011 also allows 3C! to offer its customers folded outserts with finished, folded sizes as small as 1 1/4 by 1 1/4 inches. It also has a water scoring feature, which drops a series of tiny water dots to soften fibers in the paper, allowing 3C! to reduce the thickness of outserts and inserts by 13-18%. This enables 3C! to put more leaflets in customer trays, so that customers need less storage and don’t have to change the tray as frequently.

“We remain committed to delivering smart packaging solutions and top quality service to our customers,” said Joe Elphick, President and CEO of 3C!. “For some time now, the MV 2011 has furthered our ability to live up to our promise to our customers and this recent upgrade will be no exception. The new capabilities of this machine will strengthen our position as a company that stands for innovation and efficiency. We are proud to offer such advanced technology.”

CLAYTON, NC - 3C! Packaging, an independent privately-owned packaging solutions company, finished its 2010-2011 fiscal year (July 1, 2010-June 30, 2011) with 20% growth and, on average, annual double-digit growth for five consecutive years. New ideas, new infrastructure, and newly-installed packaging machinery highlighted a successful 12-month period and set 3C! up for a bright FY 2011-12. The details:

Bulking Up: Newly-installed Packaging Machinery

3C! Packaging continued to meet customer demands by investing in additional packaging equipment. The following were installed during the company’s 2010-11 fiscal year:

• Heidelberg 102ZP 2c Perfecting 28×40 Press for large format circulars >25″ in length
• Vijuk MV2011 capable of folding a 40″ L x 20″ W sheet and up to 210 panels glued
• Vijuk Folder with Round Pile Feeder, FA43 / 12 plate St.I, FA35 4 plate St.II and MV97 capable of folding 90 panels
• Vijuk Folder with SVA Feeder, FA43 / 12 plate St.I, FA 35 4 plate St.II and MV97 capable of folding 90 panels
• Longford Piggyback System with three placers, capable of an additional three placers, fully integrated bar code scanning and missing glue detection w/ejection for non-conforming product, direct-to-tray delivery system for accurate counts and reduced labor

Matching Outfit: New Spectrophotometer Produces Superior Color Matching

In March, 3C! Packaging completed the construction of a dedicated ink room in their Clayton, NC headquarters. The room houses the company’s new spectrophotometer, a unique system that provides greater control of the color matching process to better meet clients’ expectations by delivering superior print results. This spectrophotometer is used to execute 3C!‘s proprietary “Color by Numbers” concept – the company’s unique approach to the color management process.

What a Concept: 3C! Gives its Customers a Close-up Look

Last November, 3C! Packaging opened a Concept Design Center, located in Philadelphia. The design center was created to enhance customer face-time, expedite front end solutions and showcase industry-leading technologies. The center can duplicate the front end processes of 3C! Packaging’s Clayton, NC headquarters, and is complete with full design/graphic capabilities, a sample-making area and an integrated customer service department; in short, it provides a first-hand experience of 3C!‘s day-to-day operations

“To average annual double-digit annual growth over a five-year period is a rarity – let alone achieving this in a down economy,” said Joe Elphick, President and CEO of 3C! Packaging. “The most important factors are our loyal pharmaceutical client base and, of course, our outstanding team here at 3C!, who show an unyielding commitment to new ideas, new investments, and new ways of meeting our customers’ high expectations while preparing us for an even brighter future.”

As seen in “Package Printing” Magazine

3C! Packaging uses a two-fold approach of lean manufacturing and equipment investment to continue solid growth in its folding carton business.
Joe Elphick , president and CEO of Clayton, N.C.-based 3C! Packaging, may assume a calm, matter-of-fact manner when discussing his folding carton company’s latest achievements, but make no mistake, 3C! has logged a performance record worthy of the exclamation point that graces the company’s logo. Specifically, the converting company, which also produces printed literature inserts and unit dose compliant packages, recently reported 20 percent growth during the 2010-2011 fiscal year and has been averaging double-digit annual growth during the last five years. What’s more, in a stubborn climate of continual cost cutting for companies across all industries, 3C!‘s “healthy balance sheet,” as Elphick describes it, has allowed the company to buck the belt-tightening trend and actively invest in packaging equipment to more effectively serve customer needs. Its new installations in the past year have included a Heidelberg 102ZP 2c Perfecting 28 x 40 press, a Vijuk MV2011 outsert system, two Vijuk folders, and a Longford piggyback system.

As Elphick relates the history of 3C! Packaging (formerly known as Colonial Carton Company), it’s clear that for him, creating a successful converting company was not a question of “if,” but rather of “when.” Back in 1978 3C! was formed when Elphick, who is originally from New Jersey, pooled his mechanical ability with a local partner’s folding carton expertise to pursue the American dream of company ownership. The two entrepreneurs started with $600 and a 1940s hand diecutter, and expanded the company one capability at a time. “There was a lot of hand gluing in the beginning,” concedes Elphick.

Operations were relocated to North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park (RTP) area after Elphick and his partner saw an opportunity to provide a more nimble response to customer needs than the larger converting firms that then served the RTP marketplace. 3C!‘s first customer was a North Carolina-based pharmaceutical company, and though the going was difficult, the fledgling company gradually gained a strong local foothold by delivering on immediate or emergency turnaround needs (particularly for short-run work) and continually leveraging customer recommendations.

Today, 3C!‘s Clayton, N.C., facility employs nearly 200 people, uses six presses, and offers 7-color web flexo, web offset, and sheetfed offset printing. 3C!‘s folding carton operation primarily serves pharmaceutical firms (pharma makes up 75 percent of its customer base), as well as the food and software industries, while its printed literature insert capabilities solely serve the needs of pharmaceutical firms.

In late 2010, Elphick decided the time was right to expand operations back in the Northeast. He opened a Philadelphia-based Concept Design Center—essentially a duplication of the front-end design and prototype capabilities in-house at the Clayton facility that is intended to more efficiently serve 3C!‘s concentration of Northeast-area clients. “Now it is possible to give our clients in the [Northeast region] one- to two-day turnaround,” Elphick explains, adding, “The Center also works hand-in-hand with our Creative Services department in Clayton by mutually helping each other with any peak workload that might occur.”

Uncommon success story
Growth, new installations, operational expansion—how has 3C! managed to create such an overwhelmingly positive performance trajectory during a more somber time of struggle for many other companies? To Elphick, the foundation that makes ongoing investments and growth possible is 3C!‘s tenacious focus on lean initiatives. Specifically, he touts 3C!‘s plan to continue a two-path system of manufacturing in order to maintain the company’s double-digit growth rate. “One path is to continue to make investments that lead us to be the most technically advanced—but that is not enough to succeed,” he notes. “The second path is to continue to improve our processes in terms of being the leanest manufacturer in the packaging arena.”

From a management team perspective, 3C accomplishes leanness through flatness in its executive hierarchy. Without what Elphick terms an “ivory tower,” innovative answers to customer challenges “come simply.” It’s this organizational approach, Elphick says, that enables 3C!‘s entrepreneurial approach to business—specifically flexibility and speed—to thrive.

Another aspect of that organizational flatness is accomplished through limited employee turnover. Elphick says that “team player” is a top qualification he seeks during 3C!‘s talent recruitment process; candidates must not only demonstrate strong collaboration skills, but also a hold a track record of team commitment. “If we get an application that illustrates the candidate has a different employer every other year, we know that person will not fit our team,” Elphick explains. Those who demonstrate staying power are often rewarded. “It is a primary goal of mine to provide upward mobility to employees,” Elphick states. “Some of our finest managers started as hourly associates in the company.”

On the production front, 3C!‘s lean manufacturing philosophy gained particular momentum after a major fire at the company in 2005 destroyed all of its equipment. “We invested in new technologies that reduced prior makeready times, we automated our scrap system, and we purchased high-speed equipment,” recalls Elphick. The company’s latest lean assessment was completed in August, and another “lean launch” was initiated in September, he reports.

For 3C!, the lean approach to solving customer challenges means removing costs, rather than reducing costs. “We don’t reduce cost by sacrificing margins,” Elphick clarifies. As one example, he points to the company’s recent successful development of bulk packs that have cut down on customers’ corrugated case cost. Innovations like these, he says, begin when a 3C team visits the client’s production line and evaluates cost removal opportunities. Following these visits, the team coordinates a series of meetings with clients and key stakeholders to gather feedback and develop an implementation plan.

On another occasion, Elphick reports, this approach enabled 3C! to help a customer lengthen a paperboard tray containing printed literature inserts—a change that not only reduced the cost of the trays, but also reduced the number of trays the packaging machine operator had to load each day. In still another case, 3C! is delivering folding cartons with the printed literature insert already glued inside—an innovation that has increased clients’ equipment efficiencies and reduced their inventory management requirements from two SKUs to one SKU.

From lean to machines
With every installation of new technology, 3C! Packaging further reinforces its underlying culture of lean manufacturing—by more efficiently accomplishing the cost removal innovations it develops for customers. For instance, its new Vijuk MV 2011 folding machine is the industry’s first miniature folder that is capable of folding up to 210 panels. In addition, 3C!‘s new Heidelberg 1-2ZP 2c Perfecting 28″ x 40″ press was purchased to produce wide-format printed literature inserts (as large as 20″ x 40″) on fine paper (27 lbs.), allowing the company to offer more options to its pharmaceutical customers including new product launches.

However, increased innovation and efficiency can give rise to heightened technical challenges. As an example, Elphick points out that when producing folding cartons with a glued insert attached inside, “the challenge is to guarantee all cartons actually have one insert, and it is the correct insert, and it is in the precise place specified. This can only be accomplished by having a very robust vision/ejection system on one’s gluing equipment.” At 3C!, up to nine vision scanners are used when inserts are adhered to folding cartons; any defaults are ejected directly into the waste bin.

While wider-format printing is an emerging need for 3C!‘s printed insert work, Elphick doesn’t expect to take the company’s folding carton printing to wider horizons. “The pharmaceutical markets we serve are best served on high-speed 40″ format presses, mainly because the blanks are usually smaller and the quantities are relatively small,” he maintains. Future investments in the folding carton arena, he notes, will likely be centered on technologies that can reduce set-up time and increase speed. In other words, a larger exclamation point on the company logo might soon be needed to more accurately convey 3C!‘s evolving capabilities.