PACK EXPO Las Vegas: Conference program is 'packed' with solutions

What's new with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology? What are the latest advancements in robotics, coding technology and smart packaging? How can you increase packaging line performance, productivity and flexibility? Answers to these questions and many others will be provided at the Conference at PACK EXPO Las Vegas, taking place concurrently with the show, Sept. 26 to 28, at the Las Vegas Convention Center (more on the show and its exhibits next month). Produced by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI), the conference runs the three mornings of the show.

To find out more about the CONFERENCE AT PACK EXPO LAS VEGAS firsthand from PMMI, go to: pelv2005.packexpo.com/ content/solutions.html

The program is divided into three or four time periods each day, with four or five concurrent sessions planned for each time slot. The 50 conference sessions have been organized under several themes, or "tracks," including RFID, Security, Operations, Management, Materials, Pharmaceuticals and Controls. Within these tracks, packagers can choose from a variety of presentation topics. By using the new My PACK EXPO service in advance of the show, attendees can quickly be alerted to conference sessions that are relevant based on their profiles (see PD, July '05, p. 51).

The conference sessions each last 45 minutes. Attendees registering on or before Sept. 8 will pay a discounted fee of $55 per session. Those registering after Sept. 8 or on-site will be charged $75 per session. Show registration is required to register for any conferences. To register and learn more about PACK EXPO International 2004, visit www.packexpo.com or contact PMMI at 703/243-8555; fax: 703/243-8556; or e-mail: [email protected].

Mon., Sept. 26

RFID Track

Unlocking RFID's Power to Improve Packaging Productivity by Matt Ream, senior manager, RFID Systems, Zebra Technologies Corp.

Description: This vendor-neutral session will explore RFID in a packaging environment and how "smart labels" can be used to tag packages, containers, cases, pallets and more to achieve higher performance and productivity standards.

Gaining ROI: How RFID Can Enable a "Track and Trace" Solution within the Supply Chain by Serge Joris, director of CoLOS Product Solutions, MARKEM Corp.

Description: The world's largest consumer goods companies are looking for technologies and software to help them face tough challenges.

RFID in the Consumer Goods Chain: Mandated Compliance or Remarkable Innovation? by Larry Shutzberg, vp and chief information officer, Rock-Tenn Co.

Guidelines for Using Passive RFID Transponders by Rick Fox, president and CEO, FOX IV Technologies, Inc.

Description: This session will cover the AIM Guidelines for locating RFID tags on shipping cartons and pallets. The session will also share some of the challenges in applying RFID tags in production environments.

Operational Track

What is this Obsession with Speed? Slow Down and Improve Your Performance by Paul Patterson, director of sales and marketing, ATS Automation Tooling Systems, Inc.

Description: Speaker will describe the basic concept of Dynamic Simulation and Total Cost of Ownership models.

New Strategies for Tracking Equipment Maintenance and Repair Costs by Michael Holloway, director of technical development and reliability, NCH Corp.

Description: There is software available for automating information management, namely for managing equipment maintenance, parts replacement and labor costs, as well as scheduling work orders.

Troubleshooting Molson-Coors' Packaging Equipment by Paul Everitt, asset care manager, Molson-Coors Brewing Co., and Russell D. Leonard, vp, Monitoring Technology Corp.

Description: The purpose of this session is to discuss the inventions and technological advances that have led to the development of today's new generation of high-speed cameras.

Robotic Packaging Automation Opportunities by Mark Senti, gm and vp, the GSMA Division of SWF Companies.

Description: This presentation provides a detailed analysis comparing "system" reliability and benefits between robotics and traditional packaging systems.

Materials Track

Barrier Options for PET Bottles: Luck or Logic? by Lawrence Mucha, manager, Future Technologies Development, P.E.T. Terra Systems, Inc.

Description: This assessment process facilitates the identification of barrier technologies that will meet current and future business needs.

Aluminum Beverage Containers: Innovations and New Markets by Craig Covert, manager of marketing and communications, Alcoa, Inc., and Jim Fisher, vp, Packaging Industry Affairs, Ball Corp.

Description: Highlight recent innovations in the aluminum beverage can industry and explore markets where beverage cans are making inroads.

Paperboard Innovation and Marketplace Value by Brian F. Wagner, vp, Packaging & Technology Integrated Solutions, LLC.

Description: Research contracted by the Paperboard Packaging Alliance, consumer focus groups, retailer interviews and discussions with consumer packaged goods decision makers to understand perceptions of packaging

Aroma-Enhanced Packaging by Steven Landau, cofounder and chief technical officer, ScentSational Technologies.

Description: This presentation will explore how to give brand owners, manufacturers and packaging companies a new way to build memorable and compelling brand loyalty using aroma technology.

Security Track

Packaging Security and the Pyramid of Complexity by Carolyn Burns, global marketing manager, DuPont Security & Solutions.

Description: This presentation will assist brand owners in creating an overall brand protection program, covering areas such as risk assessment, technology selection, measuring results and enforcement.

Product Security: Protecting against the "Fifth Column" Threat by Ken Bloomfield, president, Tellico Harbor Consulting.

Description: Tracking product custody after it leaves the factory is only one part of product security. What must be considered is an adulteration prior to packaging.

Mass Serialization: The Bridge to RFID by Gregg Metcalf, industry market manager, Nosco Security Protection, Nosco, Inc.

Description: Learn about leading-edge brand authentication technologies and how mass serialization can develop an electronic pedigree that's available for implementation today.

Stamping out Counterfeit Drugs with In-Seam RFID Tags using Conductive Adhesives by Sushil Bhatia, executive in residence, Suffolk University, Boston, MA.

Description: The U.S. Food & Drug Administration is taking serious steps towards the problem of counterfeit drugs and has issued regulations for compliance.

Management Track

Clearing Your Packaging through the FDA's Food Contact Notification (FCN) Process in 120 Days by David Ettinger, attorney at law, Keller and Heckman LLP.

Description: This session will include a discussion on the U.S. legal and regulatory aspects of materials used in food packaging applications under the laws and regulations of FDA.

RFID: Customer Contracts, Privacy, and the Law by Ronald Quirk, attorney, Venable LLP.

Description: The important issues of vendor contracts and the impact of current and future legal and regulatory requirements that will face end-users once they implement RFID

Brand Enhancement through Smart Packaging by Paul Butler, director, Packaging Materials & Technologies Ltd.

Description: Dramatic forms of smart packaging could help sustain and, at the same time, counteract the pressures from private label and counterfeiters.

Coding Technology Advances Keep Pace with Packaging Trends by Chuck Ravetto, director, Small Character Marking, Videojet Technologies, Inc.

Description: As packaging designs and materials change, the method for coding and marking those packages changes, too.

Tues., Sept. 27

Keynote address:Nestle's Innovation Approach to Sustainable and Differentiated Packaging: Exceeding Consumer and Customer Expectations, Improving Performance and Optimizing Costs by Helmut Traitler, vp, Packaging, Nestec Ltd.

RFID Track

RFID and the Future of Packaging by Mark Roberti, editor, RFID Journal.

Description: This session will cover the current state of RFID technology and its adoption, as well as the major factors that will drive adoption over the next few years.

Integrating RFID into Packages: What to Consider in Meeting Customer Requirements by John Thorn, general manager, RFID Group, Checkpoint Systems, Inc.

RFID's ROI is in the "Problem-Solving" Stack by Bill Arnold, partner business manager, Omron Electronics, LLC.

Description: This session explains the benefits of RFID's unique capabilities to gather granular-level track-and-trace information from your manufacturing process.

How to Meet RFID Case- and Pallet-Tagging Mandates by Ann Marie Phaneuf, director of marketing, Weber Marking Systems, Inc.

Description: Key issues involved in establishing an RFID program that will comply with the most recent EPC guidelines for the RFID tagging of cases and pallets

Operations Track

Maximizing Performance on Your Existing Line by Mark Garvey, president, Garvey Corp.

Description: This presentation will educate the end-user on how to analyze the current performance of their packaging lines and allow them to easily change variables to simulate the effect of the change.

How to Improve Packaging Quality and Efficiencies Significantly by Mike Haldane, business manager, 3M.

Description: Session will highlight new and innovative packaging execution software that can significantly improve accuracy within the packaging operation.

Engineering Flexibility into Your Packaging Operations by Edward Goldman, senior vp, Foster-Miller, Inc. Description: The audience will learn an innovative strategy for maximizing production line efficiency.

Turning Information into Productivity: Successful Training Strategies for Manufacturing and Packaging Operations by Rande Allen, training manager, E2M/Polytron Training.

Pharmaceuticals Track

Using Robots to Improve Your Pharmaceutical Packaging Line Flexibility by Ignacio Muñoz Guerra, general director, AutoPak Engineering Corp.; Carl Traynor, senior director, marketing, Motoman, Inc.; and Enrique Moran, director of engineering and automation, Baxter Healthcare Corp.

What's Next in Packaging/Product Delivery Options? New Pharma Options Provide Some Answers by Neil Kozarsky, CEO, Momentus Solutions, LLC.

Description: There's increasing pressure for products and brands to "re-invent" themselves via innovative new packaging/delivery systems.

Qualifying to be a Healthcare Packaging Provider by Eric Gatmaitan, director, SMConsulting LLC.

Description: The speaker will examine the culture and profile of customers in the healthcare manufacturing industry and will demystify the industry requirements of FDA.

Meeting the Moisture-Protection Needs of the New Pharmaceutical Formulations by Adrian Possumato, business development leader, Pharmaceuticals, Multisorb Technologies, Inc.

Description: Pharmaceutical manufacturers face new challenges in packaging therapeutics that require ever-higher degrees of moisture protection.

Materials Track

Sustainable Packaging: The Metal Food Can's Environmental Impact by Bill Heenan, president, Steel Recycling Institute; Tom Hale, senior vp, sales and marketing, Ball Corp.; Jeff DeLiberty, senior marketing manager, Silgan Containers Corp.; and Jim Wilson, vp of sales, Food Division, CROWN Food Packaging USA.

Description: This presentation will offer insights and implications of metal food can recyclability as it impacts both the environment and the packaging industry.

Capitalizing on the "Nature-Based" Packaging Trend: A Case Study by Lisa Owen, global business leader for Rigid Packaging, NatureWorks LLC.

Description: The consumer appeal of fresh-in-natural packaging is driving increased adoption of nature-based packaging by food retailers and brand owners, who are using it to enhance their image and create product differentiation.

The Cost-Saving and Recycling Appeal of Polyolefin High-Shrink Roll-Fed Labels by Moris Amon, technical director, and Suner Rajan, business development manager, Avery Dennison Engineered Films Division.

Description: A discussion of the advantages of roll-fed shrink labels made of machine-direction-oriented polyolefin films versus the alternatives

Next Generation Stand-Up Pouches: New Capabilities, New Markets by Charles Murray, president and CEO, PPI Technologies.

Description: This session will highlight new standup pouches from a global point of view.

Wed., Sept. 28

Keynote address: Are Your Medications Real? The EPC and Counterfeit Pharmaceuticals by Mike Meranda, president, EPCglobal US.

Operations Track

Using System Improvement Techniques to Increase Your Packaging Throughput by Daniel G. Finazzo, PE, manager, Manufacturing Systems Group, Lockwood Greene Engineering, Inc.

Utilizing OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) to Maximize Packaging Line Productivity by Scott Klages, vp, senior manufacturing consultant, Parsec Automation Corp.

Valuing Ergonomic Packaging Machine Design by Dan Perez, project manager, Radius Product Development, Inc., and Ken Sullivan, director of marketing, SCA Packaging, Consumer Products.

Description: Ergonomics, the science of adapting the workplace to the worker, has been shown in study after study to provide significant benefits to employers.

RFID Track

Moving Beyond "Slap-and-Ship" to On-Line RFID Packaging Solutions by Craig Heidorn, product manager, Diagraph, An ITW Co.

Description: As the demand for RFID compliance increases, solutions will be required to keep up with increased production rates that exceed "slap-n-ship."

Incorporating RFID in the Package Architecture by Rick Garber, business unit manager, Smart Technology, Colder Products.

Description: The incorporation of RFID into packaging operations enables companies to effectively capture important fluid or product data, electronically verify system accuracy and protect their brand.

Mapping the Route to Full RFID Deployment ROI by Mike Cianfarani, supply chain consultant, Siemens Logistics & Assembly Systems.

Description: This session will provide lessons from application development and RFID used in the automated operating environment with examples of how RFID is enabling automation in the supply chain today.

Controls Track

Maxed Out on Productivity? Take Operational Efficiencies to the Next Level with Make2Pack by John Kowal, global marketing manager, Elau, Inc.; David Chappell, technology leader, Procter & Gamble Co.; Fred Putman, consultant, MARKEM Corp.; and Joe Faust, electrical engineering manager, Douglas Machines, Inc.

Description: This session will present business solutions through technology, solutions that will equip engineering leaders to contribute to their companies' bottom lines.

Servo Motion Control: The Heart and Soul of Packaging by Marghub Mirza, staff engineer, Parker Hannifin Corp.

Description: How servo controls are too good to ignore, obstacles, life without standardization

Real Time Ethernet: Assuring Accurate, Efficient and Timely Packaging Operations Data Transfer by Markus Sandhoefner, sales manager, B&R Industrial Automation.

Description: The development of a new standards-setting network called ETHERNET Powerlink(TM).

Management Track

How Your Packaging Choices Can Reduce "Unsaleables" and Boost Your Bottom Line by Mike Ghassali, senior vp of Genco Damage Research, GENCO Distribution System.

Supplier Relationship Management: A Packaging Road Map by Bill Michels, CEO, ADR North America LLC.

Calculating and Cutting Changeover's High Cost by John Henry, CPP, Changeover.com