The Packaging School.com / Bianca Hurley / Director of Automotive Services

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Do you want to learn how to package auto parts? 
Why is the packaging school so great? 
have you visited The Packaging School.com ? 

My honor to get to interview expert Bianca Hurley and get to learn from her why packaging auto parts is so important. 

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I'm here to help you make your packaging more sustainable! Reach out today and I'll get back to you asap.

This podcast is an independent production and the podcast production is an original work of the author. All rights of ownership and reproduction are retained—copyright 2022.

Transcript

0:31

Welcome to sustainable packaging with Cory Connors . Today's guest is Bianca Hurley. She is the director of automotive services@packagingschool.com. Maybe I'll go. Hi. Thank you for having me. Thanks for being on. I'm a huge fan of the packaging school.com as you know, or as you call it the packaging school. Tell us about yourself. Tell us about your. All right. Well, as you may can hear my accent I'm I was born and raised in Germany. That's also where I studied packaging engineering in Berlin. And then I came to Clemson to do my master's degree. Awesome. Packaging science. So I just like always loved packaging. It's just so diverse. Right? Like you have different areas, quality engineering, optimization design. So that kind of. And do packaging, just like the whole variety of things of things. But then I was always more like the math type of a person. He liked the math and the calculation. So then I found my perfect fit. I'm working at BMW in Spartanburg. I'm doing all of their after-sales packaging. So for a decade, I was I designed and to PL all the packaging that comes in for all after sales parts that are produced in Canada, Mexico, America, north America, south America, Brazil. And that was a lot of fun. And then I came back full circle on the educational side where I started. And so now I'm at the packaging school. I'm still doing automotive, which, you know, there's a lot of fun. I was going to say in in America, at least German people are known for being awesome engineers. You, you have that great reputation and in particular, Incredible cars. So this, this all makes sense. I'm, I'm thrilled to hear about that. We do some, some packaging for some different automotive companies at Landsberg Orora , and it's, it's exciting to see some of these amazing things coming out of Tesla and BMW and Mercedes and In the electric vehicle space and all different kinds of things for, and I remember actually very good working relationship with you guys too. You know, and after sales and there are so many different hops I think you guys had some very quick concepts for windshields, so yeah, yeah, that's right. That was I I'll never forget a video. I saw about some packaging we created for. Mercedes that was a windshield really cool corrugated, all sustainable is beautiful. But anyways, let's talk about what is the packaging school? How does it work? How did you find out about it? What did you learn about it through Clemson? I know that there's a accredited via Clemson. Is that. Yes, that's correct. So what we're doing as we're specializing and educating working professionals and the whole of packaging, right? Because not everyone has time to go back and take like a four year degree. So we have programs that teach mostly online everything you need a packaging. And so we have certificates and we also have like lone standing courses and of course, library that you can choose. One certificate that, you know, we're really proud of. It's a certificate of mastery and packaging management. That's a 12 week cohorted program where you basically learn everything you need about packaging, but then you also have a cord on your side and you've work on a project within the 12 weeks, and then it's applicable for your job, which is amazing. And then if you like more like self guided, if you don't want to have a quarter program, you're more like self guided, you know, due to my own pace. Then you may want to go over the certificate of packaging science, which is, you know, fully online will take you maybe a little bit longer to go through is completely on your own past. And then lastly, the certificate I'm really proud of being an automotive as the automotive packaging certificate. Me coming, you know, being a child of, you know, the automotive packaging. I just wish this would have existed earlier because automotive packaging is just so different and there is no education out there. I mean, me was two degrees. I have not learned about, you know, metal racks and bins and, and, and, you know, corrugated solutions for. Front hoods and giant cheap metal parts. So that's that's another thing. And then of course, you know, a huge variety of, of courses and we have one in sustainability too. So hopefully there's something out there for everyone that deals with packaging because you know who doesn't touch packaging. Right. That's it. It's the biggest industry nobody really talks about, except for people like you and me. We talk about it nonstop. I love it. When you say a cohort how many, that's a group of people that are going through the school together, right? How many, how many people usually in a cohort that like your class. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Fair enough. So it depends, you know, like we, you can set up quarterly and I would say, I think I have, we may have about 20 cohorts a semester, something like that. So you have a nice group of folks that, you know, you meet and you get to learn . And I think they also like form relationships. It's nice for them to get to know each other, right. While they're going through that. So, yeah, but that would be more a question for Dr. Julie Rice who is leading into our program. So she could definitely answer those specific question. Yeah. Julie's is incredible. She's a brilliant person and I'm just so cool to work with. I've been impressed with her and her knowledge. She was one of my, one of my first guests on the podcast and I learned a lot, so that was. Dr. Juliet rice socks, because she's married. I still like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You have to show respect to the whole name. That's excellent. So does the packaging school also teach live classes or is it just online courses that you click and watch the video? It's a very good question. So we do work with professionals on professional webinars. So we do that on a regular basis. We offer workshops as well. And we also have a, a very big live event that many people don't connect with the packaging school, but it's actually also to the packaging school. It's called automotive packaging summit. And that happens every year in the fall. And Cory if you have never been, you have to attend all the automotive packaging. Thoughts are in one room that, so how the event works is like the OEMs, like, you know, the BMW, Mercedes Ford, they go on stage and present their packaging problems or benchmark packaging. And so do the tier one suppliers, you know, the ones that supply parts to the OEMs and then and the audience. We have those solution providers and then they pitch their solutions, their ideas, and that just opens up such a quick communication. So we are expanding and growing every year, this year, we are at the Hyatt Regency, September nine, calendar it's, it's always in downtown Greenville. So a high Regency downtown Greenville, you know, right away. Where's Greenville, Greenville, South Carolina. Oh, okay. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, I'm all the way on the other side of the country in Oregon. Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful place. Beautiful place. Greenville, South Carolina. It's definitely worth a visit. And so sometimes we go into Clemson. Sometimes we're doing it in Greenville, but the Greenville location is just like so wonderful, right. With all the restaurants we have and the floods park, and it's a wonderful location. So it's definitely a very nice. Place to meet and talk about automotive packaging. And is that a invite only event? Or can anyone go to that? So, you know, we have limited capacity of how many folks we can take. So about 350 registrations open right now. But yeah, I am I here brought, we still have some tickets left and that's on the packaging. Yes, that's actually a separate link at all. Packs summit.com all topics summit, like. And I'm happy to share all that with you. Yeah. I would love to go that, that sounds really, really interesting. Do you personally prefer teaching live classes or do you like the, the make the video and then, and then meet with the students after the fact what's your preference? So I, I just really liked the micro lesson type of form. So I like having. Prerecorded and then watching it at my own pace, because I feel like you can't. You know, make sure that everything you want to have, you know, communicate in the, in there, but then at the same time at the life events, right? Like an auto pack summit, you can just initiate such interesting conversation. So I think it's probably the mix. You know, that matters. It's, it's hard to pick, but having the online, you know, the option to do everything online on your own pace, whenever you want to, I just would want to not miss it anymore. You know? I agree. And I went to college about 25 years ago and back then we were just starting online courses and, and I just really gravitated to them because it was so much more convenient. I was also working, full-time pay my way through college. So to be able to say, okay, It's 11:00 PM, but I'm still awake. I can get, I can knock out this class right now. You know, that worked for me and I think it works for a lot of people in the busy professionals in the packaging industry. It makes a lot of. Yeah, I think it does make sense. I think when you like a student and you know, like you're 20, you want the on-campus life, do you want that? Right. But then, you know, once you're like in the drop life and then you have a family, you really do appreciate the flexibility. Yeah. Yeah. It's important to spend time with your family and kids, if you, if you have them, but. Let's talk about automotive packaging, because to me it's fascinating. I think automotive packaging has led the charge in reusable packaging. How did they figure that out way before all. What made that so unique? Well, that's a very good question. So, so first of all, when you hear automotive packaging, I think you think like, what the heck is that? And I always explain it as when, you know, when you take a car and then you divide this kind with thousands of parts. Right. But think about. The mirrors and the front hood and the windshield and little brackets, or even the the leather interior parts, right? Like everything you can think of in a car needs to comes in a package and needs to be packaged. So that itself is very unique. So you dealing with all these different materials, but not only that then within the OEM. You have all these different areas where you need parts. So for example, the production line, they need parts in a easy to handle economic multipack returnable system so that they can ship it easy, back and forth between their supplier and the OEM. Right. So that's mostly returnable, both giant, you know, packaging, but then there's also SKT security, which is Zimmy knocked on completely knocked down parts where you ship, maybe let's say let's just make up a number 20 cars, always, you know, at the same time or about to certain countries, there, you have very new requirements by, you always need a 20 pack, right. Or a 10 and a 10. And then you have asked a sales word, you know, well, I have been spending my decades and, and an asset sales, everything needs to be single pack. Like no dealer wants to open a giant, you know, like 5,000 pots in it. Like they needed in a single pack with a different label. So you have one OEM and they have within the same OEM, but the same part. So many different variations of packaging. So it's like packaging, the versus exploding, right. And packaging. So I think there is such a huge need for invention and for trying new materials. And that's, you know, one of the reasons why we have this event too, has been. Packaging folks to come out there and explain what is new? Do we have new solutions? And they're very willing to try it out, right? Because there's so much money in that whole supply chain when then it comes with packaging. Yeah. Especially nowadays when people are, are repairing their cars more than ever, because new cars are so expensive and frankly, hard to come by. The supply shortage has really affected that. That makes a lot of sense now to define something for the audience. When you say OEM, is that original equipment manufacturer. Yes, that is correct. So the OEMs would be like, you know, the BMW, the Mercedes, the Fords, the GMs that are the OEMs, and then they are supplied by their tier one suppliers. So those are actually. The people that make the parts that go into the car. You know, lots of times the OEM producers, like the engines and the sheep or the parts themselves, but then let's say the headlamps and the glass, they come from different suppliers that specialize in glass, right. And electric mix. So there's a huge supply chain involved in all of them. My father and mother-in-law owned a CarQuest auto parts store. So I'm very thankful to have learned from them. A lot of this stuff that you know, I, they know, I love packaging. I talk about it all the time, so they let me walk through the store in the back and see how things are packaged up. It's really, it's fantastic. The way the engineers like yourself have taken the time to really package the items. Well, And I love to talk to those folks specifically, because I think they are the ones that handle the parts at the very end. And they see so many things. I would love to have a chat with your dad and see, you know, like how much what type of parts arrive damaged. And I do this all the time. Actually, I went over to BMW century in Greenville and just you know, checked out what, what does breaking over here? What can we improve our packaging? Right. Like being right there at the end customer health. Oh, they would love that. And I've because of that, I, I got to go to SEMA one time. Have you ever gone to the SEMA show? Oh, in, in Las Vegas, it's an amazing show for aftermarket parts. Yeah, so I think it's the largest one. So you might want to check that. If you have time it's really, really fascinating. Every vehicle manufacturer was there. All the aftermarket products was there. Really fun too. It is fun. It's a huge facility. I think we walked like five miles or something crazy in one day. Do you want to use some funny? Yes, I do. Last Vegas pack expo. Have you got a, you probably have about a pack X. Well, that's where I'm at my husband. Oh, I love that. Yeah. Packaged chicken loft packaging family right here. Oh, that's amazing. What does he do for a assume? He's in the packaging. Yeah, he has a he's teaching packaging at the Clemson university and Ronnie. So we're like one big packaging. Your kids are going to know more about packaging than most people. Right. See my my wife won't take me to the grocery store anymore because it take so long looking at all the different boxes and everything. So I don't know how you guys get any shopping. Oh, yeah, we, we love the stuff. Like we spend hours in there, like that do a lot of unboxing experiences to, you know, in our office and stuff. Yep. Oh, that's excellent. So what's, what's the future. What's the next step for the packaging school? Anything new? Anything you plan? Well, you know, but always developing new content. You know, as you said, I think we were talking to you, like sustainability is huge as a huge topic at automotive packaging stammered, you know, we have a couple of interesting speakers that touch upon that. Like we will hear from comments and their sustainability approach. So that may be really cool. So yeah, I think there's always, you know, new improvement needed and as you said, For sustainability, you just have to keep educating getting the word out. Yeah, that's it. And do you know, in automotive packaging, even though, even though I was like on the aftermarket side, right. And aftermarket has not so many. Reusable containers. We worked with packaging providers where we, we furbished for instance, is Blockstack pallets, rockstar, pellets come in from Europe and they're very hard to get in America and they're very good. And so we refurbish those work with packaging providers that then put other corrugated containers on them. Box that palace to make new packaging kits that then in the end for an OEM side you know, like you don't have so much waste anymore. You, you, you know, you can reuse those items. So I think even finding sustainability, sustainable ways, even when it's not obvious is something that we all can do. Like. That's it. And, and we can, we all play a part and, and looking at things from, from the, the backside front, you know what I mean? Saying, okay. When it gets there, what does the end-user do with it? Or what does the consumer of the product, whether it's in a, you know, a manufacturer. Like for work in process materials, or if it's an end-user how can they recycle that material? I think that's something that we're constantly looking at and improving. Yes. And so we're trying to get the word out. One of the projects we're working right now on is a food certificate because we just found there's a huge need for that. So when the, in the middle of creating that and, you know, Dr. Sex is a big part of that initiative as well. And I think there's a lot of room for, you know, biodegradable products, biodegradable, packaging, sustainability, and things like that. And look what I found in Tennessee. And have you seen that before? No, this is like, so I took my family on, you know, on a trip, a tendency to put hiking and to the state packs at passing out these like green state parks that green was asked, and these are like seeded flowers, and you can put them in your yard and grow flowers. I thought was the coolest thing. And I just held on for this, for the podcast, because I thought you should see that. I think that's fascinating. I love that. People are putting seeds and paper. It's kind of a niche thing and probably not going to last too long, but I think it's really cool for something like that. I think that makes a lot of sense, you know, like here. Beautiful and what a neat design. I like it. So now, now you can go plant them. Yep. Now I'm going to send my children out to plant the flowers in the garden. Excellent. Well Do you have anything else that you wanted to talk about or is that. Yeah, well, so Corey we have for anyone that is interested in taking any of our classes I just want you to blast out. We have, you know, on packaging school.com, they can sign up and behalf created a coupon code for you and one of your podcasts. So anyone that signs ups from your podcast within the next two months of the podcast being issued. So, you know the coat as podcast co podcast, Cory . So just all lower case podcastcory and anyone that signs up with that code gets a 10% discount to our sustainability course. Wow. That's amazing. So podcast, C O R Y. If you're listening, I will put the link in the show notes and be sure to share that with your friends in the packaging industry or anyone who's interested in learning more about sustainable packaging. I think this is the perfect audience for that you know, education so well done. That's very exciting. Thank you for putting that together, Bianca. I really. Absolutely. Thank you for having me. Yeah. I'd like to thank Landsberg Orora for sponsoring this podcast. If you're listening, please take a minute to give us a review and make sure you're signed up to, to hear the next episodes. We appreciate it. Thank you so much, Bianca. Thank you, Cory