Automation
- Automated Packaging
Increasing
Efficiency and Reducing Costs With Packaging Automation
By
Neal Magaziner, Hughes Enterprises
"The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a
dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the
man from touching the equipment."
~Warren G. Bennis
Well, not quite. At least, not yet. But, automation is certainly the
watchword as today's manufacturers face razor-thin profit margins, Just-In-Time
(JIT) manufacturing and ISO-9002/QS-1000 quality standards. In fact, companies must
automate in order to deliver what today's customer is demanding, when he wants
it and at the price he wants to pay.
Let's start by taking a look at the reasons why manufacturers automate their
packaging operations in the first place. Then, we'll explore some of the tools
that help them do it.
Labor - The availability and quality of a reliable talent pool is one
of the most important business drivers in any industry. So, management must get
the most out of the people they do have. Automation allows companies to reassign
human resources to more productive areas such as quality control, customer
service or product design. And, while workers are sometimes concerned that
machines will "replace" them (not usually true), automated systems can
let companies allow employee attrition to take its natural course, without
sacrificing productivity.
Throughput Demands - There's an old saying among plant managers,
"Machines don't take coffee breaks." Sure, there is downtime such as
scheduled maintenance or occasional rebuilds/refurbs, but automated systems can
be counted on to produce given amounts of throughput in given amounts of time -
every day. And, that means the world to companies who must compete in a world of
demanding customers, tight quality standards and JIT inventories.
Consistency - A trained and motivated worker is a prized asset to any
company. But, even the best human worker has the occasional "bad day."
And, "bad day" can easily translate into "massive product
recall." Automated systems, properly set-up and maintained, will put the
right label in the right place on the right box, every single time.
Real Estate - It's expensive. Expansion and success is a two-edged
blade. Sure, it means more revenue and, hopefully, profits. But, it also means
new investment in people, property and equipment. The old manufacturing rule of
thumb was that if you increased business 20%, you'd need 20% more people to get
the job done. Many times, the growing company finds that it simply can no longer
fit more people (or equipment) into the same building. Automation can help avoid
an expensive call to the real estate agent.
The demands are complex. Fortunately, there is no shortage of automated
packaging tools to meet them. Here are a few that we think add a lot of value -
and are within the reach of even moderately sized operations.
Automated Case Sealers/Erectors - A case sealer takes a flat box,
forms it, seals the bottom and presents it for loading. This offers three main
advantages. First, less people are necessary to perform this menial task.
Second, it eliminates an ergonomically undesirable process. And third, it
presents each box only moments before it is needed, rather than the alternative
- paying for both a laborer to form a shift's worth of boxes ahead of time and
the wasted plant capacity used to store empty boxes.
Automatic Stretch Wrappers - The strength of stretch wrap comes not
from the volume used, but from maximizing "material memory" by
stretching the wrap to within a few foot-pounds of its breaking strength.
Stretch wrappers use exactly the amount needed and wrap to a standard tension,
every time. As a rule, any operation that needs to wrap 15 or more pallets each
day can see a cost-benefit from automated stretch wrapping systems.
Automatic Strapping/ Unitizing - Many manufacturing and distribution
operations can benefit from Automated Strapping Equipment in their UPS shipping
operations. These systems pay for themselves on a simple premise. It's a lot
cheaper to ship one 20-pound package than it is to ship four 5-pound packages to
the same place. These units automatically gather and strap similar packages
going to shared destinations.
A Note On Leasing - With new technologies being introduced all the
time, more companies are turning to leasing as a tool to stay ahead of the curve
and conserve capital. Monthly or other periodic payments ranging from six to 72
months allow for simplified budgeting, avoiding complicated depreciation
schedules. Payments can finance not only the purchase price, but other costs
such as freight, installation, training and maintenance support. Many leases
also allow equipment upgrades during the lease, as technology advances or as
your needs grow.
The decision to automate any process comes down to a combination of quality,
safety, ergonomic and cost-benefit analysis. But, while automation was once the
bastion of only giant corporations, new systems and designs are attractive to
even the smallest operations. So, check it out - your profit margin could depend
on it.
Neal Magaziner is Executive Vice President of Hughes Enterprises, a
leading distributor of packaging,
labeling, product identification and other automated machinery and
related supplies located in Trenton, NJ. More information on the company can be
found at www.hughesent.com
or call 1-888-238-0162.
Link
to this article or send the url to a friend.
http://www.bin95.com/Automation-Automated_Packaging.htm
| 
Services
