The Liberty Packaging Blog

“We solve product reliability issues with our Intercept Technology barrier packaging” is one of my elevator speeches. Because of this association with and passion for reliability issues, Liberty Packaging is a member of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and the Reliability Society, a technical Society within the IEEE, the world’s leading association for the advancement of technology. The New York City headquartered IEEE is dedicated to the advancement of technical innovation and excellence. It boasts over 400,000 members in more than 140 counties.  The Reliability Society has 24 chapters and members in 60 countries worldwide. The Boston/New Hampshire/Rhode Island IEEE chapter whose meetings I attend, is recognized as one of the top three most active chapters worldwide every year. That recognition is a credit to its dedicated volunteer officers.

Of course, with attending organizational meetings, comes potential networking benefits, but more important to me is the wealth of information shared at these meetings.  The monthly topics presented by leading experts are fascinating and enlightening.  During the December 2012 meeting, Ted Dangelmayer of Dangelmayer Associates and author of two renowned books on establishing a successful ESD management program, presented on the problems of electrostatic discharge to electronic devices. The reliability group members are typically engineers, so the presentations can be quite complex, such as one coming up in February having to do with Photonic Magnetometry to be presented by Chris Sataline from Lincoln Labs MIT, in Lexington MA.  Keith Donaldson, Director of the Intercept Technology Group, and I presented a few years ago on the topic How Carbon Footprint, Green Initiatives, and Reliability Can Work Together or Against Each Other”  Our presentation was based on a Bell Laboratories, Alcatel-Lucent, environmental impact study for manufacturers.  In fact, that white paper is available by request through the Liberty Packaging web site.

Liberty Packaging has been and still is involved with a few other professional groups such as SME (Society of Manufacturing Engineers), NDIA (National Defense Industrial Association), ESDA (Electrostatic Discharge Association) and the afore-mentioned IEEE.  For folks looking to furthering their careers and their knowledge, I highly recommend attending and perhaps being involved in a technical association.

Click here for your copy of the Bell Labs Environmental Impact Study

Sometimes it just takes a trained eye. Ted Dangelmayer has that in the field of electro-static discharge prevention (ESD or static charges):  a trained eye.  Ted and his team of scientists hunt factory floors, shipping rooms, or wherever there is potential for ESD strikes that ruin circuits, create defects, and/or endanger workers. Like the CSI TV shows, they follow a formulated procedure, based on their many years of experience, to find the systems’ weaknesses.  Ted and his team then recommend corrective action to their clients, typically a small expenditure when compared to the return the company receives in better product quality and reputation. Many times such a change requires retraining personnel, which Ted and his team will expertly do.

Liberty Packaging Co. will exhibit Intercept Technology Packaging products at the upcoming MFG4 in Hartford, CT - May 8 - 10 at the Connecticut Convention Center. Sponsored by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, MFG4 is a conference featuring supply chain solutions across four key industries: aerospace, defense, medical and energy.

I had the opportunity in the last few weeks to visit some factory floors. It is always thrilling for a curious man to view and hopefully participate in how things are made; the tools and equipment used, the noise of machine activity, laborers exerting, monitoring, being creative, deriving solutions, being productive; good old work fun. Because of the unique heavy duty barrier packaging we represent, Liberty Packaging has the opportunity to work with people at companies pursuing changes that help them become more environmentally safe while gaining cost savings. We help them by reviewing their processes to see if we can help things work better, easier, more efficiently. In my recent visits, these factory floors were busy and vibrant; very satisfying.

One visit was especially fascinating, because this company builds enormous, extremely heavy products. These metal products were huge, shiny, and exact. I tend to measure the greatest that man can build with regard to tremendous scale and exacting details against St. Peter’s Cathedral in Vatican City. That building is amazing. Of course, this factory is not designed for beauty, but they are making extremely precise equipment that is really huge in a building that could consume eight football fields in scale. Colossal cranes with thick cables hoisting massive items off vast heavy duty platforms and stages; everything is big: light fixtures, tools, banisters, everything sturdy and strong. Made me and the rest of us humans feel small as Hobbits. In its own way and within its own plan, this factory is amazing, too.

When entering the production floor, of course, it is the size and girth of things that immediately strike us visitors. Our escorts are sure not to allow any individual to be an absent-minded loose wanderer; carelessness may upset the dance-like rhythm which developed by generations of workers in this plant. Dangers have been recognized and minimized. So, off in a tight-knit pack we go, in concert with the tempo of this operation. We waltz over to the station to view and discuss whether our expertise may be useful here. Cranes, machines, carts, handling equipment, and workers are humming around all in an even, controlled tempo; stopping at exact times, moving only when it fit the rhythm.

After our consultations, we moved on to the rest of the plant tour, and as we did I could see the rows of these immense products in progress, from raw form to something shinier with more parts added, larger, but also more refined and precise.  What a pleasure it was for me to maneuver within this operation if only for a few hours. The plant’s flow represents an enormous investment in capital and labor which years of dedication and ingenuity have built. It is a masterpiece of industrial art.

I had the opportunity to hear the vice president of a major computer company speak about reliability and the tactics they use to achieve increased product reliability.  Because human nature strives to keep things the same and views change as uncomfortable, he emphasized that the change process was long and arduous. This VP was brought in like the new sheriff arriving in Dodge City. It was apparent he had complete executive support to change this company’s operation and design systems; in doing so he would enact a change in its culture. It worked famously. Their return has been extraordinary; they achieved tremendous increases in product reliability which led to lowered cost of goods on every level of the corporation and a stronger reputation amongst their customers.