Case Study 12: Working Collaboratively To Optimise Pallet Wrapping Operations
A large International drinks manufacturer produces around 450,000 pallets of product a year from its 3 Chile manufacturing operations and in order to cope with such high volumes of throughput it uses fully automated wrapping machines at each of its sites.
Challenge
The company wanted to reducing the packaging and CO2 impact of its operations
There had been issues of film tearing on application and heavier gauge film had been used to get around the problem.
The company was also seeking ways to reduce packaging spend without compromising product quality.
Solution
The company considered alternative wrapping methods and materials internally before deciding that the best way to optimise its palletisation operation was to form a working group consisting of the in-house Packaging Technologist responsible for palletisation films across the three sites, the relevant stretch film suppliers and the suppliers of the wrapping machines.
Results
Following a series of on-site meetings, the customer, the wrapping system supplier and our distributor decided to trial varying combinations of film and machine pre-stretch settings in order to arrive at the optimum wrapping patterns for each of the company’s main product pack formats.
Early in the process it was discovered that a maintenance issue with one of the wrapping machines was causing the film to tear. Having corrected this issue, it was possible to revert to lower gauge film in this machine with a consequent saving in film.
Working collaboratively also removed the possibility of a “blame culture” with the film and machine suppliers blaming each other for stabilisation issues and enabled further discussions which resulted in wrapping patterns being amended. This resulted in a saving of 2 complete wraps per pallet across all sites.
The trials are still continuing but by taking a collaborative approach the company has already seen a number of benefits which can be summarised as:
- FILM GAUGE REDUCED FROM 25 MICRONS TO 20 MICRONS
- WRAPPING PATTERN REDUCED BY 2 WRAPS PER PALLET ACROSS ALL SITES
- IMPROVED MACHINE MAINTENANCE HAS REDUCED FILM BREAKAGES
- PACKAGING SPEND ON STRETCH FILMS REDUCED BY 25%;
- LESS MACHINE DOWNTIME
- PALLET STABILITY MAINTAINED
