08.25.08
Students who are studying flexography in colleges throughout North America are gearing up for the next Phoenix Challenge, an annual competition that tests their knowledge and skills. The 2009 competition will be held in May in conjunction with the FFTA Annual Forum at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort, Orlando, FL, USA.
The Phoenix Challenge College Competition is a year long event in which an industry problem is presented to the students and requires both market and manufacturing research. Students then present to a panel of industry judges, which grades them in four different categories: research, concept, graphics and execution.
The problem for the 2008-2009 school year is this:
“A distributor of supplies and consumable food items for use and/or sale in college campus coffee shops wishes to enhance its competitive advantage. The company wants to explore the feasibility of offering short run, custom branded products which offer enhanced competitive advantage over competitors' products, while still allowing the products/packaging to be branded for the particular college campus.
“The distributor is issuing a request for proposals to narrow web flexo convertors, asking them to propose the redesign and/or repackaging of one or two different flexographic, narrow web printed and converted products typically found in a campus coffee shop. Proposals are expected to deliver enhanced sustainability, increased functionality, and/or improved marketing appeal.
“The distributor is issuing the RFP for non-pressure sensitive, flexo narrow web printed products only. No proposals for pressure sensitive labels will be accepted.”
The Phoenix Challenge College Problem committee was led by Mark Rankin of the University of Central Missouri and included Michelle Surerus, Appalachian State University; Zachery Blackburn, Central Piedmont Community College; Gary Potter, West Virginia University Institute of Technology; Dean Gilbert, North Carolina A&T State University; Jim Lentz, Pennsylvania College of Technology; Doug Younger, Pittsburgh State University, and Ian Baitz, Ryerson University.
The Phoenix Challenge College Competition is a year long event in which an industry problem is presented to the students and requires both market and manufacturing research. Students then present to a panel of industry judges, which grades them in four different categories: research, concept, graphics and execution.
The problem for the 2008-2009 school year is this:
“A distributor of supplies and consumable food items for use and/or sale in college campus coffee shops wishes to enhance its competitive advantage. The company wants to explore the feasibility of offering short run, custom branded products which offer enhanced competitive advantage over competitors' products, while still allowing the products/packaging to be branded for the particular college campus.
“The distributor is issuing a request for proposals to narrow web flexo convertors, asking them to propose the redesign and/or repackaging of one or two different flexographic, narrow web printed and converted products typically found in a campus coffee shop. Proposals are expected to deliver enhanced sustainability, increased functionality, and/or improved marketing appeal.
“The distributor is issuing the RFP for non-pressure sensitive, flexo narrow web printed products only. No proposals for pressure sensitive labels will be accepted.”
The Phoenix Challenge College Problem committee was led by Mark Rankin of the University of Central Missouri and included Michelle Surerus, Appalachian State University; Zachery Blackburn, Central Piedmont Community College; Gary Potter, West Virginia University Institute of Technology; Dean Gilbert, North Carolina A&T State University; Jim Lentz, Pennsylvania College of Technology; Doug Younger, Pittsburgh State University, and Ian Baitz, Ryerson University.