Stack, Drop and Roll

Skokie, IL -- Driven by tightening transit-industry specifications, retailer and product-company demand, and their own growing awareness of the issue, P-O-P manufacturers increasingly are testing displays to ensure they will reach the sales floor intact and unmarred -- and stay that way as long as they're needed.All displays get tested eventually, which means manufacturers are well-advised to do so at the outset, says Dennis Young, principal with package consulting firm Dennis Young and Associates, in Grand Rapids, MI. "Here are your options as a shipper: You can put together your new package ... and let the distribution system test it, and let your customers judge how successful the tests are -- and believe me, your customers will let you know if you have a bad experience," he says. "Or, you can do it in the laboratory, where you see the results, and if you're not happy with the results, you can make changes."Safety Concerns Drive TestingMatt Wood, product test lab manager for Sypris Test & Measurement, based in Orlando, FL, cites evolving International Safe Transit Association (ISTA) specifications as well as those of big-box stores like Wal-Mart and Target. "A lot more people are testing for the point-of-purchase displays than they were even two or three years ago," he says, adding that safety on the floor and structural integrity during shipping are the two main concerns. "They don't want to have pallets fall over in the truck and have a disaster in the back of the truck when they open it up. You don't want to have cleaning products or food products all over the truck."Ross Augustensen, corrugated design manager at Henschel-Steinau, based in Englewood, NJ, says most of his company's clients require display testing to make sure their investments in P-O-P are not wasted. "A lot of these companies have to pay to buy their shelf space," he says. "If the display gets to the store damaged, a lot of the store managers won't even put it up. They'll just get rid of it."Weyerhaeuser Retail Experience Network definitely has seen an increased desire from clients to undertake testing, says Daniel House, assistant structural design manager for the Federal Way, WA-based manufacturer. "I don't know if it's because of failures they've found in the field or because people are a little more conscious of making sure the displays are working," he says. "Plus, you have the availability to test before people know about it. We actually have the equipment now."Most P-O-P is designed with the retail environment in mind, Young says. "Shipping is often an afterthought," he says. "What you don't want to happen is to launch a new program, have a great display for it, send it out there, and have a lot of damage to the display and/or to the product during transit. That's a good way to squash a launch."Leon Venech, technical director for SGS U.S. Testing Co. in Fairfield, NJ, says display testing can answer a number of important questions that manufacturers might not be thinking about as they design a display to catch customers' eyeballs."How many times can you push a spring-loaded display?" he says. "How many times can you rotate the floor display before you start seeing damage to the center spindle? ... What happens when there's condensation on it? What happens when it's cold and brittle? What happens when it's in a truck at 140 degrees in Dallas in the middle of August? ... What happens when that mop continues to hit the base of the corrugated? What happens when a 5-year-old goes over and grabs that shelf?"Safety in the store is the top concern of P-O-P maker Santa Cruz Industries, based in Santa Cruz, CA, says Marvin Christie, vice president of sales. "We have to analyze the center of gravity in the display, the ability to resist tipping, basic stability to resist breakage," he says. "We try to analyze the worst-case scenarios for the store environment, including not just the product loads, but is it an attractive nuisance that some kid's going to want to climb on it because it looks like fun? Is it going to be run into by the people who polish the floors at night?"Harbor Industries' insurer performs an annual, unannounced audit of its testing procedures, says Greg Hankamp, vice president of product development for the Grand Haven, MI-based display producer. "Mostly what we're looking for is cycle testing for durability of doors, for instance, to make sure the hinges and hardware are durable enough," he says. "We may be looking at the edges of cabinets to look at where grocery carts are hitting them. And of course we look at the shelves for bowing or warping."Even if structural integrity remains intact, surface-level damage can still be detrimental, says Ed Church, executive director of the ISTA. "Cosmetic damage is as important as damage to the product," he says. "If the display isn't going to look good, the merchant probably isn't going to put it up. And that doesn't make anybody happy."In-House vs. OutsourcingLarger P-O-P manufacturers do more display testing with in-house laboratories, although they outsource more specialized tests, says Wood of Sypris, which most commonly performs tests that simulate accidentally rough drops from a forklift, compression from being stacked in a warehouse, and on-the-road vibrations in the back of a truck.Test laboratories go through particular protocol to test for drops, vibration, compression and other hazards like weather and humidity, says Venech of SGS. Even major manufacturers outsource tests to have a third-party, independent view, he says."If you're a manufacturer of some product, and you're going to 'Giganto Corrugated' as your supplier ... it's probably a pretty good bet that 'Giganto' is an outfit that's going to test everything," says Young, speaking of a fictional company. "But with medium-sized and smaller companies, it's more hit and miss." Outside labs, of which there are more than 50 in the U.S., quantify potential problems on the road or in the store "so people know what kind of hazards they're facing. That helps them design better packaging," he says, adding: "We have a wealth of these facilities. It's relatively inexpensive and quick."Given the expense of about $300 per test, Henschel-Steinau likes to first test in-house and then send displays out to be independently verified, says Michael Luberto, creative director. "If you don't know your unit is going to have the ability to pass, you can test several times. That becomes very expensive," he says. And tinkering in-house means the company doesn't overestimate how strong a display needs to be, which prevents over-building. "We can take away as we develop, saving our clients money."Harbor Industries performs shelf loading, overall stability and some finish durability testing in-house, Hankamp says, farming out mostly mechanical and overall load testing. "The most common test is an over-stressed shelf for load, and then the overall unit for load ratings," he says.Tom Nook, vice president of research and innovation at Harbor, adds that the company carefully tests anything with electrical equipment and anything with doors that will be opened repeatedly to dispense a package. Another important step: light tests that ensure colors on powdercoats and vinyls will look exactly as expected."We have clients who will push vinyl back five or six times," Nook says. "Our customers are very keen about particular colors. Marlboro red is not a Pantone color."New Dimensions Research performs most of its tests in-house, except for displays that will be shipped pre-loaded with product, says Jeff Mason, president of the Melville, NY-based company. "They're more shipping survival tests," he says.Weyerhaeuser performs most of its testing, primarily vibration and compression tests, unless a client wants something done at an ISTA-certified outside lab, House says. In that case, the company uses Clemson University's lab or another nearby facility. Leave It To The LabsMost display makers say they prefer to use nearby outside labs to cut down on shipping costs and, in some cases, to be able to monitor the process. "We like to send engineers over to review the actual unit while it's being tested," Hankamp says. New Dimensions does the same thing, Mason says. "We don't just want a report back," he says. "We want to see if there's any issues on the spot."Christie of Santa Cruz says his company weighs location among a number of factors in choosing a test lab. "Their experience is probably the biggest factor for us," he says. "We like to use the best people and the highest recommendations."Displays sent to outside labs are usually finished, with component testing mostly in-house, and the materials vary widely. Henschel-Steinau sends out more corrugate than anything else but also molding, wire and other materials, Augustensen says. Benchmarc handles "mainly corrugated," says Rob Osmond, president and CEO of the Vernon Hills, IL-based company, while Harbor concentrates on "wood and metals." Santa Cruz produces mostly wood, plastic and metal, and "a little bit of corrugate," Christie says.Weyerhaeuser pays attention to what materials retailers want -- for example, Wal-Mart's recent move toward eco-friendliness has fueled a desire for corrugate, House says. "It would be a prototype that we cut off our CAD system, but it would be completely put together, just the way the display's going to look, packed out with full product," he says.Sypris tests "99 percent" corrugate displays that are prototypes without graphics, Wood says. SGS does "wood, metal, corrugated, plastic, vacuum-formed, injection-molded, you name it," Venech says. "Some of them are glued. Some of them are solvent-welded. All of these things, you have to evaluate how well it's going to hold up."

Stack, Drop and Roll

P2PI MEMBERS

JOIN P2PI

Related Topics

Related Images

Business Topic

Company