SCORING BOXES

OFFICERS

Chairman: Gene Marino, Akers Packaging Service Group, Chicago, Illinois First Vice Chairwoman: Jana Harris, Harris Packaging/ American Carton, Haltom City, Texas Vice Chairs: Matt Davis, Packaging Express, Colorado Springs, Colorado Gary Brewer, Package Crafters, High Point, North Carolina Finn MacDonald, Independent II, Louisville, Kentucky Immediate Past Chairman: Jay Carman, StandFast Packaging Group, Carol Stream, Illinois Chairman, Past Chairmen’s Council: Joe Palmeri, Jamestown Container Cos., Macedonia, Ohio President: Michael D’Angelo, AICC Headquarters, Alexandria, Virginia Secretary/General Counsel: David Goch, Webster, Chamberlain & Bean, Washington, D.C. AICC Canada: Renee Annis

DIRECTORS

West: Jack Fiterman, Liberty Diversi ed Industries, Minneapolis, Minnesota Southwest: Michael Drummond, Packrite, High Point, North Carolina Southeast: Ben DeSollar, Sumter Packaging Corp., Sumter, South Carolina Midwest: Casey Shaw, Batavia Container Inc., Batavia, Illinois Great Lakes: Josh Sobel, Jamestown Container Cos., Macedonia, Ohio Northeast: Stuart Fenkel, McLean Packaging, Pennsauken, New Jersey AICC Canada: Terri-Lynn Levesque, Royal Containers Ltd., Brampton, Ontario, Canada AICC México: Juan Javier Gonzalez, Cartró, S.A.P.I. de C.V., Tepotzotlán, Mexico

OVERSEAS DIRECTOR

Kim Nelson, Royal Containers Ltd., Brampton, Ontario, Canada

DIRECTORS AT LARGE

Kevin Ausburn, SMC Packaging Group, Springfi eld, Missouri Eric Elgin, Oklahoma Interpack, Muscogee, Oklahoma Guy Ockerlund, OxBox, Addison, Illinois Mike Schaefer, Tavens Packaging & Display, Bedford Heights, Ohio

EMERGING LEADER DELEGATES

Cassie Malone, Corrugated Supplies Co. LLC, Chicago, Illinois Lauren Frisch, Wasatch Container, North Salt Lake, Utah John McQueary, CST Systems, Atlanta, Georgia

ASSOCIATE MEMBER DIRECTORS

Chairman: Joseph Morelli, Huston Patterson Printers, Decatur, Illinois Vice Chairman: Greg Jones, SUN Automation Group, Glen Arm, Maryland Secretary: Tim Connell, A.G. Stacker Inc., Weyers Cave, Virginia Director: John Burgess, Pamarco, Roselle Park, New Jersey

Immediate Past Chairman, Associate Members:

Pat Szany, American Corrugated Machine Corp., Indian Trail, North Carolina

ADVISORS TO THE CHAIRMAN

Joseph M. Palmeri, Jamestown Container Cos., Macedonia, Ohio Al Hoodwin, Michigan City Paper Box, Michigan City, Indiana Joseph Morelli, Huston Patterson Printers, Decatur, Illinois

PUBLICATION STAFF

Publisher: Michael D’Angelo, mdangelo@aiccbox.org Editor: Virginia Humphrey, vhumphrey@aiccbox.org

EDITORIAL/DESIGN SERVICES

The YGS Group • www.theYGSgroup.com Vice President: Serena L. Spiezio Content & Copy Director: Craig Lauer Managing Editor: Julia Berley Senior Editor: Sam Hoffmeister Copy Editor: Steve Kennedy Art Director: Alex Straughan Account Manager: Max Lalwani

SUBMIT EDITORIAL IDEAS, NEWS & LETTERS TO:

BoxScore@theYGSgroup.com

CONTRIBUTORS

Maria Frustaci, Director of Administration and Director of Latin America Cindy Huber, Director of Conventions & Meetings Chelsea May, Education and Training Manager Laura Mihalick, Senior Meeting Manager Patrick Moore, Membership Services Manager Taryn Pyle, Director of Training, Education & Professional Development Alyce Ryan, Marketing Manager Steve Young, Ambassador-at-Large Richard M. Flaherty, President, ICPF

ADVERTISING Taryn Pyle

703-535-1391 • tpyle@aiccbox.org

Patrick Moore

703-535-1394 • pmoore@aiccbox.org

AICC

PO Box 25708 Alexandria, VA 22313 Phone 703-836-2422 Toll-free 877-836-2422 Fax 703-836-2795

www.aiccbox.org

ABOUT AICC

PROVIDING BOXMAKERS WITH THE KNOWLEDGE NEEDED TO THRIVE IN THE PAPER-BASED PACKAGING INDUSTRY SINCE 1974

We are a growing membership association that serves independent corrugated, folding carton, and rigid box manufacturers and suppliers with education and information in print, in person, and online. AICC membership is for the full company, and employees at all locations have access to member benefi ts. AICC o ers free online education to all members to help the individual maximize their potential and the member company maximize its profi t.

WHEN YOU INVEST AND ENGAGE, AICC DELIVERS SUCCESS.

It’s All in the Framework

Over the course of my tenure as chairman, my message focused on strategy and execution—particularly through the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) model, but any model will work. Having a framework to operate within is the important part. For EOS, the message is simple: When the six key components— vision, data, process, traction, issues, and people—are strong, the business is healthy.

A strategic framework works to establish a clear vision for the business. It then ensures that you have the right people on the bus, in the right seats. It creates an environment with established metrics to remove emotions from decision-making and to support good decisions with objective metrics. Once the team members know where they are going, who’s on the team, and how they are keeping score, they can focus on smoking out and solving the key issues in the business, creating repeatable, foolproof processes to reduce the stress of growth and drive a meeting cadence and focused priority system to set and achieve the goals needed to successfully realize the vision.

None of these frameworks is easy. Strategy and execution require open and honest transparency, a willingness as the leader to be vulnerable, and a desire to work for the greater good of the organization. My articles provided some insight into some of these areas, and I am hopeful you spent some time reflecting on them and possibly implementing some of the practices in your business.

When I wrote my introductory message for BoxScore, I challenged you with five reflective questions about your business. Hopefully you took the time to score the business. I ask you today to reevaluate based upon the work you completed this past year to measure any improvement, as well as shine a light on some potential weaknesses that continue to manifest in the business. For each statement below, rank your business on a scale of 1 to 5, in which 1 is weak and 5 is strong. • We have a clear vision in writing that has been properly communicated and is shared by everyone. • All the people in our organization are the right people. • Our leadership team is open and honest and demonstrates a high level of trust. • All teams clearly identify, discuss, and solve key issues for the greater good and long term. • Everyone in the organization has a number.

As leaders, we have a responsibility to our team to provide the map, the message, the tools, and the help to drive successful execution. We must not take that for granted simply because we know where we are going—everyone else should know, too. Communicate with authenticity and passion, push decision-making down, be open and honest, and positive results within any strategic framework will guarantee success.

Gene Marino Executive Vice President, Akers Packaging Service Group Chairman, AICC

PMI – Measuring Manufacturing’s Pulse

BY DICK STORAT

Understanding market conditions in the manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy is crucial for independent boxmakers large and small across the country. Almost all AICC member paper packaging shipments end up in the factories and plants of U.S. manufacturers to package goods they sell to downstream customers. Th erefore, knowing the vital signs of manufacturing activity is central to understanding current and future prospects for paper packaging demand. Th e Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) is the earliest indicator of manufacturing activity, being issued by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) on the fi rst business day of each month for the prior month’s activity. In use since 1920, the PMI is not only widely used but is considered by many economists to be a very reliable near-term barometer of change in economic activity.

Knowing more about this index and its components can help independent paper packaging converters gauge the manufacturing climate and anticipate changes in the business cycle earlier. Th e PMI is a composite index for the manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy contained in the ISM’s monthly Report on Business. Each month, survey respondents from the entire manufacturing sector (diversifi ed to refl ect each manufacturing industry’s contribution to GDP) are asked to assess their organizations’ performance based on a comparison of the current month to the previous month. Th ey are simply asked if the current level is “better/ higher,” “same,” or “worse/lower” than the preceding month. Th e activities included in the survey are: • New orders from customers • Production level • Employment • Supplier deliveries • Inventories • Customer inventories • Prices • Backlog of orders • New export orders • Imports

Th e PMI is calculated as the equally weighted average of the fi rst fi ve activities listed above. Th e results of the survey are contained in the monthly Report on Business, which is released by the ISM at 10 a.m. Eastern time on the fi rst business day of each month. Th e report, as well as detailed information explaining the survey and its results, can be found at www.ismworld.org.

Th e survey results are presented in the form of a diff usion index. Diff usion indices have the properties of leading indicators and are convenient summary measures showing the prevailing direction of change. Th e percent response to the better, same, or worse question is diffi cult to compare to prior periods. Th erefore, the percentages are diff used for this purpose. A diff usion index takes those indicating “better” and half of those indicating “same” and adds the percentages. Th is eff ectively measures the bias toward a positive (above 50%) or negative index (below 50%). For example, if the response is 20% better, 70% same, and 10% worse, the diff usion index would be 55% (20% + (0.50 x 70%)). After conversion to a diff usion index, the data for each activity are seasonally adjusted. For the PMI and the indices listed above, a reading above 50% indicates expansion, while a reading below 50% indicates declining activity. Th e single exception is the supplier deliveries index, where above 50% indicates longer delivery times for input materials and below 50% indicates shorter delivery times. Recently, this index has become important as a measure of change in global supply chain disruption. Th e chart at left shows the historical PMI trend since 2015.

While the PMI provides an early signal of the peaks and valleys in the