Emerging Technology Profile: On-Demand Carton (ODC)

Ecommerce retailers ship billions of cardboard boxes and pouches every year. It is a $67 billion industry in the USA alone. Almost universally, cartons are much larger than required and are produced far from point of use by 3rd party suppliers. It is both unsustainable and wasteful. Corrugated carton production is an industry ripe for disruption! The right size box, manufactured on-demand, directly at point of use, from sustainable materials, is the future. The technology to enable this revolution is available now.

This industry-disruptive solution enables cartons to be produced directly on-site at fulfillment, manufacturing, and distribution centers around the world. Corrugated boxes and pouches can be produced on-demand, at high-speed, synchronous with order packaging. The cartons are produced from recycled paper and are fully recyclable and compostable.

This technology will make an entire industry redundant by eliminating several wasteful non-value-added steps in the supply chain. Off-site corrugated carton and kraft paper envelope producers are eliminated. Costs associated with shipping empty packaging (empty packaging which is 90% air) is eliminated. This technology will provide early adopters with competitive advantage related to both packaging and shipping costs.

For the requirements-to-check when considering an investment, this article covers the 5 W’s:

• Who? Company and Founder.
• What? Solution and Target Market.
• Where? Product Development Life Cycle.
• When? Solution Ready for Market.
• Why/How? Problem to be Solved. How Much.

For detailed solution information, contact Buck Crowley at [email protected]. If you simply want to keep pace with the latest warehouse automation technology developments --- not available anywhere else on the World Wide Web, then read on!  

Who? Company and Founder.

Buck Crowley is a professional product designer, prolific inventor, industry revolutionary, and business builder. He has developed more than 65+ commercially successful products for the print industry, been awarded more than 75+ U.S. Patents, and his inventions have resulted in more than $1 billion in sales.

Buck Crowley has been a print industry leader for the last four decades. He pioneered packaging industry firsts including Print-on-Demand, Book-on-Demand. Print, box and envelop manufacturing and applications make up more than 40 of his patents. Buck is a member of the “Who's Who of American Inventors”.

Buck has previously founded four successful companies: Lincoln Technologies, Automation Inc., Roll Systems Inc., and Buck Automation. His companies have made the Inc. 500 fastest growing companies list twice. Roll Systems pioneered high-volume on-demand printing and mail production autonomous automation.

Buck is ready for round five! He is actively seeking investors to finalize commercial development and fund scale-up production of his patented on-demand carton producing system. Total addressable market (TAM): $67 billion in the USA and hundreds of billions worldwide.

What? Solution and Target Market.

 High-speed, box/pouch on-demand, at point of consumption solution eliminates shipping corrugated boxes (90% air) from box manufactures to warehouses and production facilities around the country and world.

Where? Product Development Life Cycle.

The patents that protect the intellectual property have been secured. The design is ready to build the first production prototype. The first machine can be ready for technology demonstration within 6 months of funding and commercially viable machines within 12 months of funding.

The engineering and development team is secured and ready to start work immediately. Facilities to support research, development, and production of the first machines have been identified. Partners for raw-material stock have been secured, including product specifications.

When? Solution Ready for Market.

The solution is market-ready for down-payments now. Sales within 12 months of funding and scale-ready within 18 months of funding.

Why/How? Problem to be Solved. How Much.

The leading corrugate and carton producers have hundreds of plants and tens of billions in revenue. Ecommerce will be driving demand for corrugated cartons for the foreseeable future.  This solution completely disrupts the supply chain for corrugated box manufacturing. No longer will high volume paper boxes be shipped from off-site box plants to fulfilment centers.

Existing box manufacturers produce large-scale batches for customers, resulting in large inventories by box type and size. Corrugated boxes are currently shipped flat to end-users, but even shipping flat results in wasted space (shipping corrugated “90% air”).

Buck’s solution would enable companies to control production of their own supply of corrugated boxes, less expensively, on-demand, in the sizes they require, without waste, excess handling, or transport costs. Production performance exceeds the requirements of the largest Ecommerce fulfillment centers.

Buck is seeking an investor or group of investors capable of funding development and scale level production. Seed funding of $1.5 million to arrive at a working system and proof of design. An additional $5 million of funding will enable production at-scale.

Multiple sources of revenue are possible: lease, “as a service”, capital-equipment purchase, usage-fee, turn-key operations, maintenance, and service contracts. Expected return on investment if a capital purchase by the customer would result in an ROI of one year or less. Customers would typically have at least two machines for service continuity.

The investment exit path has precedence for high valuation through several large company channels.

----------

This article was originally published on www.esotericstaffing.com

Esoteric matches specialized robotics, engineering, and supply chain talent with the needs of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. On the Esoteric platform, industry professionals are Experts. Companies that need specialized help are Clients. Freelance or Full-time. We match Experts with Clients.