Many manufacturers in 2021 saw increased demand, supply chain shortages, labor shortages, and let’s not forget the ever-present threat Coronavirus had on keeping your doors open. Whether you’ve jumped one or all of these hurdles, one thing is for sure… 2021 has left us all saying, ‘oh brother, what’s next!?’ 2022 as yet remains shrouded in mystery, so to quell your anticipatory anxiety, here are two DO’s and two DON’Ts that the experts at Best Packaging recommend to help you ‘baton the hatches’ to your end of line and prepare for whatever comes next.
Don’t
Fall behind on Preventative Maintenance
When you’re constantly adapting to new circumstances, everyday maintenance tends to fall by the wayside. But that’s precisely when it is needed most! Failure to regularly clean, lube and exchange worn parts can escalate a minor breakdown to a total catastrophe. Consider boosting your PM plan with performance monitoring technology. By combining line counter data with hands-on technician experience, you’ll get the clearest insight to predict wear and tear issues.
Overspend on Disposables
Disposables like stretch film, tape, and corrugate are called such because they are intended to be used once and thrown away. When you spend more than you need on single-use materials, you are essentially just throwing your money away! This happens when case tapers require more than one pass, when stretch film is so thin that it requires additional wraps, or when your cases are thicker than necessary for your application. Getting the right thickness or tension is a delicate science best left to an expert. Find out where you could be saving money by having our team of production line designers (and an ASTM contributor!) audit your plant for inefficiencies.
Do
Explore Automation
Integration doesn’t JUST mean robots. Advancements in manufacturing technology have steadily been picking up steam over the past few years. The infrastructure is finally available to make Industry 4.0 technology not only feasible for the average manufacturer, but affordable too. Take a few baby steps into the vast realm of IIOT (Industrial Internet Of Things) by implementing sensor automation with PLC integration to your existing equipment.
Take Care of Your Team
At a time when labor is scarce and employee welfare is ever the subject of public scrutiny, consider what you could be doing to improve plant safety or reduce the strain on your machine operators and material handlers. For example, graduating to a semi-automatic packing system, like a Wexxar Bel 507 & 150 combo that features a tilted packing station for better ergonomics could increase your packages per minute and still keep your valued workforce comfortable while performing repetitive motions.
If you are interested in exploring any of the solutions we suggested above, we’d love to get in touch! Or, if you need something more specific, Best Packaging is happy to assess your current production line to create a more personalized recommendation for improvements to your system. Contact us for more info!
At Best Packaging we maintain and repair some of the most complex packaging lines. Since 1997, we have been consulting, designing, and implementing packaging solutions to offer the best for your operations. In order to deliver our customers the greatest return on their investment, we represent a variety of different brands of end-of-line packaging equipment to ensure we’re matching the right solution for your customer needs.
There’s no ‘one size fits all’ solution.
Rather than discover that a particular solution doesn’t fit your application, our knowledge of numerous brands can help you come up with solutions not conceived by many manufacturers. In order to arrive at the appropriate solution, you need someone who isn’t attached to one brand and won’t force products on you that don’t fit your needs. When seeking assistance from a particular manufacturer, they typically recommend a solution suitable to their business model. You also run the risk of the manufacturer being unqualified to support your operations on a large scale because of the limited knowledge of machinery outside their own. For instance, a common situation we come across is that after a technician makes an initial repair, other machines in the same production line stop running correctly. The reason being is that most manufacturer technicians don’t have the know-how to recalibrate a whole production line. You need someone who’s going to understand the bigger picture. At Best Packaging, we have the expertise to reprogram your entire production line to achieve maximum efficiency. You don’t have to worry if your brand is serviceable. We specialize in a wide range of packaging equipment and can direct you to the solution that will ensure your business improves in material handling, and supply chain performance.
Not all stretch wrappers are created equally.
We only align ourselves with quality brands to make sure we are delivering the best value. It is our goal is to provide you with the high quality service that is going to eliminate failures to make your job not only more productive, but hopefully easier. Most end-of-line equipment brands offer different capabilities in terms of ease, automation, integration, and performance. With our extensive analysis of packaging machinery, we understand the strengths and weaknesses of various equipment. Representing a variety of different brands enables us to match the best systems based on your customer needs and the versatility of the job. For more information on our machinery philosophy, visit bestpackaging.com or contact us at (888) 930 BEST.
What’s your take? We welcome guest bloggers! E-mail socialmedia@bestpackaging.com if you’d ever like to collaborate.
With over 20 years of business, Best Packaging is a leader in innovative designs and has capability to customize equipment based on the customer’s needs. We understand that with the correct PLC, HMI programming or other engineering services, your control panels and integrated machines could be more efficient. For this reason, Best Packaging now offers engineering services for the integration and control of production machinery. We can program PLC-based controls and HMI control systems on complete production lines or individual machines to improve packaging, material handling, and supply chain performance. At Best Packaging, our creative engineers assess and modify the systems specifications necessary for your plant’s particular needs in order to achieve maximum production line efficiency. When your controls become obsolete, or a touch screen wears out, we have the ability to reprogram these touch screens, rebuild an old panel or an entirely new panel.
When a packaging line becomes faulty or fails, Best Packaging understands the urgency in fixing the problem immediately. That is why we are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for emergency service. We specialize in the repair and maintenance of end of line packaging equipment including: Stretch Wrappers, Shrink Wrappers, Case Tapers, Case Sealers, Conveyors, and Strappers. Our expert technicians will get your equipment back to running efficiently and effective to enhance your company’s production line. It’s what we do BEST!
In many industries, when you call a manufacturer’s service tech, they only know how to fix their machines. They may even recommend a solution that fits their business model, however it’s usualy not the BEST solution for your specific needs. At Best Packaging, we service all end of line packaging equipment brands. We work with our clients to deliver customized solutions by consulting and designing based on the customer’s business goals and unique needs. Our in-depth understanding of complex packaging lines combined with our ability to recognize efficiencies for customers not conceived by many manufacturers is what makes us unique. We won’t force products on you that don’t fit your needs.
At Best Packaging, we make it a priority to assist you with anything from installation to performance optimization to ensure each company is implementing the BEST solution. Whether you are looking to build a new control system, or update an existing system, Best Packaging’s programmers have the application knowledge required to implement the design. To learn more about how we can get your control panels to run more efficiently, give us a call at (888) 930 BEST!
What’s your take? We welcome guest bloggers! E-mail socialmedia@bestpackaging.com if you’d ever like to collaborate.