“We decided that centralization is an economically sensible way of doing things. An important selection criterion was also that Huld is a neutral design agency, independent of packaging material manufacturers. There are not many independent, large offices that understand industrial packaging in Finland”, says Arto Nivala, Vaisala’s development manager responsible for mechanical design.
Vaisala provides its customers in more than 150 countries with versatile weather, environmental, and industrial measurement products and services. Many products are very valuable and sensitive, making packaging design a very critical part of a successful delivery process. For a decade, Vaisala has relied on Huld’s experts in packaging design and process development.
A decade ago, Vaisala’s packaging was designed on a project-by-project basis by various packaging manufacturers. The need to centralize packaging design emerged when there was a lot of variation and different practices in packaging design from different suppliers. Vaisala wanted to harmonize packaging and, in the future, also keep packaging design documents and thus the rights to packaging. Huld was selected as a partner because the large design house was able to provide flexible resources for changing needs, global knowledge of packaging design and logistics, and extensive expertise from finger-size sensors to shipping containers.
“We decided that centralization is an economically sensible way of doing things. An important selection criterion was also that Huld is a neutral design agency, independent of packaging material manufacturers. There are not many independent, large offices that understand industrial packaging in Finland”, says Arto Nivala, Vaisala’s development manager responsible for mechanical design.
The selection of Huld as partner was a combination of many factors: A large design house was able to provide flexible resources for changing needs and having the office locations nearby made it possible for designers to visit often and with short notice. It was also important that a partner had thorough knowledge on packaging and logistics on global scale and was experienced in designing multi-material packages to all products from tiny sensors to sea containers. Huld was also willing to take ownership of packages as a whole, retaining history knowledge of device packages, harmonizing future packages, helping with packing guidelines and processes, and integrating to Vaisala’s PDM systems. Over the years, the cooperation has deepened into a confidential customer relationship. Today, Huld’s expert has full responsibility for Vaisala’s packaging design and development.
“Our cooperation is very seamless, and I feel that I am a strong part of the Vaisala team. Together with Huld’s other packaging designers, we follow industry trends and through that I can harness best practices from different industries to meet Vaisala’s needs”, says Mikko Eskola, packaging designer from Huld.
Environmental and quality requirements for packaging have long been cornerstones of Vaisala’s packaging. Because sensitive equipment is transported around the world under very different conditions, there are strict requirements for its packaging. Vaisala, with the help of its environmental and sensor experts, has defined packaging design requirements for all packaging. Vaisala considers it important to continuously develop packaging to meet current requirements. Good quality is important, and after all, packaging is an integral part of the customer experience. Optimizing the quality and amount of packaging materials has a major impact not only on the protection of packaging, but also on its carbon footprint. With optimized packaging design and by selecting the right requirements and performing corresponding testing, the carbon footprint of the packaging can be reduced without compromising on protection level of the packaging.
“It is also very important to us that our partners understand our products, our industry and how logistics varies around the world. Huld has solid experience in industrial packaging design, logistics and packaging legislation”, Arto Nivala says.