Oftentimes, a trend can be linked to one particular outlet. For instance, AOL’s AIM platform was a contributor to the instant messaging trend in the ‘90s. More recently, in the beverage industry, an entire category was responsible for kicking off the trend toward self-manufacturing plastic bottles, says Greg Kershner, president of Inter-Tech Ltd., a multi-disciplined engineering, project management and planning firm based in Atlanta.
The bottled water category was the first to adopt the idea of blow molding its own bottles, he says. In this category, bottle cost and lightweighting is paramount, and direct-to-fill production offers solutions to these issues, he notes. It also eliminates many steps — including palletizing, banding, stretch wrapping, storage, shipping, depalletizing and conveying — which can save space in a warehouse and improve efficiency, he adds.