As The Box Turns...

Halloween Spooktacular!

2013-10-31T16:17:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

Look at the fun packaging we can help you create for the holiday season….

You can’t tell from the pictures, but our Halloween card utilizes soft touch coating to give it an extra spooky feeling. Adding special effects, such as coatings, foiling and embossing can take your package to the next level at retail. Since most consumers have no idea what exactly they are going to buy when they enter the store, it’s critical to have your brand stand out.

Ask us for a copy of our Comparison Swatchbook to learn more about special effects options.

Manufacturing Day...A Success!

2013-10-11T11:55:00.000-07:00

As some of you may remember, October 4^th was Manufacturing Day, where companies across the nation celebrated and educated the public about all things manufacturing. People got a chance to tour different facilities and learn about a plethora of industries…sort of like that TV show, How It’s Made, but in person.

This was our first year participating and it was exciting to be able to showcase what we do here. Our first visitors included Howard Eng and Franklin Maccotan from CNA Insurance www.cna.com. They were super excited to learn about the printing process and asked a lot of great questions.


From left > right: Franklin, Alyson, Mike, award-winning Nikon Lama by our sister company, Trumari and Howard

Linda Adams from Impact Washington also stopped by www.impactwashington.org. Impact Washington is responsible for letting us know about Mfg. Day and for the Made in Washington logo we can include on our packaging for our customers. It’s always great to have customers and vendors that are local and have that Northwest Pride!

I guarantee everyone that left has a newfound appreciation of what goes into the making of a box, and we thank everyone who stopped by.

If you’d like a tour of our facility, please give us a call at 425-227-0400 today!

Packaging Gone Wrong...Part 1

2013-10-04T12:28:00.000-07:00

My name is Mike Rogers Jr. and my job here at AllpakTrojan mainly deals with the graphics and artwork aspect of the industry, but I do know a little something about structural design. My dad has been a structural designer at AllpakTrojan for 26 years this year [since I was 6 months old!].

There’s one obvious thing I know about packaging; companies want their product to be accessible to consumers, but still have the structural integrity to hold up during the shipping process.

When corrugated and folding carton packaging is designed correctly [::cough:: by AllpakTrojan ::cough::], you can be assured your package will arrive undamaged and there is usually only a piece of tape or a glue flap preventing the consumer from enjoying their newly received product!

Not enough proof? Check out these disturbing images below. [viewer discretion is advised]

Ink and Beyond...

2013-09-06T14:49:00.000-07:00

The first weekend in October, several of us here at AllpakTrojan will be attending the annual Pacific Printing Industries Association (also known as PPI) Conference.

It’s important to network and get together with fellow industry workers on a regular basis to share ideas and discuss the future of the industry. We like to stay current!

In addition to the educational and networking portion of the event, we get to attend the annual PrintROCKS! awards banquet whoop whoop! I’ve been told that we have quite a few awards coming our way, but we don’t know the specifics yet.

So, stay tuned for those details in October. In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more about the conference and PPI, please visit www.ppiassociation.org

Greetings and Happy Trail Mix Day!

2013-08-30T10:17:00.003-07:00

Happy National Trail Mix Day!

It’s tomorrow if you didn’t know. Here at AllpakTrojan, we like to celebrate the fun and wacky holidays just because they’re fun and wacky. We even make cards for them and send them around to our customers.

Take a look…

Inside of Card

After you enjoy the long holiday weekend, hit the trail once more and come where the real action is…hike on up to AllpakTrojan and schedule a tour! Also, as it is the holiday season, don’t forget to place your last minute seasonal orders.

We even included trail mix for the journey

Operation Backpack

2013-08-23T14:29:00.000-07:00

This week, we want to give a big shout out to Ronda Mithun and the entire Social Team of AllpakTrojan for the amazing work they have done with “Operation Backpack”. For the past month, they have successfully collected numerous backpacks and stocked them with school supplies for kids in need, so that they can start the school year prepared.

Planning this charity effort began back in the beginning of summer. In addition to collecting donations, Rhonda and the Social Team put together a raffle for AllpakTrojan staff in order to raise funds for the supplies. Seahawks tickets, jerseys and other fan items were put in the raffle. These efforts allowed over 70 backpacks and countless notebooks, pens, folders etc. to be purchased and donated to the Salvation Army of Renton.

Rhonda & Patrick - Delivery Time!

These contributions are part of the giving spirit inherent here at AllpakTrojan. Not only does it bring employees together, but helps the surrounding community. It is especially impressive considering that these activities are done in addition to their usual work load.

If you would like to learn more about “Operation Backpack” and how you might help, please contact us at 425-227-0400.

AllpakTrojan Social Team Shout Out: Rhonda Mithun, Michele Hohlbein, Patrick Poelvardi, Kelly McDonald, Mary Bullard, Elsie Hughes and Naree Ngin

Rhonda and Hannes

We would also like to say goodbye and good luck to our wonderful intern, Hannes! This is his last blog post as he is off to Germany to pursue graduate school.

Here Ye! Here Ye! National Manufacturing Day is Coming...

2013-08-16T11:23:00.000-07:00

What is all this talk about the shortage of skilled labor? Isn’t everything manufactured overseas these days anyway? Manufacturing is boring right?

In order to clarify these and many more questions, not to mention debunk the myths about manufacturing, AllpakTrojan is proud to announce….

National Manufacturing Day on October 4^th.

AllpakTrojan will be one of the many hosts across the country taking part in this event. The focus this year will be on youth education and technology in the community. It is meant to raise awareness about the industry, showcase state-of-the-art technology; as well as, explain challenges and opportunities for future generations that want to get involved in manufacturing. Let’s get our youth excited about this type of business!

Stay tuned for more info in the weeks to come. You can also learn more about this nationwide event by clicking the link below:
http://www.mfgday.com/

STOP for Safety!

2013-08-09T13:23:00.003-07:00

In previous episodes, we have discussed areas involved in the box making process, such as printing and laminating. However, there are other processes and services not directly related to box making that are just as important. One of these areas is safety. Stephanie and Hannes interviewed the man whose impeccable sense of fashion is almost as renowned around here as his reputation as the Safety Coordinator. Let’s meet Cullen Kunkel and hear what he does at AllpakTrojan:


Unfortunately, you can't see Cullen's blue suede shoes, but nice hair!

What is your title here and what do you do?

I am the Safety and Environmental Compliance Coordinator. I try to ensure that people go home with their fingers and limbs still attached. I train employees on safety and make sure our facility is safe to work in.

What is the most exciting part of your job?

I love being able to help employees! I like making AllpakTrojan a safe place for everybody.

What are your favorite things to do when you are not at AllpakTrojan or at Fashion Week in Milan?

Very funny guys (while laughing and fixing his hair). I like to hike and camp in the Cascades. I am originally from George, in eastern Washington, and have always been outdoors hiking around. Other than that, I like to walk my Bernice mountain dog with my wife and go on vacation to Hawaii and Spain.

AllpakTrojan adopted the STOP safety program from DuPont. The Safety Training Observation Program focuses on teaching employees how to think about safety differently by developing observation techniques calling out safe and unsafe acts. If you would like to learn more about the STOP program, please visit our website www.allpaktrojan.com or better yet, come by and take a tour of our facilities.

Finishing with Finishing

2013-06-14T15:10:00.000-07:00

We are close to reaching the final step of the box making process, which brings us to finishing! This is where the sheet is made into a box by machines that apply glue and then fold it, so it can easily be assembled once it reaches the customer. Check out our super short video to see how our folding/gluing process can help you reduce cost while benefiting the environment.

We met up with Jeremy Zabel, who talked with us about what he is doing here at AllpakTrojan.

Position:

I have been a Glue Operator for two years!

What are your responsibilities?

Ultimately I have to make sure the end product looks good! The box comes in flat, and I feed it into the machine, so that it can be folded and glued.

Favorite Music:

I enjoy rock n’ roll and country.

Hobbies:

I like to get my alone time while riding my Buell motorcycle over in the Olympic peninsula.

Printing For The Cure!

2013-06-07T15:32:00.000-07:00

I’d like to welcome Cham Lim as this week’s guest writer (we’ll see the interns again next week). Cham is one of our awesome front desk officers and she captained this year’s Race for the Cure efforts along with Mary Bullard, her co-captain. It was especially touching this year because a few of our AllpakTrojan family are conquering this terrible disease.

Cham is always so positive!

Take it away Cham…

This past Sunday, June 2^nd was the 20^th Susan G. Komen Puget Sound Race for the Cure in which AllpakTrojan was honored to be part of. Our team this year was Saving Second Base. We had a wonderful turn out; we had a total of 40 team members, doubling last year’s members!! We also exceeded our fundraising goal of $1,000 by raising $2,157. Did you know that you can still help the cure?? Donations will still be accepted through July 11^th.

We would like to thank everyone who supported us at the event and at home. Together we raised critical funds and awareness, celebrated survivors and honored those who had lost their battle to breast cancer. Your support has taken us one step closer to realizing this promise, and we thank you. We hope to see all of you next year!

Special thanks to:

Alex Mendez, Anna Vaimaona, Bill Harris, Cham Lim, Christine Walenceus, Courtney Stotts, Daniel Derrick, Denny Nguon, Edwina Goodlow, Elsie Hughes, Iryna Proniv, Lilly Mendoza, Lynsey Curtis, Mary Bullard, Mary Merten, Michelle Hohlbein, Mike Rogers Jr., Nelya Bindas, Onja Jenkins, RaeAnn Lamb, Ravinder Bajwa, Rayne Landry, Robin Granger, Ron Adams, Roy Pike, Sas Ay, Shawn Neary, Steve Emert, Tammy Sutherland & Wilma Zantene

Cutting It Up in Die Cutting

2013-06-04T15:34:00.001-07:00

Not only do we get the opportunity to work with Sales, we also help out with marketing from time to time as well. One of the marketing projects we are assisting with utilizes AllpakTrojan’s unique die cutting capabilities. So, we thought it was time to connect the dots with one of the people who help make it all happen, Patrick Poelvoorde. Plus, it’s one of the next steps in the box making process.

Patrick and Hannes. It looks like the bear took a bite out of Hannes's side too.

What is your title and how long have you been with AllpakTrojan?

I am a die cutter and I have been here 11 years.

What are your responsibilities?

Quality, Quality, Quality!!! I am also responsible for safety. I love to work on really detailed projects because it is an accomplishment. It is cool to see the transformation; it goes in the die cutter as a big sheet and comes out as a box.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I enjoy hanging out with my kids and doing yard work. I also have a lot of fun playing with my gas powered remote control car, which can go up to 40 miles per hour. Occasionally my neighbor joins in in the fun and we ride together in his big backyard.

How did you hurt your arm?

Wrestling with bears, obviously.

Hiking on Over to Laminating...

2013-05-31T15:03:00.000-07:00

Due to the recent holiday weekend, we interns are still somewhat in Mother Nature mode. Hannes went on relaxing hikes in Western Washington while Stephanie went camping for the first time at Sasquatch Music Festival. Now that we ditched the granola bars and water canteens, it’s time to get back to work and on to the next step of the box making process.

Therefore, we caught up with John Erickson in Laminating, who is also no stranger to the great outdoors!


That's John. Hannes & Stephanie left him hanging by himself. Boo..

What’s your position at AllpakTrojan?

John is a 21 year veteran who is the Supervisor of the Laminating/Aerating Department.

What are your job responsibilities?

To oversee the Laminating Department, but also to work with many other departments as well! I make sure the schedule coordinates with other departments, help with ordering of raw materials, and am in contact with the maintenance department to make sure the machines are running smoothly.

How did you spend Memorial Weekend?

The original plan was to go away with my wife and five year old daughter; however we got a flat tire by Rainier at 3,000 feet. While I was changing the tire in the rain and mud, my daughter was being entertained by watching Scooby Doo in the backseat. Unfortunately, that was about the extent of the weekend. (We would say his daughter definitely had the better end of that deal…)

What’s your favorite time of year?

October-January 28^th (to be exact). John and his wife are former Alaskans and winter babies who love to hunt and snowboard. He is a member of the Tacoma Sportsmen Club which was established way back in 1933. Some adventure highlights include exploring deep into Alaska with his son and also snowboarding with fellow employee, Shawn back in the good ole’ days.

Press Room Shenanigans!

2013-05-20T12:57:00.000-07:00

The saga continues for us interns, and after learning the ins and outs of Customer Service and Prepress, we now move on to the Press Room. For this step, we interviewed people from both plants since the litho printing at Trojan and the flexo printing at Allpak are a little bit different. In simple terms, litho is printed on a sheet before it’s glued to a corrugated sheet; whereas, flexo is printed directly on the corrugated sheet.

At Trojan, we talked to Ken Puhl, a 15 year veteran who is the 8-color lead press operator.

Look at Stephanie posing again! Ken is in the middle.

What is your job responsibility?

I am responsible for making sure that the color set up meets the customer’s needs.

What is a highlight of your job?

Any job that is well done is always fun to be a part of. It is always nice to know that I contributed to a high quality product.

Where can we find you after work?

After 2pm, I am usually enjoying an ice cold IPA at the Rainer Grill in Enumclaw. I also enjoy going on long hiking trips. I just went to Wenatchee on a camping trip with my family!

At Allpak, we talked to Dean Smith, shift supervisor and football enthusiast.


Really Hannes?

What is your job responsibility?

I am responsible for everything! I work with shipping, customer service, sales and production to make sure that we meet deadlines in a safe manner.

What is your favorite hobby?

Coaching youth football for middle schools in Enumclaw. I don’t have kids; however, I love to coach and help shape them into positive upstanding citizens.

Would you say you play the role of a coach here at AllpakTrojan?

It’s funny you bring that up; we just hired a new employee who guessed that I coach in my spare time. The post-lunch stretching exercises we do to help limit work injuries gave it away.

What are your favorite college football teams?

Huskies (go dawgs!) and any teams with a diverse offense, such as LSU, Alabama, Texas A&M, and even Oregon….. (and that’s when us UW interns ended the interview)

And We're On To Prepress...

2013-05-10T15:15:00.002-07:00

Hi, Hannes and Stephanie again.

A lot has happened since last Friday as we interns live an action packed lifestyle. In addition to getting the hang of the whole sales thing, we have also been participating in the marketing aspects of the company.

Every Tuesday, we have the opportunity to bounce ideas off one another in the marketing group. Our marketing team is finally taking time to get some rest and relaxation after preparing and celebrating Missing Sock Memorial Day (and Hannes’ birthday), which just happened on May 9th! Before we can relax too much, we are already planning the next holiday at AllpakTrojan – National Trail Mix Day in August! Assisting us in this endeavor is Todd from prepress, who is especially talented in drawing, and has been making special cameo appearances at the meetings.

To continue our journey of staff and process introductions, our intention was to learn more about him and what he does down in Prepress, but alas, he was gone when we went down there. Instead, we found two of the Steve’s (apparently there are an abundant number of people named Steve in Prepress) and sat down to get to know what their part in the box making business is.

So let’s meet Steve Brown and Steve Huckins, aka Steve²!

The Steve's

What are your responsibilities here at AllpakTrojan?

We make sure the designs that come from the design department are accurately reflected on the project. That means we fix scoring errors and look closely for errors and inconsistencies before we give our OK. Or as they like to say it, finding Waldo for grown-ups!

What do you enjoy most about working in Prepress?

We like the creative side of things. We have to come up with creative solutions for every design challenge that comes our way. Essentially, since every design is custom, we have to find individualized solutions for every project.

What do you like to do in your freetime?

Steve Brown loves rockhounding and camping. Don’t know what rockhounding is? Neither do we! Rockhounding is “the recreational study and hobby of collecting rocks and mineral specimens from their natural environment” – Wikipedia (don’t tell our professor’s we used that).

Welcome to Services!

2013-05-02T13:11:00.002-07:00

Hey everyone! It’s Stephanie and Hannes here with our weekly update on intern life at AllpakTrojan. Just as promised last week, we are going to take you with us through our journey of getting to know this business by following a project through the various departments. The big bosses, aka Jeremy and Alyson, suggested we start with the sales team since that’s step one in the process. However, we are vetoing that decision because…let’s face it…sales people can be a tad annoying. Always wanting to sell you something or stalking you for information. Yes, we’re Sales interns, so we know! Actually, the sales team is great here and we will circle back to them.

In the meantime, we are moving on to step two and that’s customer service! So let’s get to know Marilea Reynon, one of the many people making our sales team’s life a little bit easier!

That call seems staged!

Name, Title, and what you do:

Marilea Reynon is one of the Customer Service Leads at the Allpak building and has been with the company for 15 years. Marilea helps with any modifications, problems, or general requests that the customer may have after starting business with AllpakTrojan. For all things customer service she’s your go to gal!

Favorite Part of the job:

She loves working with all the people in and out of AllpakTrojan.

Super Power that would help you out with your job the most:

Mind reading

Favorite way to spend free time:

Quad riding in the sand dunes of Oregon, of course!

AllpakTrojan favorite company event:

Company Country Picnic where we dove for prizes in hay, yeehaw!

Stay tuned for next week’s episode when we take a stroll through the Prepress Department.

Introductions...Again...

2013-04-26T13:57:00.000-07:00

That's me, Hannes.

What goes into making a box?

Who performs each process?

How do you get from a corrugated sheet to a finished box, and how many trees do you need for it?

Stephanie and I, Hannes, are interns at AllpakTrojan and we were asking ourselves these exact same questions. We want to understand how exactly it is done and who is contributing to the process. We thought it would be great for us and for all the people who want to learn more about AllpakTrojan to get to know the people who are doing these jobs. So, we talked and thought the best way to do that is to post it in the blog.

Since Alyson dropped off the face of the earth (not really, she’s still here), in order to kick start the blog again for her, we will introduce one employee at AllpakTrojan and tell you about their job each week. It’s time to reveal the characters at this place.

But first things first: Stephanie and I are both students at the University of Washington Foster School of Business Sales Program. We are both in our last quarter and in order to get valuable experience out in the real world, we are working with AllpakTrojan for 10 weeks. Stephanie is originally from Mill Creek, Washington, and member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority and I am from Berlin, Germany and was part of the UW rowing team.

We are very excited to transition out of the classroom into the real world at AllpakTrojan and we hope that our weekly insight into the company will be as much of a learning experience for you as it will be for us.

Obviously, this would be Stephanie.

Please Enjoy the Movie – Episode 21

2012-04-12T15:21:00.000-07:00

Man, it’s been really busy for me the last few weeks. Some of you may know that I wear many different hats for the company. Sometimes, I don’t know whether I’m coming or going. Here is a typical day…

AllpakTrojan’s Next Top Model – Episode 20

2012-03-28T12:56:00.000-07:00

AllpakTrojan is always about continuous improvement. In fact, our ISO 9001 and 14001 certifications help us develop goals and objectives. One such improvement occurred recently when the company installed a very sophisticated security system. Every employee is now required to have a picture ID badge that they scan to sign in and open doors. Some of the pictures given to HR to use for their badges were quite revealing…

The Innocence of Youth – Episode 19

2012-03-23T08:42:00.000-07:00

Recently we donated some extra large corrugated boxes to Miss Molnar’s 3^rd grade class at Apollo Elementary School. We figured Xbox, Lego’s and iPad’s are just too fancy for kids and they need to go old school again.

Top o’ the Mornin’ to Ya! – Episode 18

2012-03-16T08:22:00.000-07:00

I’ve been researching my family tree for quite some time and found out that I am in fact a quarter Irish. Now, I have a legitimate excuse to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this weekend. Dan McMullen, our Scheduler at the Trojan building, apparently doesn’t need an excuse as evidenced by his garb earlier in the week….

The Swedish Skype Circus – Episode 17

2012-03-07T13:01:00.001-08:00

First, I’d like to give a shout out to all my Swedish followers; thanks for reading!

While trying to get to know my readers, I found out that the flags of Wilmington, Delaware, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, are modeled after the Swedish flag in remembrance of the short-lived colony of New Sweden, so we’re closer than you think!

Guess What’s in the Bag? – Episode 16

2012-03-01T08:42:00.000-08:00

So, the food issues here are taking a new and interesting twist. Lately, I’ll leave my desk for a bit and then really weird items show up when I get back with no note on them, particularly food items…

As Seen on TV – Episode 15

2012-02-23T10:12:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have been following my blog, you may remember a few months back that someone hacked into my sandwich – they took a bite right out! I vowed future action and I am a person who delivers on my promises…

Seminars. A Culture of the Absurd – Episode 14

2012-02-08T14:12:00.000-08:00

Events, seminars, workshops etc. are kind of like high school all over again. If you look carefully, there are a whole cast of characters in attendance that will eerily remind you of your fellow classmates from days of old.

For anyone who’s ever attended a workshop and wanted to snap your own neck just to make it stop, this one’s for you…

Pocket Intervention – Episode 13

2012-02-02T08:49:00.000-08:00

For the sake of people everywhere, this week’s blog episode is actually more of an intervention…a pocket intervention.