Orora has boosted its design capability through Orora Express, a new customer portal that allows cans customers to see their packaging designs take shape in real-time, including viewing life-like 3D renders of can artwork.
Orora says the new platform is designed to increase efficiency, save time and reduce the risk of error, eliminating the need for emailed PDF proofs and avoiding multiple rounds of changes at sample stage.
Orora Express is underpinned by “region-leading” intelligent automation, reducing risks that arise from manual processing, and allowing more agile responses to customer needs.
According to Orora, the enhanced ‘live’ design process is one of the innovative features offered by Orora Express, which provides customers with more visibility of project development, and powerful approval and checking tools.
The platform further enhances the capabilities of Orora’s Decoration Centre of Excellence (DCE), the creative design hub behind Orora’s market-leading Cans business.
“The DCE’s mission has always been to ensure Orora customer’s products stand out on the shelf through compelling and influential decoration and design,” said Chris Smith, executive general manager at Orora Cans.
“The Orora Express capability should free time for customers to concentrate on their core sales and marketing activities, while we focus on making their product stand out on shelf.”
According to Smith, the DCE’s design and branding expertise, as well as insight into the possibilities of printing on a can, are the central pillars of its differentiated value proposition.
“Through Orora Express, we can take this commitment to a new level, increasing efficiency and saving customers time, getting improved designs approved and products onto shelves quicker,” he added.
“Customers need to know how their products will look in the real world so the capacity to see the full 360-degree aspect of a designed can is a major breakthrough, providing a lot more certainty.”
Brick Lane Brewing’s Chris Lyons said that Orora Express was a refreshing change from the manual process and helped “bring products to life” at an early stage of development.
“3D renders provide a great visual of the artwork and adds another layer of checking to make sure artwork elements are in an optimal position. These benefits give confidence that what we're signing off is exactly what we want to take to market,” Lyons said.
“Orora Express streamlines many of the tasks that used to be time-consuming and inefficient, which is great when we're juggling multiple projects at any one time. Having the process handled completely online and approvals completed in the portal reduces version control issues when it comes time to tick off new projects.
“Orora Express brings the concept to life in an entirely new way. There's a level of excitement and confidence even before we see the first physical can. It's changing the way our business thinks about innovation and technology in our industry.
“It certainly highlights the importance of continuous improvement and enhancing the customer experience to drive better outcomes.”
Added security
Orora Express also uses Single Sign-On and Multi Factor Authentication to provide enhanced security of customer intellectual property.
Smith noted that the value of Orora Express will be further enhanced once Helio – Orora’s ground-breaking new digital solution – comes online in a few months’ time.
“Helio is a game-changer because it opens up near limitless possibilities for can design. Increasing the efficiency of the design and review process ahead of time gives us another strong point of difference,” Smith explained.
“The Helio equipment is set to be commissioned in coming months at our Dandenong site. We expect it to be printing by the second half of the year and we are excited by the unique and near limitless possibilities.”
