Designing packs as nature intended | packagingnews.co.uk

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Designing packs as nature intended

Catherine Dawes, Packaging News , 30 September 2009

Finding the best solutions to the most tricky of packaging head-scratchers can be difficult, but the answer to the problem can often be there for all to see, in nature. Catherine Dawes looks at the process of biomimetics

What type of packaging for liquid allows you to damage 80% of the pack and still hold secure 20% of the liquid? Answer: an apple.

Biomimetics is the practice of mimicking biochemical processes in manmade products. Coca-Cola, Mars, Diageo, Reckitt Benckiser and Ardagh Glass are just some of the companies that have employed Thoughtcrew to see if biomimetics could help their business. The business consultancy, based at the University of Bath, looks to nature to find ways to improve everything from individual products to supply chains through to entire R&D methods.

For instance, a drinks company had problems with its supply chain. It had products coming from a host of suppliers and breweries and hugely different volumes going into the on- and off-trades. "It had no idea how the different volumes worked together," says Thoughtcrew director Phil Richardson. "Everything was complicated by the fact there were different transport companies and different landlords and firms managing different bits," he adds.

Thoughtcrew used the metaphor of the crab to consider how the firm should move forward. The crab must temporarily discard the thing most valuable to it - its shell - in order to grow. The company was holding its most valuable brand sacred, and its unwillingness to change anything was hindering its growth.

Communication boost

Using biomimetics, Thoughtcrew and the company generated 45 new ideas. All of the different elements of the supply chain were brought together and given a new language to communicate in. "Often you find, the ...

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