Case Study 11 - Japan: Increasing The Pre-Stretch Ratio of Stretch Film To Increase Yield
A large Japan-based ambient food manufacturer supplying product into the fast moving consumer goods (fmcg) supply chain palletises and stretch wraps product specific pallets using an automatic stretch wrapper:
94,000 pallet loads of product are manufactured annually.
Utilising a new improved film the company increased the pre-stretch ratio of the machine to reduce film consumption from 22.8 tonnes p.a. to 13.1 tonnes p.a. yielding a film saving of 43%.
Challenge
The company was seeking ways to reduce packaging spend without compromising product quality; and One of the company’s KPIs is to reduce their carbon footprint.
Solution
The company utilise a fully-automatic machine to stretch wrap 94,000 pallets for distribution through the retailer regional distribution network. The machine has a pre-stretching capability allowing it to take standard stretch film and pre-stretch it at the point of application in-line in the manufacturing facility. The film used was 20μ using a pre-stretch ratio of 100%.
Each pallet load dispatched is wrapped using on average 12 complete wraps of stretch film per pallet. The wrapping pattern is three times around the base of the load, 7 wraps up the load with 50% overlap and twice around the top.
Working with their machine and film supplier a new improved film was introduced allowing the pre-stretch ratio to be increased to 250%. The film thickness and reel width remained the same.
The new film and increased pre-stretch ratio were trialled to ensure that wrapping efficiency was not compromised and that load stability was satisfactory in distribution.
Results
- A REDUCTION IN AVERAGE FILM USAGE PER PALLET FROM 242g TO 138g
- A REDUCTION IN ANNUAL FILM CONSUMPTION FROM 22.8t TO 13.1t
- CARBON EMISSION REDUCTIONS OF 26.2T P.A.
- 33% SAVING IN FILM COST
- WRAPPING EFFICIENCY AND PALLET STABILITY MAINTAINED
