Packaging
Some of our suppliers may be getting the distinct impression that they've seen the cardboard boxes that arrive in their offices before.
I think that my Dad and one of my uncles can claim to be among the first adherents to the phrase "Reduce, Re-use and Recycle". During the war - asking "which one?" can result in a clip round the ear - they used to send each other a Christmas card. The same one. First one of them would sign it, put it in an envelope and hand it to the other. Then...yep, you've guessed it, the other one would sign the same card, put it back in the envelope and hand it back.
So, sticking to the family tradition boxes of components arriving at our office are often piled in a corner, then, a few days later, pressed in to service once more.
I think our "most travelled" box to date will have been the one that went to NDU and The Pentagon, was FedEx'd to Thailand, the cooler taken out and replaced with Christmas presents by our intrepid field tester and sent back to us!
With the day approaching when we can finally begin shipping to customers (subject to satisfactory product safety test results) we've started working with our local packaging company - The Packaging Factory - to develop an environmentally friendly, cost effective box. Their original design drew praise during the assessment and judging of our entry in the Sustainable Business Awards. Now we have the "real" components to design the packaging around they'll be updating the design.