The environment of change that packagers fi nd themselves in can give rise to opportunity, where machine flexibility and automation are key.
Dated: 1 May 2008
BY PACKAGING DIGEST
The internet boom of the 1990s and the subsequent bust in the early days of the 21st century had an undeniable effect on the way we conduct business today that can be both a blessing and a curse.
This shift is supported by study data. When asked if packaging machine flexibility provides a key competitive advantage, an overwhelming 94 percent signaled the affirmative, with 51 percent stating they “completely agree”. Similar evidence can be found elsewhere in the study. For example, when considering the purchase of new machinery, only 29 percent said they were more likely to buy a single-purpose machine.
Investing in automation
Automation has been in the industry for some time. However, many packagers say they are saddled with old equipment or machines that were purchased separately and so, can’t talk to each other. One respondent complained about non-standard integration of multiple OEM components and workstations. “Trying to make each component or workstation communicate with the others has to be done in a unique way every time,” he said. Another claims that lack of standardization and backwards compatibility makes it difficult to upgrade or integrate older process controllers and field devices with the new human-machine interface (HMI) software and hardware, allowing only marginal or incremental improvements of existing systems.
Despite these problems, packagers in the survey repeatedly related successes they have experienced by utilizing automation. “We have evolved our automation over the past 15 years with good results,” said one. “We planned and followed the plan, using living documents while adjusting to real needs.”
Eighty-one percent of study respondents said their companies are investing in automated packaging machines primarily to control labor costs. As one packager said, “We developed a machine that helped reduce the workforce from 16 persons to four. The overall cost of these machines (research and development, plus purchase price) was lower than the monthly cost of the workforce replaced.“ Packagers also expect that automating their processes will help them gain new effi ciencies and make them more competitive. Other reasons cited include greater speed to market, greater flexibility in changing size and type of product, better use of supply chain capacity, improved accuracy, and better safety.
Not surprisingly, 88 percent of survey respondents recognized the growing importance of sustainability in packaging, agreeing that within the next five years, it will become a major driver for automation of packaging lines. In fact, 33% of respondents list sustainability as one of the main reasons they are considering automation.
It’s easy to see the complexity of these operations, and why packagers are turning to specially designed, yet highly flexible machines that perform such tasks as filling, forming, sealing, labeling, marking and coding, cartoning, conveying, palletizing, and wrapping.
More automation
As needs continue to evolve and market pressures become increasingly complex, packaging professionals will come to rely on automationsolution providers to an even greater degree. And they expect to use more of them in the future as well. Forty-two percent stated that the number of automation suppliers they’ll use will increase over the next fi ve years, indicating strong growth ahead for machine builders, component suppliers, and automation-solution providers. “We see the packaging automation technology marketplace as one of strong growth and great potential,” says Craig Resnick, research director at ARC Advisory Group. “There is a much greater degree of technological sophistication and advanced capabilities in today’s packaging equipment, and we expect that trend to accelerate moving forward.”
Success in their own words
To gain greater insight into how automation equipment is creating significant, tangible benefits for packaging professionals, Packaging Digest put forth the following request: “Please describe a recent project or situation in which automation made a major impact on your packaging process or company.”
Many respondents indicated they have been able to realize impressive results:
“We recently added case sealers to our fractional packaging line, it saves about eight seconds per case, at two to three million cases per month.”
“We implemented software cycles for quick changeover from beverage fl avor to beverage fl avor and saved about 90 minutes of run time per day.”
“We developed a machine that helped reduce the workforce from 16 persons to four. The overall cost of these machines (R&D + purchase) was lower than the monthly cost of the workforce replaced.”
“Within the last year we replaced a manual industrial bag filling and palletizing line with automated baggers and robot palletizing. Labor dropped from three to one person per shift.”
“We installed an OEE data collection system, consisting of a server pulling data from PLCs on major packaging line machine, and improved OEE by 20 percent in first six months.”
“We automated a small assembly operation that reduced four operators to one and increased output 225 percent.”
As evidenced by these results, proper selection and—more importantly—full utilization of automation solutions can reduce costs, boost productivity and improve profitability.
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