In most of the northern half of the country, winter means ice, snow, frigid temperatures—and dry, chapped lips. In fact, according to market research firm Information Resources Inc., more than 31.3 million tubes of lip balm were purchased at U.S. convenience stores in 2013, totaling more than $64.8 million in sales. The leading brand alone accounted for half those sales.
That’s a lot of plastic push-up tube assemblies. The only way to meet that kind of volume is with high-speed automation—or, more specifically, a continuous-motion assembly system.