BHS Teams Up with openpack: How Corrugated Plants Can Upgrade to Digital Production Lines

iCorr: BHS's digital portfolio. It adds connectivity to traditional corrugators, letting machines report operating status, material consumption, and predictive maintenance needs in real time

openpack: A neutral digital platform built for the packaging industry. It provides foundational IT infrastructure, like account management and device connectivity, so machinery from different brands can talk to each other

The real battle on corrugated lines is no longer how fast machines run, but how fast data moves. In the past, box plants picked equipment straight from spec sheets based on meters per minute. But watching recent inline packaging partnerships like BOBST and Colorman, plus European recycling and paper packaging consolidations, it is obvious the tides have turned

Brand owners now demand complete production histories, carbon footprints, and compliance tracking from initial sampling all the way to mass production. In August 2026, BHS announced its partnership with openpack, bundling hardware machinery with an external software platform's network infrastructure. This means you are no longer just buying a standalone piece of plant equipment. You are buying a node that connects data across your entire plant

The setup works by dividing duties cleanly. openpack handles the foundational architecture so BHS corrugators can connect with the rest of the factory's systems. It is a pragmatic approach: hardware makers avoid having to build an in-house engineering team from scratch just to maintain basic infrastructure

Here is how the responsibilities break down on the floor:

・BHS (Hardware & Applications): Holds deep domain knowledge in board caliper, temperatures, and run speeds. They build the iCorr application layer and own direct commercial relationships with box plants

・openpack (Infrastructure): Builds a vendor-neutral data exchange hub, manages logins and connection security, and lets BHS machines communicate directly with existing plant ERPs or prepress equipment from other brands

Traditional plants need to build data connectivity to win high-margin, short-run jobs. Meanwhile, brand clients should make production transparency a core requirement in print procurement. This shift means plants that only do standard commodity box-making, while running disconnected production islands, will struggle more each year

At recent FESPA expos, digital corrugated earned its own dedicated zone, with brand decision-makers hunting for vendors that offer digital management workflows. If you are a brand looking for fast prototyping or custom commercial packaging, start with providers like MINDS that already have digital workflows in place, which cuts down back-and-forth communication. If you run a traditional box plant evaluating this kind of digital line upgrade, keep a close eye on these three factors:

・Scalability and Openness: Check whether the system supports cross-brand equipment interoperability like openpack does. Closed architectures will lock you in when you want to expand down the road

・Data Ownership: Make sure your plant has full rights to access, export, and analyze the production data captured by machine vendors

・Maintenance Overhead: Verify that software subscriptions and hardware servicing fees are clearly unbundled so you do not get billed twice for the same baseline support

・The competition in corrugated equipment has moved from mechanical output to cross-system data interoperability and connectivity

・The division of labor between BHS and openpack shows how machinery makers can keep client relationships while tapping external platforms to cover IT gaps

・Brand buyers care more than ever about supply chain data visibility, which will push traditional box plants to digitize their operations faster

The BHS case proves that building a proprietary software stack from scratch is too slow and too expensive for hardware makers. Partnering with established, neutral infrastructure to turn machines into plug-and-play nodes in a digital supply chain is a smarter move. For SaaS developers and system integrators, the signal is clear: traditional manufacturers do not need you to teach them how to make products. They need you to bridge data gaps between machines, factories, and brands

・BHS Corrugated partners with openpack for iCorr digital portfolio