For airports and airlines, security is an extremely high priority - where the huge responsibility for passenger safety includes safeguarding the integrity of food and beverages. Future Airport speaks to Brian Lyle, president of Cambridge Security Seals, about how the company provides reliable high-quality solutions to suit airports' secure packaging and loss-prevention needs, while remaining cost-effective and environmentally friendly.
Brian Lyle: Since the company began in 2010, CSS has focused on designing and manufacturing security seals that are demonstrably superior to competing products. Our design process involves analysing existing products, consulting with users of the product and developing innovations that elevate each CSS product in a way that has specific benefits for the customer.
A good example of this is our line of pull-tight security seals, such as our airline MPT seal, where we increased the number of beaded stops across the length of the seal. This enables users to more precisely cinch the seal to their desired level, just like adding additional holes to a belt.
In addition, we designed a shorter but more robust barrel to host the locking chamber, which provides two significant benefits: first, it strengthens the barrel, reducing the chances of incidental breakage due to any sort of impact; and second, we designed the shape of the barrel to shrink the packaging dimensions, providing customers with freight and inventory-space cost reductions, as well as the environmental benefits of less packaging material.
CSS features several security products that specifically cater to the needs and requirements of commercial airlines, in-flight service companies and air freight carriers. We offer two distinct seals for food and beverage carts: our MPT adjustable seal with the tear-off feature sets the standard for ease of use and print quality, and our OPP padlock seal - which is also available with an extended flag to fit additional information if necessary - is designed for users who prefer fixed-length devices that don't compromise on performance. Our company's wide array of tamper-evident labels and tape can similarly be customised to reflect the customer's print requirements.
Additionally, CSS has partnered with Starcom Systems to provide the industry with several unique GPS-based tracking devices. These solutions are particularly of interest to freight companies, especially those responsible for shipping high-value items or those requiring non-stop vigilance over their transportation.
As previously mentioned, smaller packaging means less material, lower environmental costs of transport and less waste. While this may not seem significant when viewing a single carton of 1,000 seals, the overall impact of this improvement across hundreds of millions of seals can be substantial.
Our commitment to environmental consciousness runs far deeper than this, however. Our manufacturing facility has been fitted with an extraordinary array of energy-efficient technologies, from LED lighting, energy-saving HVAC and other infrastructural elements to the actual manufacturing equipment - reduced energy consumption is the hallmark of the operation. In fact, CSS has been cited by our power provider for our success in continuously reducing energy consumption.
We pride ourselves on working closely with each and every client to understand their specific security and product requirements, and to ensure that we provide them with the most effective solution. To achieve this, client input is essential. Our team of security seal professionals focuses on listening to our clients, presenting and exploring options together, and jointly reaching the ideal security solution.
Whether we are designing a new seal or improving an existing product, we always include user feedback to steer us towards developments that improve not just the product, but also the overall user and customer experience with our seals - and our company.
Almost from day one, we have been experiencing an extraordinary rate of growth, so our company and our employees have evolved within the high-paced, performance-driven culture that rapid growth entails. We are expanding our capacity, which involves increasing our physical footprint, adding production lines and continuously enhancing the technological capabilities of our existing lines, and strengthening our team of professionals through hiring and training.
CSS is currently in the middle of phase two of a three-year, three-phase expansion that will more than double production capacity while adding several new product lines. The challenge, of course, is successfully expanding without affecting the high standards of performance that our customers have come to expect from us. While we are certainly not perfect, our team has done a fantastic job of taking care of our customers, which is really what our business is all about.
As an organisation, we make every effort to continually educate ourselves as to the changing or emerging challenges in airport and airline safety and security. From conferences and research to one-on-one meetings with the field professionals, CSS is dedicated to remaining at the forefront of the industry's security seals requirements and solutions.
As much as anything else, it is customer input to our product development process that enables us to adapt to changing needs. For example, it was an airline customer who suggested that we offer an extended flag on our OPP padlock seal to enable her airline to print a barcode, logo and other information on the seal to make it more difficult to forge.
During this three-year expansion, we will see our company more than double in size while adding many new products and solutions. Whatever we do, we will continue to stay adaptable and flexible to our customers' changing wishes and requirements.
More than anything else, we are always looking to improve - our products, our service, our communications and our technologies. A steadfast commitment to continuous improvement is what has enabled our growth and success to date, and what will assuredly guarantee our customers and employees a most successful future.
