In an effort to reduce material and labor costs for an existing clamshell, a leading manufacturer of consumer food products in Minneapolis turned to their neighbor, Brookdale Plastics, Inc. (BPI) for advice.

Reducing material costs by 35%
The creative design team of BPI's engineering department went to work redesigning the clamshell. Using a deeper draw and a complex plug, the team was able to reduce not only the size of the clamshell but the material thickness, or gauge, as well.

With this reduction of size and gauge, BPI was able to reduce the material content by approximately 35% and overall cost by 45%!

Less tooling means less labor
Tooling for the clamshell was another challenge. Several different versions of the same clamshell were necessary to accommodate the slightly different components it contained. A previous vendor had created approximately 100 tools; unnecessarily creating a new tool for each item.

BPI was able to reduce tools to six main frames with interchangeable inserts for the specific components. By creating insertable tools, the customer benefits from shorter set-up times. They are able to gain from the efficiencies of larger runs without the costs of total tool changeovers.

Customer savings from start to finish
Because of the reduced parts and materials in the new clamshell design, our customer enjoys time and labor savings plus the potential for additional savings through a streamlined assembly process.

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