Britney Callahan
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Britney Callahan
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Sealed Air is driven by ideas and innovation; our culture thrives on it. But sometimes an idea comes along that is truly revolutionary: enter SEE’s new fiber-based solutions for e-commerce.
- BUBBLE WRAP® brand paper bubble mailer
- SEALED AIR® brand return-ready paper mailer
- AUTOBAG® brand 850S paper bagging and printing machine
From a market need for more sustainable solutions in the e-commerce space, a desire to leverage our AUTOBAG® brand capabilities in paper, and an ongoing exploratory project in Innovation & Development, emerged a multi-disciplinary team willing to test, learn, rebuild, and ultimately invent three new paper-based innovations.
Initially, the team worked to build the business case proving the feasibility of these products. A small team discussed the idea of paper bubble mailers and produced hand samples to get touch, feel, and initial feedback, then they continued to iterate and experiment.
Next, the team needed to put their ideas into action and determine how these products could work on a real-life production line. For experimentation, SEE’s Holyoke, Mass., site was identified for its adaptability and expertise on making BUBBLE WRAP® brand Jiffy Lite mailers, and access to raw materials. There, the team was able to test and see what succeeded on the current plastics line, then brainstorm how to adapt to make it feasible for paper.
A core team took these conceptual ideas, putting parts together to make a final solution. In the case of the AUTOBAG® brand 850S paper bagging and printing machine, an advanced concepts team put pieces of metal, electronics, and mechanics together to see how it would work, adapting and learning to determine if we could redesign a poly bagger, a machine for plastic, for paper purposes, leading to our pilot converting line. In parallel, our materials teams did an analysis over 18 different types of paper to see what would work best on recyclability, in robustness for e-commerce transit and the look and feel we need for soft goods like apparel. The team had to manage three projects at once, and then get them to work in sync so we could offer our customers the full AUTOBAG® brand 850S paper bagging and printing solution.
From these efforts, the team was able to pursue the project to-market.
Interested in learning more about SEE’s fiber-based solutions for e-commerce? Contact a member of our team today.