The Starwest Contract Packaging Division R&D process Every product needs special treatment. Every product is unique much as every fingerprint is unique. Starwest Contract Packaging Division R&D process provides you a tool to design and experience your product in meaningful stages along the product development path. The system is broken down into 5 basic areas of development. Flavor development prototype Concept prototype Process prototype Phase up production run First run Each of these levels are explored and prototypes provided to you at each stage so that the necessary decisions you need to make can be made without getting ahead of yourself both financially and materially. The cost of this process can be hourly or on a predetermined contracted amount assuming the goals are reasonably achievable. Clients with already defined products may provide an already prepared recipe for their product and we will bypass the flavor and or concept levels. What is important is to get you the answers you need at the soonest possible time and give you an opportunity to market test before expensive custom packaging or large quantities of raw materials have to be committed. A typical tea project may entail mixing 3 or 4 "Flavor" prototypes over a period of time - 10 tea bags each prototype for your review. We will each have file samples and we will discuss the desired modifications. Improvements are made until we decide to go on to the next set of decisions. We will then determine how heavy the tea bag is or how large it needs to be. A small quantity of tea bags can be placed into a hand made carton to determine the carton size and look. A whole series of stability tests and other measurements can occur at this "Concept" level. The next step is a 10 lb. "Process" prototype to be run in appropriate counts, size and look of your proposed product on production machines. Here you will now have machine run product in hand. You can use this for packaging development with your vendors or test market samples to a review group or even sell them at a retail outlet to do price evaluations. At this point your will now be able to accurately project the costs for your product and predict with a high degree of certainty the date of the product introduction. The "Phase Up" is your first actual production run using custom printed materials and officially salable product. This is an intentionally small run that allows you to get product out to the market but allows you the ability to make final changes that might be necessary after getting this more extensive real time market experience. Changes might be in weight, size of bags, labels and many other desired changes. The "First Run" is the final step in the R&D process. We closely monitor all the specifications and review with you all the final requirements in the ultimate graduation of your product into the classification of a "Routine" product for reorder. Final decisions as to the necessary Quality Control reviews, documentation, sample retention and other parameters will be recorded and facilitated. The Starwest R&D process has been developed carefully over 15 years and now is available to qualified Starwest Clients on a contractual basis. These steps and our decades of experience help you to avoid costly avoidable delays and mistakes. We welcome your project and will provide beneficial and confidential service for whatever level of need you may have. Call us soon!

[Home]

[About Starwest Contract Packaging] [Product Development] [Processing] [Packaging] [Customer Service]