Packaging is everywhere. It is hard to imagine a world without it, but it is more than a container for goods. For brands, the packaging represents their image to the world. For packaging converters, the challenge is to render the vision of the designers while meeting a variety of requirements dictated by what the package will contain, how it will be handled, and regulatory requirements. Beyond that, they need to produce the packaging with an eye on their production costs to meet customer requirements and business profits.

That means staying ahead of the curve. Not just about keeping up with design trends but transforming how to approach production. The easy answer is to automate. Automation is the cornerstone of creating a production workflow that unlocks efficiency, consistency, and profitability.

There is no magic wand or spell that turns your production into an exemplar of efficiency. Let’s look at three pillars to build on toward automated packaging production. Designing graphics that captivate, engineering structures that perform, and orchestrating workflows that deliver are the places to start.

Designing Graphics to Meet Brand Requirements

Brand owners today are under pressure. Their products need packaging that leaps off the shelf, screams quality, and aligns perfectly with their brand identity. And they need it yesterday. At the same time, those primary packages need to be shipped to their final distribution points, and that may take specialized secondary packaging. Meeting these demands requires a strategic approach to graphic design automation.

Automation in Graphic Design

Graphics are more than just visuals; they’re a brand’s identity on display. Automation in graphic design is the key to meeting brand owners’ expectations for consistency, vibrancy, and precision. Solutions from industry leaders like Esko, eProductivity Software, Hybrid Software, and HiFlow offer tools that automatically flag resolution problems, missing fonts, and incorrect color spaces, saving valuable time and preventing costly errors.

Digital Asset Management (DAM)

A robust DAM system is essential for managing brand assets efficiently. Esko’s MediaBeacon provides a centralized repository for storing, organizing, and accessing approved brand assets, eliminating the chaos of searching for the latest logo or imagery. You might also look at Adobe Experience Manager, Widen Collective, or Bynder. This ensures that every piece of packaging is on-brand and up-to-date, reducing the risk of costly reprints and brand inconsistencies.

Content Management

Helping brands manage and approve content changes across multiple departments from design to legal, is an often-overlooked part of the packaging value chain. Version control of content to meet consumer and regulatory requirements is key to ensuring accuracy and shortening the time to market for packaging. Solutions like Esko’s WebCenter and Hybrid Software’s CloudFlow help manage the flow of information and content that eventually ends up on or in the package.

Color Management

Consistent color reproduction across various substrates and printing processes is crucial. Esko's Color Engine, integrated within their Automation Engine workflow, offers centralized color management, ensuring uniformity across different packaging formats. For converters handling multiple brands, eProductivity Software’s ColorProof XF excels in creating and managing color profiles, reducing makeready time and material waste. Hybrid Software also offers a suite of solutions for profiling, color management, down to the DFE controller. Also consider X-Rite i1Pro 3, GMG ColorProof, and ColorGate.

Preflight Automation

Identifying potential production issues before they reach prepress is vital. HiFlow’s preflight automation tools automatically check for resolution issues, missing fonts, and incorrect color spaces, saving time and preventing costly errors. By catching these issues early, converters can avoid delays and ensure that every job runs smoothly.

Empowering Creativity with “Guardrails”

Automation isn’t about replacing designers; it’s about empowering them. Esko’s WebCenter and Automation Engine, and Hybrid’s Artflow allows brand owners to create templates with locked-down brand elements while allowing flexibility in other design aspects. This reduces revision cycles and ensures brand compliance from the get-go. By automating tedious tasks, designers can focus on creating stunning visuals that capture attention and drive sales.

Structurally Sound Packaging Engineered for Efficiency

In the fast-paced world of packaging, staying ahead requires more than just keeping up with trends—it demands a fundamental shift in how we approach production. Automation is no longer a luxury; it is the path to efficiency, consistency, and profitability.

Optimizing Structural Design

For converters working with corrugated materials, Esko’s Cape Pack provides sophisticated tools for optimizing case and pallet designs. The software can automatically calculate the most efficient arrangement of products within a case and cases on a pallet, reducing material usage and shipping costs while ensuring product protection.

eProductivity Software’s Packaging Suite includes powerful structural design tools that integrate seamlessly with their broader workflow solutions. Their approach emphasizes the connection between structural design and downstream production processes, ensuring that designs are not just creative but also manufacturable.

3D Visualization Tools

Several vendors offer 3D visualization tools to automate and ensure the compatibility of the artwork and structural design of the package. Hybrid Software has made significant advances in 3D visualization tools that allow designers and brand owners to evaluate structural designs virtually before committing to physical prototypes. Their PACKZ 3D capabilities enable real-time visualization of design changes, significantly reducing the time and material waste associated with multiple prototype iterations. Users of these tools can see where folds, flaps, perforations, glue lines, and other structural elements come together into the finished product.

Designing for Automation: A Proactive Approach

Forward-thinking converters are embracing “design for automation” principles, creating structural designs optimized for automated production processes. Esko’s ArtiosCAD is an industry standard for structural design, offering a comprehensive library of parametric design templates that can be quickly customized to specific requirements. When connected to Esko's Cape palletization software, it allows designers to optimize not just individual packages but entire pallet loads, enhancing both production efficiency and environmental impact. This proactive approach ensures that every design is ready for efficient production, minimizing delays and maximizing output. Also consider HiFlow Material Optimization Tools and Hybrid STEPZ.

Digital Twins: The Virtual Packaging Revolution

Esko’s Store Visualizer lets brand owners see how their packaging will look in a retail setting, while their Studio Tools create photorealistic 3D renderings, often eliminating the need for physical mockups. This not only speeds up the design process but also reduces costs and environmental impact by minimizing the need for physical prototypes. Brand stakeholders can envision how their products will appear in context within the store and on-the-shelf, including how it appears next to competitive products.

Workflow Automation: The Knockout Punch

Workflow automation requires both technology and organizational change. Cross-functional teams representing sales, customer service, prepress, and production are essential for successful implementation.

A Connected Approach to Packaging Automation

Packaging automation isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s an integrated strategy that connects graphic design, structural design, and production workflows. When evaluating solutions, prioritize open connectivity. The solutions mentioned from Esko, eProductivity Software, Hybrid Software, and HiFlow all offer robust APIs for integration with existing systems and future technologies.

Start with High ROI Areas

Start with areas offering the greatest return on investment—often those involving manual data entry or repetitive tasks—and expand your automation footprint as you achieve success. With a strategic approach, you can achieve the trifecta of increased quality, reduced costs, and improved responsiveness.

Material Optimization: Sustainability Meets Efficiency

HiFlow's tools help you minimize waste by calculating the most efficient nesting patterns for die-cutting. Their system analyzes multiple production scenarios to identify the approach that minimizes material usage without sacrificing efficiency. This not only reduces costs but also supports sustainability efforts by minimizing waste. For converters working with digital production equipment, Hybrid Software's STEPZ offers specialized tools for optimizing digital workflows, including sophisticated imposition and ganging capabilities that maximize press efficiency. Their approach recognizes the unique requirements of digital production, where job batching and sequencing can dramatically impact profitability.

Similarly, Phoenix from Esko uses artificial intelligence to plan the optimal material usage, imposition, and output device based on your current production equipment capabilities.

Automation in packaging production isn’t a single technology or solution—it’s an integrated approach that spans graphic design, structural design, and production workflows. The most successful converters are implementing comprehensive automation strategies that connect these elements into a seamless whole.

Remember that automation implementation is a journey, not a destination. With a thoughtful, strategic approach to automation, packaging converters can achieve the seemingly contradictory goals of increasing quality, reducing costs, and improving responsiveness to ever-changing market demands.

By embracing the three pillars of production automation, packaging converters can not only meet but exceed the demands of today's brand owners, ensuring their place at the forefront of a competitive industry.