At DDL, our objective with this blog is to allow for far greater, far more meaningful conversations with clients, prospects, and industry friends like you than we had ever before thought possible.

Via comments left below, or thoughts shared with us later, we feel that we’ve helped build a forum where we can educate each other on what we truly care about – continued growth and development of the packaging industry.

Now, we’d like you to not only share what you think with us, but with a much larger audience.

Operating your business in a tough economy is certainly nothing any business owner or high level executive relishes.

In a previous post, I discussed how firms like DDL, who exist in the package testing and medical device testing services arenas, are relatively sheltered during these times. However, this is in no way meant to indicated that we do not experience – and in some sense have to refine our strategy – to ensure success.

Critical ISO 11607 clause 6 compliance questions answered in three chapter webinar series

Minneapolis, MN – April 18, 2008 – http://www.testedandproven.com/ DDL, the leading package testing services firm specializing in medical device package testing, has reintroduced a webinar series, originally recorded in 2006, designed to ensure packaging professionals both understand and stay in compliance with ISO 11607 – clause 6.

“How Will ISO 11607 Revisions Affect Packaging Professionals?” is aimed at packaging professionals who are not only concerned that they don’t have an adequate understanding of recent ISO 11607 clause 6 revisions, but also fear that the compliance methodologies specific to their companies may be falling out of date.

Last month, I was happy to represent DDL at ISTA’s first annual International Transport Packaging Forum. While I was presenting” Laboratory Practices for Optimal Thermal Gel Design and Specification” DDL’s own Mike Woletz, Packaging Engineer and Project Manager, was attending multiple presentations, networking, and since the event was held at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, most likely having a little bit of fun.
It is my pleasure to introduce below a guest post from Mike Woletz sharing his thoughts on the first annual International Transport Packaging Forum:

HealthCare Exec
Article Summary

When a landmark international standard (ISO 11607) altered the direction of the medical device industry in the mid-1990s, packaging and testing innovator DDL made sure it was there to greet them with open arms. That approach to service has never stopped, and it’s changed the pace of how quickly business in the industry gets done.

“You hear time is money, but money in this industry isn’t usually a factor in terms of how much companies are willing pay,” says DDL president Pat Nolan. “What they want is time. They want to reduce time to market, and we can help with that.”

Lately, we in the packaging industry have been thinking a lot about the concept of sustainability, particularly as it relates to package design.

The following, is the Message From the Chairman message I wrote for the most recent ASTM D10 Newsletter that helps clarify this issue and exactly what sustainability and sustainable packaging means, and will continue to mean, for our industry.

As a company, DDL looks at sustainability as vital not just to our industry, but to the world we are charged with improving for future generations.

Despite rumblings of a weakening economy, firms in the health care and medical manufacturing industries are relatively sheltered, as I recently quoted to Minnesota based Upsize Magazine.

The reason for this is simple. The only constant we as Americans experience in our lives is that we age. Going hand in hand with this sometimes stark reality is that we will all require increasingly more health care despite nearly all other external factors.

While health care may never be a subject we discuss comfortably, firms like DDL help to ensure we experience it more comfortably.

UpsizeMag.com
Article Summary
Despite many Minnesota business owners hang-ups over the larger economy, many respondents to an Upsize survey are moving ahead with ambitious growth plans in 2008.

John Hart, CEO of Eden Prairie-based DDL Inc., provides testing services to the medical device industry. He and his staff of 50 employees test not only the products, but also the sterile packaging they’re shipped in. His clients are located across the country.

Even if the economy takes a nose dive, health care and medical manufacturing are industries that are relatively sheltered, says Hart.

Pharmaceutical & Medical Packaging News

Article Summary
Outsourcing to meet the standards set in ISO 11607:2006 has valid benefits, according to contract packaging firms. Compliance provisions require packagers to have the most current standards at hand and to incorporate them into their process. When such monitoring and execution takes valuable resources away from a company’s primary functions, outsourcing might effectively help to meet compliance needs.

Pharmaceutical & Medical Packaging News

Article Summary

The merger of TCP Reliable Inc. (Edison, NJ) and DDL (Eden Prairie, MN) creates a single provider for a broad spectrum of products and services for package development and testing. The merger gives customers the opportunity to consolidate package development and testing with one vendor. The companies will work together on specialized packaging for complex medical devices such as combination device and drug products, officials say.