Wins for the packaging industry

Positive signs of support for the packaging industry have been evident during the past quarter from educators, government and the private sector. A stream of small (and not-so-small) wins bodes well for the industry. Consider these events:

Clemson University has broken ground for a new 28,000 square foot center to become the home of the Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design and Graphics. Clemson claims to be one of only a handful of institutions that focus on the $200 billion plus packaging industry in the US and may be the only one that approaches it from areas as diverse as advanced materials, marketing and digital printing. The new center hopes to serve as an academic simulator, an industry resource for training and research and a driving force for innovation in packaging.

Purdue University in Calumet, Indiana has announced plans to offer a packaging-oriented mechatronics engineering technology degree at the Bachelor's level. This is quite possibly the first such initiative in the US that is expected to kick off in 2008.

Pennsylvania's Industrial Maintenance Training Center has received additional state funding to continue offering the first 11 technical credits of Reading Area Community College's Associate in Applied Science Degree in Mechatronics Engineering Technology. This packaging-oriented degree program will officially start in 2008, although students could begin to earn credits towards it last year. The program is currently open to incumbent workers at campuses of Reading Area Community College in Reading, PA and Lancaster Career and Technology Center in Mt. Joy, PA. More than 100 packaging machinery technicians have already taken part in the program, supporting research findings that the Associate Degree is the most appropriate credential for today's world-class maintenance techs.

The US Department of Labor has awarded a quarter of a million dollar regional innovation grant in support of the packaging industry in South Central Pennsylvania. This is a planning grant to create ideas of how to transform a regional economy around packaging by looking at areas as diverse as packaging design, packaging machinery technology, packaging supply chains, packaging education, and attracting venture capital to packaging investments. This 18 month initiative may lead to further funding to implement the transformational plans that are created.

These are all wins for the packaging industry. I believe strongly in the ability to achieve big goals by focsing upon a continuous stream of small wins. I'm sure that there must be many more wins out there. If you know of positive things that are going on related to packaging, I encourage you to share that information on this blog. Life is too short for any of us to be reinventing the wheel.

TrackBack

Comments Post a comment (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.) Name: Email Address: URL: Remember personal info? Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)