Product configuration, material and manufacturing improvements

In 2011, the nail wraps were being produced on white vinyl on a white paper liner. In conjunction with my project of putting in place a new high speed web fed method of manufacturing, I sourced a clear vinyl that was thinner and had a higher quality adhesive, in addition, I had the manufacturer put it on a clear liner. With the new 7 color manufacturing method, the clear vinyl allowed us better color control and coverage and opened up our design options. The thinner vinyl applied to the nails better and the clear liner let the customers see through for better sizing. All aspects of the new clear vinyl on clear liner with better adhesive, improved the user experience. I then addressed the layout or way the product was designed on the sheet as it was creating a higher than acceptable scrap rate through die cutting, causing us to run the machine slower and lowering our throughput. I re-designed the product layout by removing the long header that ran perpendicular to the nails and closed the gap between nails to allow room for two additional "nails" which became the logo and the SKU. We gained efficiencies in the die cutting as all elements on the sheet now ran parallel to the direction of stripping. Removing the header allowed us to shorten the product dimensions by 1/2", this gained two more nail wraps per press impression, going from eight to ten. This gain allowed us to produce an additional 2,100 wraps from the same amount of material and labor, an increase of 20% throughput with a lower scrap rate. See more on the packaging aspect of these improvements here.