Articles Library

This library contains downloadable articles, trade pieces, and technical commentary written over many years of hands-on packaging work across manufacturing, retail, foodservice, logistics, and investment environments.

These articles are not marketing content.

They are written to explain how packaging systems actually behave — where decisions fail, where risk accumulates, and how design, materials, equipment, and operations intersect in the real world.

They are frequently referenced in executive, investor, and diligence discussions to provide shared context and accelerate productive conversations.

Articles are organized by topic, not by date.

This reflects how packaging issues are encountered in practice — by category, system pressure, or decision type — rather than chronology.

Many articles appear in more than one category.

Articles examining how packaging design decisions affect performance, cost, scalability, and downstream outcomes.

Typical topics include:

• Design intent vs. real-world use
• Performance failure modes
• Design decisions that quietly introduce risk

Articles focused on materials behavior, manufacturing processes, and the constraints that shape what is actually possible on the factory floor.

Typical topics include:

• Resin, fiber, and material tradeoffs
• Process limitations and tolerances
• Design-for-manufacture considerations
• Where material assumptions break down

Articles addressing how packaging interacts with equipment, tooling, automation, and production-line architecture.

Typical topics include:

• Equipment-driven design constraints
• Throughput, changeovers, and efficiency
• Capital implications of packaging choices
• Scale-up and line optimization challenges

Articles exploring how packaging decisions affect cost beyond unit price — and where apparent savings create long-term damage.

Typical topics include:

• Cost leakage
• Margin erosion
• Total system cost vs. unit cost
• Packaging-driven inefficiencies

Articles examining the gap between sustainability intent, regulatory claims, and real-world outcomes.

Typical topics include:

• Misaligned sustainability initiatives
• Compliance exposure
• Tradeoffs between performance and claims
• Regulatory and retailer pressure points

Articles focused on packaging issues specific to retail environments and private-label programs.

Typical topics include:

• SKU sprawl
• Vendor inconsistency
• Private-label exposure
• Retail compliance and performance risk

Articles addressing how packaging performs once it leaves the factory.

Typical topics include:

• Distribution stress
• Delivery damage
• Fulfillment and last-mile implications
• Packaging failure in transit

Articles written for, or frequently referenced in, investment and diligence contexts.

Typical topics include:

• Packaging as hidden risk
• Scalability and platform implications
• Manufacturing capability assessment
• Packaging considerations in roll-ups and acquisitions

Each article entry includes:

• Title
• One-sentence abstract describing the issue addressed
• Download link (PDF)

This allows articles to be:

• Quickly scanned
• Easily shared
• Referenced before or after advisory discussions

Packaging failures rarely result from a single bad decision.

They result from systems thinking applied too late — or not at all.

These articles exist to make those connections visible and to support better decisions across design, manufacturing, equipment, sourcing, retail, delivery, and capital strategy.

They also reflect the same systems-based perspective that informs our advisory work.

If a specific article or topic here connects to a packaging decision you’re facing, we’re happy to continue the conversation.