What’s the best way to innovate?

I’ve recently been on a whistle-stop tour of can plants and machine manufacturers across the UK and Europe and the question of innovation has cropped up on many occasions.

It seems to me, in my short time as editor of CanTech, that the manufacturing process has changed very little over the years.

For two-piece, which I have been exposed to the most recently, the process is the same now as it was many years ago – albeit a much faster process with the advances that have been made.

So how does the industry see things developing?

One recurring area over my many chats and interviews has been the quality of printing when it comes to cans.

New and improved methods are now allowing can makers to offer photo quality images on their packaging, as well as numerous fancy finishes. I recently held in my hands a can that had a textured finish the likes of which I had never seen before.

The options are truly vast, and it seems that there’s not much you can’t print on a can today.

Where next? That is my question to you.

The other area that has seemingly moved forward in leaps and bounds is that of inspection. On a recent visit to a can plant, I saw a can rejected for a defect that would have been difficult to find had you not been looking for something that was amiss.

This begs the question; are the inspection controls too vigourous and are we as an industry rejecting perfectly good cans with only very minor defaults when they could be used by the fillers with no perceptible or obvious problems apparent to the end user?

I talk, of course, about imperceptible problems with the print finish, not the can body itself.

Quality is of the essence, of course, but spoilage is also an issue that costs the industry a vast amount of money each year.

Are there savings to be made here that would not affect brand image? Could these cans still be sold at a slightly reduced rate?

I am not for a second suggesting that this is the correct way forward. I am merely asking you, the experts, for your opinions on the matter.

If you’d like to offer an opinion on either topic, please do feel free to contact me directly and I will post your responses accordingly.

Best,

Richard