MRP Solutions Innovation Lab grand opening / CEO Jim Fitzgerald and Director of Supply Chain Aaron Schroeder

https://www.mrpcap.com

CEO Jim Fitzgerald and Director of Supply Chain Aaron Schroeder from MRP Solutions on the grand opening of their innovation lab! 

What is the future of sustainability with plastic containers and closures? 
How can this lab innovate to improve the user experience for packaging? 
What is MRP solutions focused on? 

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Transcript

Cory Connors: 0:15

Welcome to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors. Today is a different kind of episode. We are live on site at M R P Solutions with the C e O and President, Mr. Jim Fitzgerald, and the director or senior directors of supply chain, Mr. Aaron Schrader. How are you guys?

Jim Fitzgerald: 0:33

Good. Corey, thanks for being here. Let's start

Cory Connors: 0:35

with you, sir. Tell us a little bit about your background and how'd you get into this role? I know you, it's been a long time in the medical

Jim Fitzgerald: 0:41

profession. Yeah, thanks Corey. I have spent about 30 years in the medical device industry. Wow. going back to my first job out of college, which, I remind my kids, I now have three college grads that, their father started, his first job. 14 hours after getting his diploma. So there was no trip through Europe. There was no time off to recover. Different time. it certainly was. Yeah. Yeah. So now we just give them better lives than we gave ourselves, I guess. but yeah, started in the healthcare industry. spent 30 years in a variety of roles, in a variety of companies doing med device manufacturing, working in the acute care setting, helping hospital administrators. Look how to control expenses and how to improve patient outcomes. All the while kind of building the foundation for, I think what's ultimately brought me to this point in my career and that is, trying to figure out how to be a solutions provider, right? And about a year and a half ago was afforded the opportunity to join the team here at M R P leverage a whole lot of my background on manufacturing, injection molding, and, and most importantly being a solutions provider. So, it's really been a good evolution.

Cory Connors: 1:51

It's amazing how our old, our previous roles prepare us for our new roles. I'm fascinated when I hear these kind of stories and now you're leading the whole show here. Yeah.

Jim Fitzgerald: 2:01

Yeah. And it's just such

Cory Connors: 2:02

a neat,

Jim Fitzgerald: 2:03

history. So thank you. Well, thanks Aaron. Yeah, so

Aaron Schroeder: 2:07

I, have been in the pack. I started in the packaging industry with several, a couple C p G companies, large c PG companies, and then went into procurement and supply chain. And so I've been here at M R P for a little over eight years. And, I've really found as that, with that transition, it's really good to have the technical knowledge when you're also working on the operation side.

Cory Connors: 2:29

So, Very true. Yeah, that was my first five years was making corrugated boxes, which is where I got my nickname, cor gated. So let's talk about M R P. What, first of all, what does it stand for? Yeah. And what do you do here? And then we'll talk about this buzz in the air here. I mean, there's an electricity that's going on at this event that you're hosting. but

Jim Fitzgerald: 2:51

can you tell us about rp? Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Corey. Yeah, we're. First of all, we are onsite at a, at our grand opening of our solution center, and not only kicking off some of the new capabilities that we expect to bring to market through the solution center, but also it, it's the, a beginning of a day that'll include a focus on sustainability. As well, which we know is a really important topic for. For all of us. m r p as a name doesn't stand for anything anymore. and that was intentional. we did rebrand the organization last year. the history of the company is actually the combination of three family run businesses. more about 140 combined years of production in the closure space. mold Wright Packaging. actually originally Mold Wright Plastics, from the Plattsburgh, New York area. Stole technologies from the Somerset, New Jersey area and weather cam from the Twinsburg, Ohio area. Those organizations all came together about a decade ago. we operated under the name Mold Wright for a long period of time. And last year elected to rebrand with M R P as a way of kind of tieing the legacy of the company back together. Not deviating too far away. We know the brand has a whole lot of value and has achieved an awful lot. Is a differentiated supplier in the packaging space? Yes. But, added the name solutions to really convey what we know we need to do going forward. To be a more viable and critical part of the packaging supply chain. So a little bit of what we're showcasing today is that commitment that it's more than just manufacturing another closure. Yeah. It really is about partnering as a solutions provider, being open-minded to what that could look like. I think it also is a, sort of a lead in to the way we expect the company to evolve. So, right. with the strength of, an eager, owner who is anxious to continue to invest behind good ideas for the business. Over the next couple years, we absolutely expect to be able to bring more capabilities. we expect to, to probably operate in a few more markets. And, so as we looked at how do you rebrand the organization and tie both the old and the new together, our marketing team just did a great job of landing on M R P solutions and we're really excited about it. Yeah,

Cory Connors: 4:57

well done. And Dawn and her team is incredible. I've enjoyed working with her and them. Absolutely. Thank you. Shout out to them. They're doing great job. Amen to that. Amen To that. You mentioned you were just in a automation, Session. Yeah. Talking about, M R P solutions and what you're doing, to automate the production process and how that ties into sustainability. Can you speak to that a

Jim Fitzgerald: 5:20

little bit? Yeah, absolutely. Corey, so, so part of today is a couple different workshops. One of the workshops is focusing on, some of our manufacturing technologies across our plants, and in particular, Highlighting some of the investments that we've made that not only allow us to bring some new products and new capabilities to the market, but that does so in a way where we ensure that we're producing as a more responsible supplier. that responsibility, I think, covers the need to ensure that you've got. a higher level of quality Integrated into your manufacturing operation that you're looking for ways to be more efficient and more productive, both of which means ultimately less use of some of those resources that ultimately lead to carbon footprint discussions, electric electricity utilization. and really leverage some of the strengths of our engineering team that 140 years of. Knowledge in how to make, a really high performing cap enclosure. but the organization has really rallied around the recognition that newer technologies are delivering much more sustainable manufacturing solutions than older technologies did. And we're finding that is a really important part of our selection process going forward. So it's a criteria. As we look to make investments, it's the criteria is are, can we ensure. That this investment allows us to be viewed as a more sustainable business partner. And we know that so many of our customers today, whether it's ultimately the brand owner, whether it's, some of the value chain, from that brand owner back through either. the contract fillers or our distributors, we know that they're being held to a higher standard. Yes. And a part of their standard is how efficient is your supply chain? How green is your supply chain? What is that scope three number? That has to be reported outta the supply chain. And we have a role in that. so we're really proud of the evidence of some of the automation and evidence of how that automation has. Changed our, our score in a carbon footprint standpoint, and we're committed to continuing to do more.

Cory Connors: 7:24

That's impressive. And it's exciting for me to hear. A lot of the pushback I get is, oh, sustainable packaging costs more. Well, what I'm hearing you say is it's more cost effective and it's more sustainable. And that's the story I enjoy telling. So

Jim Fitzgerald: 7:40

well done. Yeah. Thank you. And yeah, and I would glad have the argument with anybody that believes it does cost more, because I think what we're seeing is that there's a cost of not doing it. Right. Absolutely. That's a

Cory Connors: 7:51

great way to say it. And Erin, you were talking about the supply chain and how you're look working with your. suppliers all the way up the chain or down the chain, down the chain, whoever you want to look at it. Yep. to in increase your sustainability and make improvements. Can you speak to that a little bit? Yeah. So,

Aaron Schroeder: 8:09

like Jim was saying, like it's no longer an option. We have, we have to do it. So, We've, we are working with, it's, we're working with our suppliers now to go both, what are you doing and what have you done right. On the sustainability front and the what are you doing is critical and it's taken off. Yes. We've seen it in the last, really, in the last three or four years, even through Covid. it never really cooled off even while people were trying to produce as much as they possibly could. Yeah. and so, it, there's a lot of. A lot of movement around carbon footprint, lifecycle analysis. biofuels, are we getting things to be more green? I think there's still a lot of conversation around what is green. What is sustainable. Yeah. and quite frankly, I don't know that there's ever going to be one thing that we all go to, to say this is the sustainable option. I think it's gonna be a bunch of different. areas that we're all gonna continue to evolve in. Exactly. it's not gonna be just going into bio resins or It's not just p c r. it's gonna be how do you look at the whole entity and Right. And see what you can do, to reduce your carbon footprint. At the end of the day, it's gonna be carbon that we're looking at.

Cory Connors: 9:19

very true. Very well said. It's not one thing and it's not a Oh, all of a sudden we're sustainable. Yeah. It's done. It's a journey, right? There's no seal

Aaron Schroeder: 9:29

that you can go get that says, I know back in, what was it, the eighties, the EPA had, their seal of, their energy star, right? That's not really, there's nothing there. I, if anything, I see what you, what I think you're gonna start to see and. Where we're starting to talk to suppliers about is, you can gauge a supplier based on price. Yeah. And that's a very easy metric to look at. But now it, you're starting to see carbon footprint, how, what's, what is your carbon footprint, right. From one product to another. Show me the numbers. what are your, what are your. Your survey scores. So there's various surveys out there and how, what are you looking at those, how do those compare? And our customers are doing it to us. So, and those, our supplier surveys actually will then fall into what we can, give our customers. So if we're dealing with very sustainably oriented suppliers Yeah. That only helps us to Jim's point.

Cory Connors: 10:23

Well said. Well said. Yes. And let's speak to your innovation lab here that I'm excited to tell the world about it. Can you tell us what it's gonna do here?

Jim Fitzgerald: 10:31

Yeah, absolutely Corey, and I think, you just used the word a little bit ago about the word journey. Yeah. Just journey on this sustainability side. And I think for us, the innovation center is another example of being committed to a journey. So we, we had a vision of putting this solution center in place. To ensure that we were designing in the notion of collaboration, the notion of creativity, the notion of imagination and starting to challenge the art of the possible in product design going forward. it, we've got some capability in there to do some small molding jobs today. but what we really look forward to is what's gonna. What's gonna, be put up on those whiteboards? Yeah. In future conversations. And the idea is that we're gonna entertain the partnership discussions that we're gonna have with, with suppliers and with end users, and with brand owners, and with industry partners. and it is a journey and it will be fun to look back a decade from now and to reflect back on. The where we are today, the enthusiasm for where we could be, and then the realization that we leaned in and took action. The realization that we were willing to take a step forward, and be willing to try stuff. And I think that's the excitement for me. The excitement of having a room that says it's a solution center right, is nothing more than a reinforcement that. behind those doors, we want to commit ourselves to solving problems that haven't been solved. by definition, if the solution already existed, we probably wouldn't be meeting in the solution center for it. So, so it's really, I think, I think it's en it's encouraging people this to, to come together to talk about what if instead of why not, and Oh, I like that. And, and to be willing to take some risks. Yeah. and I think we've got a great team that has learned. How to be willing to take risks. I think in many cases you, it's not being willing to, it's not being afraid to fail. It's just developing systems that allow you to fail fast. Yeah. So that, that learning cycle, right? You shorten that cycle of learning and the next thing you know, you've landed on something that is a way to do it better. And, And so we're really excited about it. We're excited about the energy around the room, but I think more importantly, we're excited about knowing that room is going to foster new developments, new technologies that this industry will participate in and benefit from, in the upcoming years. And like

Cory Connors: 12:58

I was saying there, there's an excitement in the air and you're exactly right. we have to try new things. We have to fail, we have to push the envelope a little bit and or a lot.

Jim Fitzgerald: 13:08

That's absolutely right. Yeah. Well done. That's absolutely right. Erin, can

Cory Connors: 13:12

you speak to a little bit of, the types of products that you're manufacturing, for your customers and ways that you're excited to try to innovate? Yeah,

Aaron Schroeder: 13:21

so, so M R P is primarily, I mean, we're right now all injection molding and we primarily make caps, enclosures. we get into some jars, but primarily caps and closures, all plastic. all resin, polyethylene, polypropylene. A little bit of polystyrene. I think the innovation piece is both in the design side, which will come out of the solution center. Yeah. and I would argue with all the regulations that are changing right now, the industry we're ripe for a bunch of change. whether it's tethered caps Yeah. Whether it's sustainability and how do we get, more P C R or more sustainable resins. That's all the industry is gonna really change. Yeah. it's no longer just go lightweight my cap. It's gonna be how do you innovate? how do you really change that design? Yeah. To do something that it may have not done before. and so that's, that requires not only that collaboration in the innovation center or the solution center, but also collaboration with our suppliers cuz we don't. We don't have a cracker that's making resins, right. We're buying that. we don't manufacture induction liner. we're buying that we require, we need our suppliers to really help us there. So the innovation is gonna be both, it's collaborative and that's also gonna happen within our four walls. but it's not just one thing. So,

Cory Connors: 14:44

Can you guys fix the way those vitamin bottle caps come off? That thing is such a challenge. You can work on that. Yeah.

Jim Fitzgerald: 14:53

Yeah. We have some ideas. Come to the solution center. Yeah, exactly. Be happy to talk to you

Cory Connors: 14:56

about it. Yeah, we we go through a lot of vitamins in my house trying to be healthy and yeah, that's, Me and my kids and my wife, it's just, ugh, can somebody open this for

Jim Fitzgerald: 15:05

me? That's right.

Aaron Schroeder: 15:06

That's right. and I think you can even say, as the population ages, yes. the old child resistance caps are maybe no longer going to, you're gonna need to modify those because now we've got a larger aging population. Yeah. so I think, again, back to that child resistance cap has been around a long time. Right. We haven't really seen a whole lot of change in it. Yeah. but I think we're right for that. And that will be with how do you, it's a heavy cap cuz you got two pieces. how do you take that and from a sustainability angle, how do you go lightweight that and that may be you gotta completely white paper the whole design. Yeah. It's not just going in and taking, a 10th of a gram out here and there.

Jim Fitzgerald: 15:45

Well I think, and Corey you bring up a good point cuz so much of the work that our design engineers do, Is to get competing forces to coexist. So as an example, how do you have a closure that is hard to open for a certain audience that is easier to open for another audience? Or how do you have a closure that prevents fluid from leaking until you want the fluid to come out of it? and I, it is, that is really where I think. The strength of product development engineers with the willingness to think about the art of the possible and yeah, and the advancements in some of the, not only the. The ideas, but the advancements in technologies to be able to actually produce those ideas. Yeah, that's great. Ideas that get constructed on paper that are not manufacturable. Right. and certainly not manufacturable at scale. And, that's true. I think that's the excitement for now. For now, right. Yeah. And it keeps changing, look at how quickly 3D printing is advanced. Oh, now you can. Where 3D printing was a prototype technology not too many years ago. Now it is a, at scale manufacturing platform and yeah. And, it's incredible, what's the next generation of technologies like that? So, but you're absolutely right. we'll, yeah. The frustration of accessing some product is, is a built-in mechanism of safety as well, so.

Cory Connors: 17:01

Well, and like you were saying, Erin, it's also, can increase sales. if somebody comes up with a cap that's easier to use, that, that you x or that user interface is more right, friendly, I bet that product will sell a little bit more. Absolutely. People will. Pay you an extra 5 cents for that, because it's more material or whatever the case may be. But there's also a huge market out there for otherly abled individuals. Correct. I was at the Sustainable Packaging Coalition and one of the presenters, she couldn't use her arms and she was showing us how she has to open packages with her feet and how challenging that was and how, she worked at Microsoft and how they're innovating to make things easier. And, so there's so many opportunities there for improvement. Like you said, it's not just be more sustainable, it's, there's lots of groups that we can

Jim Fitzgerald: 17:56

help serve. A hundred percent. Yeah, I think that's a great point, Corey.

Cory Connors: 17:59

Yep. So, tell us a little bit more about today. you've got some, events happening where this is the grand opening. Yeah.

Jim Fitzgerald: 18:07

Yeah. So we're here in Chicago, grand opening. It's our corporate headquarters, but included in the corporate headquarters, it is our solution center as I mentioned. part of the day we put an agenda together that we wanna provide. Some educational value for our supplier and customer partners in addition to the fun side of celebrating a milestone achievement for us. But really the commissioning of the next chapter for the organization and our vision of how to be viewed as one of those critical supplier partners to ultimately to the packaging industry. so a couple different rotators. We've got some people bouncing around this morning through. Sessions that range from what are the market trends to what are the manufacturing technologies, to what are we doing around innovation? And, how can, how can people think about us maybe in a more critical role going forward? spend the afternoon with a number of different key industry leaders talking about sustainability. the topic is so important, it's, immediately when people know that you're in plastics. Yeah. it's, I think it sort of raises some eyebrows that. You have to solve the problem and yet no pressure. Right. Right. but there are also so many solutions that are already happening. There's so much progress being made, and I think the excitement for us this afternoon is a recognition that while there's more work to do There's also a lot that's being done. and in that fashion, we're proud of even the things that we've done. we, our Plattsburgh facility is just a small example, operates on a hundred percent hydroelectric power. Oh, wow. So, you think about, the volume of caps and closures that our company produces annually. Yeah. The largest percentage of which come from Plattsburgh. And today we can proudly say that with a hundred percent assurance that was made using a more sustainable energy source in hydroelectric power. we are trying to help. Maybe demystify that there is a cost associated with being more sustainable. And one example of that was a decision we made at the beginning of the year to include a column on every price quote that we generate going forward that shows what that same closure would look like if it had 25% PCR content. Oh, great. And so we've now delivered over a thousand quotes that have given somebody that alternative. Yeah. That might not have been on their mind before they saw the quote. Yeah. And now I think it's starting to demystify that there's some big financial hurdle to overcome. Right. and we're proud of that and we're, we're constantly looking for other ways that we can be a part of that solution, either by. Answering the question that wasn't asked, or, equally as important, being educated on how to answer the question that was asked. And we've got, we've got a very strong bias towards the role that we believe we can play. The value we believe we can bring. Yeah. the commitment that we're making through our ownership, who is equally as committed to the fact that. E s G is not a box. You check. Right. E s G is a way you operate. It's a journey. Yeah. It's a value. Yeah. And, it's a non-negotiable, and sustainability and the impact that the commitment to sustainability has to the broader E s G agenda. Yeah. For us and for other companies, I think it's exciting. It's exciting to see, I can, I can think about even my own personal career, three decades. Of, my own learning, my own journey, and to see evidence of organizations across the board of all sides and all industries, doing all different things that I think all at the same time, somehow, some way are saying. It's more than just being a profitable company that matters. Yeah. Stakeholders are not just the investors. Stakeholders are the user, but stakeholders are the community that you serve. Stakeholders are, the future generations that are either gonna be left with. Debt that we created, a social debt or a financial debt, or that are gonna be the inheritant, they're gonna inherit a benefit, inherit benefit of, a decision we made today. Yeah. And I think that's what the buzz is all about. I think it's a realization. it's got all of that kind of cobbled together. Yeah. So, thanks. Exciting.

Cory Connors: 22:07

Well, I can think of a better way to end the show. That was perfect. Thank you, sir. thank Corey. Thank you. Thank you Aaron. Appreciate your time. Thank you. Exciting. Anything that we didn't say that, we wanted to say or

Jim Fitzgerald: 22:19

No, I'd just say I appreciate you letting us be a part of your story and, the platform that you have, I think is a great platform to constantly remind all of us, all of your listeners and all of us in not just the packaging industry, but you know, anybody that's listening that there's work to do. Yes. And we've gotta roll up our sleeves and we've gotta get a little bit better every day. And so appreciate you not only letting us. Share some of the stuff that we're doing, but making that a platform for others to, to do the same. So thank you. Thank you for that. Thank you

Cory Connors: 22:49

sir. Really appreciate it. And uh, stay tuned for more.