Rapid Package Development

The Opportunity

A major food brand owner approached a leading wholesaler to private manufacture and pack pesto sauces under its well-known private label brand. An agreement was made but the wholesaler asked them to deliver the pesto sauce in the same package it was getting from another supplier, so that the transition was seamless. However, the finish needed to be altered to accommodate a different closure.

The Innovation

PTI received the first phone call on December 21st. The brand owner said they needed to be in production by the middle of January and they still needed to qualify the sealing machine that was being manufactured for them abroad. A three-week turnaround was requested for a process which normally takes between 12 and 14 weeks. The partnership between PTI and PTI Operations was leveraged to condense the timeline as much as possible and additional pressures were placed on the tooling manufacturer.

PTI reverse engineered the package and designed the thread to accommodate the new closure. PTI’s Virtual Prototyping™ was used to design the preform, followed by tooling design and manufacture for the preform and blow mold. 51 calendar days after the initial phone call, 5,000 jars were delivered. Another 19 days later, on February 29th, production began.

The Outcome

Typical turnaround time was decreased by more than 40% due to the dedication and flexibility of both PTI and PTI Operations employees.