NETTING IT OUT

The 3M Integrated Packing Tool is designed to ensure that manufacturers can produce the right product information for the right product packages in a timely and cost-effective manner. The tool structures and organizes the delivery of product information through a set of content-driven business processes. Savvy manufacturers, we believe, will use this tool to customize the labeling and packaging of goods for the customer economy.

MANUFACTURING, PACKAGING, AND THE TOTAL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

The Need for Consistent Product Information

Summer is fast approaching. It's time to get ready for the latest onslaught of creep-crawly critters. You head to your favorite garden shop to find an eco-friendly (yet effective) pesticide. After talking to the sales person, you buy a bottle of a distinctively branded new product. Everything you need to know is neatly printed on the package, including a step-by-step diagram about how to dilute and safely apply the product in your area.

But when you get home, you check the detailed instructions inside the package and find that the procedures for safe handling are not as easy as you thought. Even the application diagram and the recommended concentrations are different. Confused, you call the toll-free number, only to be told by the customer service representative that a third set of instructions, tailored for your location, is available on the company's Web site.

Conventional Product Packaging Activities

For its part, the manufacturer of the eco-friendly pesticide you've purchased is struggling to manage the product information for its total customer experience. The firm's marketing department is doing a great job of raising customer awareness by launching product promotions for different regions across the country. Product sales are up sharply owing to the distinctive packaging.

Yet behind the scenes, the company needs to manage the printed labels and application instructions that describe its products. Marketers, for instance, work with graphic designers to produce the step-by-step diagrams and artwork. Technical writers create the application instructions. Product managers ensure the accuracy of the chemical compounds listed on the labels. Packaging engineers then assemble the relevant product information, compiled from disparate (often paper-based) sources and from the exchange of email messages. This is often a tedious and largely manual process. Finally, packaging engineers need to coordinate the review and approval of labels and packaging, which can also become a time-consuming activity.

From Mass Marketing to Micro-Marketing

Further, as the manufacturer moves from mass marketing to micro-marketing, its packaging engineers need to manage the different product information produced for different markets. When the company launches a new product branding campaign, packaging engineers must manage the revisions to the artwork printed on product packages as well as the updates to the printed application instructions.

The manufacturer needs to coordinate the flow of product information. The processes for managing the printed packaging information can add weeks or months to the time required to launch the newly branded products. The solution, one might expect, is to manage electronically the descriptive product information, as part of a content-based business application.

THE 3M SOLUTION: AN INTEGRATED PACKAGING TOOL

From an Internal Solution to an Enterprise Application

As a diversified technology company with extensive know-how in manufacturing, the 3M Company is no stranger to the problem of managing product packaging information. In 1999, 3M began to develop an application to help manage the information for its own packaging supply chain. 3M teamed with Microsoft to develop a Web-based solution that met its own internal requirements.

Following these efforts and after investigating the needs of the marketplace, 3M decided to develop and market a commercial application, using the capabilities of the Microsoft .Net platform. For the past eighteen months, 3M has been working with Microsoft and a select group of manufacturers in consumer packaged goods, food and beverage, life sciences, automotive, and chemicals to transform its internally developed solution into an enterprise application.

An April Announcement

In April 2004, 3M announced the general availability of the 3M Integrated Packaging Tool Version 4.05, an application for managing both the structured and the unstructured product information required to produce product packages. This tool is designed to ensure that manufacturers can produce the right product information for the right product packages in a timely and cost-effective manner. It stores and manages granular content components--the text, data, and images that comprise product labels--in a repository. The tool then organizes and delivers the content components as part of a predefined business process.

Manufacturers need to be able to update their product packages quickly in order to launch new marketing campaigns and to tailor the description of goods to target markets. Manufacturers need to get the relevant words, phrases, numerical information, and artwork printed on their product packages, both to ensure compliance with government regulations and to conform to supply chain mandates from large retailers. Wal-Mart, for instance, often requires its suppliers to add unique barcodes and other descriptive information to all the goods it sells. Sears, Target, and Best Buy also have their own requirements for distinctive product labeling and packaging. The solution to responding to this plethora of retailer-specific specifications is to manage the customized packaging requirements for manufactured goods.

Using the 3M Integrated Packaging Tool, manufacturers can modify the labeling for target audiences and focus on different regional or demographic preferences. With all of the relevant content stored within a centrally managed repository, manufacturers can reduce the time required to produce product packages designed around seasonal or time-based events and promotions, and thus expedite promotional and branding campaigns. H.J. Heinz Company and W.W. Henry Company are among the early adopters, using the 3M solution for labeling food products and flooring adhesives, respectively.

THE INFORMATION CHAIN FOR PRODUCT PACKAGING

Managing the Customized Content

The 3M Integrated Packaging Tool features browser-based access to a central repository that stores and manages product packaging information. The tool structures and organizes the delivery of product information through a set of content-driven business processes. The tool relies on a series of templates to integrate access to both structured and unstructured product information stored within a library of content components.

Packaging engineers use predefined templates to accomplish the following:

* Identify the reference documents that describe the packages.

* Define the physical structure for different package sizes and other data-driven characteristics.

* Assemble the artwork for labels, including the text, barcodes, and other descriptive product information produced by graphic designers, technical writers, or marketers. (When required, this information can also include specifications for radio-frequency identification--RFID--tags.)

* Create the item specifications that identify the structure and the artwork for labeling particular packages.

* Combine an item specification with package data from operational manufacturing systems to produce the bill of materials for a specific product.

The 3M Integrated Packaging Tool provides different templates for the different steps of the packaging process. Packaging engineers select the templates relevant to the particular product and then modify the data fields and references to content components as needed.

As shown in Illustration 1, each template lists all of the relevant selections that the packaging engineers need to make; these selections are dynamically assembled from the underlying repository. The 3M Integrated Packaging Tool can then launch event-driven workflows. Once the templates are reviewed and approved, they are added to the central repository, from which other packaging engineers can access them when ...

Contact Info:
The 3M Company
3M Corporate Headquarters
3M Center
St. Paul, MN 55144-1000
Joal Storm
Marketing Manager, Global Packaging Solutions
Phone: 952.563.5087
Email: jbstorm@mmm.com
Internet: www.mmm.com