We at Langen, and at our sister company Langenpac in The Netherlands, know that the very nature of how a packaging company behaves is moving towards true flexibility. The first example of this is that consumer-driven demands are requiring food and consumer goods manufacturers to operate packaging systems that can handle a variety of products and pack profiles. Consumer behaviour is coming to the fore as shorter product life cycles and higher packaging expectations more than ever directly impact packaging machinery OEMs.
The second push for flexibility goes beyond the much touted “machine flexibility” and impacts how the packaging industry itself functions. Packaging machinery OEMs must behave flexibly with their customers by offering more than just machinery. We need to be more involved in ensuring a well-run production line. For example, value-added service programs are becoming more important as they enhance productivity. The will of consumers and the reality of the packaging industry are giving a clear and widespread message. The message is flexibility. Individualisation, robotics and aftermarket service are three areas we’ve identified as key aspects of today’s flexibility paradigm.
Individualisation
There is an immense drive to provide packaging lines that are able to flexibly handle a variety of products. Consumers are increasingly accustomed to packaging that contains a variety of flavours, scents, sizes, and many other variations in the most common household purchases. In fact, all of us as both packaging professionals and consumers expect the same diversity between and within products. Langenpac and Langen, capitalising on our historical strengths, are now providing ever more flexible collation equipment that is able to group a wider variety of products into a wider variety of carton and case formats. The payback for our customers is the ability to take the lead in consumer markets by responding faster to demand changes; so earning a higher payback on their investments as sales are boosted as the asset’s life-time is extended.
Robotics
Closely connected to individualisation, but deserving of separate mention, is the rise in robotic infeeds and cartoning systems. Food and consumer goods manufacturers rightly demand machinery that will meet their needs now and in the future. Robotic handling easily allows variety packs to be intelligently collated / assembled with relatively simple programming adjustments. The additional use of vision systems allows food and consumer goods manufacturers to discharge their product in a way that best suits their production equipment. Downstream packaging machinery, such as robotics, that can accept product in any format and then collate and pack it makes little demand on upstream equipment. This translates into two benefits: reduced cost in modifying existing production equipment and future redeployability.
Perhaps the greatest and most overlooked advantage of robotic systems is that they are truly redeployable capital assets. A robotic system purchased today is easily modified to handle future product codes that may differ in size, shape or weight. Or even new applications. A case packing robot handling cartons today offers the owner the flexibility to pack bottles tomorrow.
Robots have come down in price over recent years and are already becoming affordable to more than just large manufacturers who have long recognised their investment advantages. An increasing number of customers are beginning to balance this long-term perspective with immediate production requirements and so choose to invest in robots.
Aftermarket Service
Most customers already have substantial investments in traditional non-robotic lines and cannot afford to abandon these assets for the attractions of robots. For them, it often makes more sense to retrofit an existing machine. Retrofitting packaging machinery – including robotic systems – to meet new codes, handle new products or to handle existing products faster has become an important part of our business. While there will always be a place for new cartoners and other machinery, our customers find that competitive retrofit programs can be economically advantageous.
Food and consumer goods manufacturers are also demanding that we have greater involvement in the installation, commissioning, maintaining and training of staff for both new and retrofit machinery. These value-added services are not just appreciated but absolutely necessary. We listened to our customers and concluded that our business had to provide flexible solutions – not just new machinery.
Flexibility
The only constant is change. Sometimes the changes are small, sometimes they are larger. Today, the demands of consumers do not just affect marketing departments and do not simply translate into shiny graphics and bold messaging. They impact the entire supply chain of packaging machinery. We’ve been around long enough to know that the ability to cost-effectively provide our customers with the best and most current packaging solution is based on knowing what is on the trend horizon – and today it is undoubtedly flexibility. This is why it is vital for good packaging machinery suppliers to keep an eye on trends - because at some point cloth and earthenware jugs are just not good enough. |
