Packaging systems are capital equipment, and must be evaluated in terms of the bottom-line impact on a business. Often, the selection of filling, palletizing and conveying systems will begin with a committee or group of managers with varying points of view. The engineering manager may be interested in integrated functions and making the best use of space available. The operations manager may focus on efficiency and controls: Is the interface user-friendly, and is data collection automated? Meanwhile, the maintenance manager is usually concerned with durability. (Is the equipment rugged enough to provide a long life with maximum uptime and low maintenance? Is it well supported by replacement parts and factory service?)
All these points of view are valid of course, but the common denominator is that the committee is evaluating capital equipment vital to the efficient packaging of the companys products. To that extent, the greatest value in the selection of packaging systems should be determined by criteria of system reliability and functionality – rather than simply purchase price.
Those five key criteria include:
1. Ruggedness of construction.
2. Maintenance intervals.
3. Availability of important options and accessories.
4. Customization and innovative approach to the application.
5. Reliability of equipment and vendor.
Ruggedness Pays
Not every filling, palletizing or conveying application is heavy-duty. But if an application involves drums, totes or pails being filled and/or moved at high-volume intervals – as seen in the majority of lubricant and additive manufacturing operations – it most likely requires rugged, heavy-duty equipment, especially if the equipment is not maintained regularly. If you expect to fill containers all day, and hope to see speeds like six pails per minute, or one 55-gallon drum per minute, or an intermediate bulk container in four minutes, the equipment must be able to sustain that kind of output long term.
This is a long-term decision, so a lot of consideration must go into the demands of the system, advised Mark Yeck, operations manager at A&R Transport in Morris, Ill., a nationwide leader in bulk transportation, warehousing and packaging services for the plastics, chemicals, agriculture and food industries.
For example, how much weight is going to be packaged and how much load is going to be crossing the conveyor? Yeck asked. Were filling 1,500-pound IBCs on our packaging line, and up to 2,400 pounds at a time on the drum line. So we need rugged equipment to consistently handle that weight.
Sam Ammary, Los Angeles plant project manager for a global producer and distributor of gas, chemical and energy products, feels its important for systems that fill and carry totes and drums to be of robust construction in order to support his firms continuous operations.
Its best to design the system according to the requirements of the application, and that would especially apply to heavier-duty applications, Ammary said. Conveyor rollers and bearings should be heavy gauge. The filler should definitely be of heavy construction, built to withstand repeated tasks required for the application.
Over time, most filling, palletizing and conveyor systems are subjected to a lack of maintenance and daily abuse, sometimes including severe impacts from forklifts operating in tight spaces. If the system is not rugged enough, production will suffer.
Specialty Equipment, which makes conveyor, liquid filling and palletizing systems, and is a supplier to both Yecks and Ammarys firms, believes that ruggedness is essential to companies that depend on 24/7 operation, especially when high-volume production and low maintenance are involved when filling drums and totes.
Our equipment is stronger and more rugged, so it can survive long periods of abuse and lack of maintenance, said Carlton Rickard, vice president at the Houston-based company. We fabricate that way for all applications. It is a huge problem for customers who experience downtime because their equipment cant take the wear and tear. Thats why we weld supports to conveyor frames rather than bolt them, for instance. Bolts loosen over time, which throws structures out of alignment, and eventually leads to downtime – and substantial costs.
True Costs
Although maintenance costs are a factor, the true cost when needing to service or replace equipment is the resulting lost production.
The choice to purchase less than heavy-duty equipment is solely to cut up-front costs, commented Ammary. But that decision will lead to higher maintenance costs over time. If you need to continuously run equipment such as a filling system, the downtime that you suffer will be a far higher cost.
Yeck agreed. When you dont have a backup system and something goes wrong, then youre done, he said. Youre down until you can get it fixed. And that means lost production, which can be very expensive.
Rickard, whose firm is the largest manufacturer of drum filling, conveying and palletizer systems in North America, explained just how expensive production downtime can be. A good example is a customer who makes mint flavoring additives worth $10,000 per drum. If the drum-filling system is down for just one hour, and 20 drums are not filled, that equals $200,000 worth of production, he calculated. The $10,000-per-drum situation may not be typical, but it is a dramatic example of the need for uptime when it comes to filling, palletizing and conveyor systems.
When asked about maintenance costs, some plant managers may simply figure that if they have a couple mechanics on the site, the cost is about $300 for every hour they clock. In reality it may be $50,000 for every hour of production they lost while fixing the problem, Rickard said. So, the cost of maintenance, in terms of replacement parts and labor, is incidental compared to the lost production.
Option or Necessity?
Most equipment manufacturers and systems integrators offer a range of options and accessories to enhance the functionality of packaging equipment. In many cases, these accessories or upgrades can prove to be critical to production throughput, with direct impact on the bottom line.
For example, one option may be a low-foam filling machine that can fill a container with foaming liquids 25 percent faster. A quad head filler can enable sequential filling of four drums. A lance flush-out device can clean lances in place, and greatly shorten the switch-over time between products. Quick-change fill lances made from various materials can ensure product compatibility. By helping boost output, such options can quickly repay their cost.
Getting the right system has been the key to productivity, said A&Rs Yeck. That not only affects us, but also our customers. Thats very important to us and certainly affects the bottom line.
Typically, capital budgets are approved by the quickness of the payback, said Specialty Equipment vice president Bob Love. Increased production, improved safety, less downtime, ergonomics are just a few rationales to justify the cost. Priority is determined by the greatest need. For example, if a person has a back injury, customers beg us for our ergonomic equipment.
Turnkey, and Later
Many systems integrators offer turnkey systems, yet do not design or fabricate the systems they sell; they outsource them. They may buy a filler from one supplier, a labeler from another, and a wrapper from a third source, then assemble them at the packagers site.
However, Rickard said, it can be very important to consider a supplier who can design, engineer, fabricate and deliver the complete filling, palletizing and conveyor system. His company, for example, customizes every system and offers a complete range of services from needs analysis to fabrication through start-up and post-sale support.
That full range of capabilities is important to us, said Yeck. They actually designed and fabricated the line that we needed. Not only that, the initial assembly was done at their home office in Houston. We had a couple of A&R people visit there and they saw the actual equipment operating. Then it was dismantled and they sent a tech rep here and did the installation, and spent a couple of days with us making sure that we knew how to operate it and understood everything about it.
That was a key part for us, that they supply the design and fabrication and also provide the technical support to make sure that everything is installed correctly and is fully operational before they leave.
We feel it is vital to customize our equipment for every application because we are in the best position to offer the expertise, innovation and factory support that only a manufacturer can provide, explained Rickard. Ultimately, that affects our customers productivity and profitability.
His colleague Love added, We work with integrators on occasion, but since customers can buy the entire package from us they dont tend to solicit integrators. For the small jobs we do work with integrators, to satisfy the customer.
In the end, reliability pertains not only to the durability and dependable performance of the equipment, but the post-sale services and responsiveness of the vendor, remarked Ammary. When spare parts or services are needed from Specialty, we get very fast response, and that is crucial to uptime, he said.
Thats another reason we decided on the system, said Mark Yeck. If we need any maintenance service that our people cant handle, which is rare, then we can depend on the vendor for needed support, assuring us of maximum uptime.
Uptime, of course, translates directly to profits.