Canversations Podcast, Ep. 2: Collaboration

The Canversations podcast is a new way to hear firsthand from the experts shaping the future of can manufacturing. In Episode 2 of the podcast, host Erin Oakes discusses collaboration with a veteran of new product development, Dave Weiser, and Business Development Analyst Marquita Wright. Together, they share how customer challenges evolve into new products.

Read on for highlights, and listen to the podcast for an inside look at how collaboration fuels innovation in canmaking.

Turning Problems Into Solutions

For the teams behind Intralox’s newest technologies, collaboration isn’t a stage in the process. It is the process. Our product engineers, business development analysts, commercial teams, and canmaking customers all work together. Weiser compares the relationship to a “wagon wheel”—with new product development at the center and every stakeholder connected to it.

The new product development team always starts with a problem to solve, identified by our customers. The team seeks to understand canmakers’ most pressing challenges: What issues is your facility experiencing? What keeps you up at night? What would utopia look like?

From these conversations, the team builds a business case, guided by a simple truth: There will always be more ideas than time. This means customers benefit from a rigorous prioritization process. Only the most exciting, high-impact ideas—those able to deliver meaningful improvements across the industry—are chosen.

Innovation in Action

Our Series 570 Tight Transfer solution's recent launch illustrates the process perfectly. Surprisingly, the idea didn’t begin as a canmaking product at all; it started as a “micro pitch” innovation from the food industry. But because the team understood customer pain points—tipping, stranding, mixed-label pallets—they saw the opportunity for a transformational leap.

As Wright puts it, “Intralox provides belts for basically every kind of manufacturing industry out there. And so we can just walk upstairs...and get ideas that we can bring to our own industries.” The team experimented, tested, and ultimately discovered that this technology unexpectedly eliminated another common problem: dead plates and their associated maintenance.

Dead plates may be the industry standard, but our results speak for themselves. The Tight Transfer system is proven to reduce tipping by 70% and to eliminate mixed-label pallets and dead plate maintenance. These improvements keep lines running smoothly and free technicians to focus on higher-value tasks.

Why Your Input Matters

Episode 2 ends with a message for every canmaker: If you have a problem, bring it to us—even if you think it can’t be solved.

The more clearly you can convey your challenge and its business impact, the faster your idea moves through the Intralox product funnel. And because testing often requires real production line environments, customer partnership is essential. Wright says, “We need both sides of the collaboration.”