Most consumers don’t really put much thought into packaging. They won’t notice the subtle changes made to a plastic bottle that could literally save tons of waste material in a year. In fact they might not even notice that the packaging for their favorite brands has probably changed a dozen times since they started purchasing that product. But the fact that the average consumer might not pay much attention to packaging doesn’t mean that packaging is not important.
Even slight changes to the design, material, or shape of a package can have significant effects. Improvements to packaging can cut down on waste, help reduce the amount of material used, lower costs, or solve a real problem that encourages consumers to buy one product over another one.
The PACK Solutions Challenge is an annual competition that challenges students to come up with innovative packaging solutions for real world-packaging problems. The PACK Solutions Challenge is in its 7th year, and will take place at the PACK EXPO in Las Vegas later this month.
Student teams from Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI) Partner Schools will be competing against each other in the challenge. Each team must try and come up with the best solution to the same problem. This year’s challenge involves packaging and shipping solutions for a fictional company called, “Innovative Pharmaceuticals Inc.”
Each team of students will present their proposals for packaging solutions during the expo, and the winning teams will be awarded scholarships. The first place team will split $4,000, the second place team will split $2,000, and third place will split $1,000.
While the challenge itself may be fictional, the point of the PACK Solutions Challenge is to develop potential solutions for real problems in the packaging and manufacturing industries.
While many consumers don’t really care that much about packaging and potential packaging solutions, those who own Indramat systems that are used for packaging probably do.