Flexible packaging is the future for most food manufacturers, as outlined in our food packaging report. But it comes with its own set of challenges around materials, machines, and manual operations. According to respondents of our food packaging survey, the successful deployment of flexible packaging lines will require more versatile equipment. In addition, because of a skills shortage, machines need to be intuitive and easy to use.
We asked two OEMs that build flexible packaging machines for the food industry to respond to some of the issues raised in the report. Here, Brantley Turner, global product line manager at BW Flexible Systems, and Jackie Irvine, director of marketing and sales at Plexpack, offer the OEM perspective.
Survey respondents said their top three sustainability initiatives in food production focus on reducing overall plastic usage, eliminating packaging material waste, and making packaging more recyclable. Are these areas that packaging machine builders can help with?
Jackie Irvine: Occasionally, yes. Many OEMs offer comprehensive testing of materials to ensure compatibility with existing packaging equipment technologies. At Plexpack, we even help our end users select their pouches for a small fee – enabling them to research the suitability of new materials before purchasing. Most OEMs also seek to innovate such that they reduce material waste and can accommodate plastic alternatives; it’s a part of improving their competitive positioning as they go to market, and most companies are willing to work with their end users to provide more sustainable solutions.
Brantley Turner: We work with film vendors to make sure our sealing technology and our forming technology are suitable for those structures. We work in partnership with the film manufacturing group to make sure we can process those things. But so far, we’ve found it is small modifications needed at the feature level. It’s not a thing that affects the machine.
To improve food packaging operations, end users are looking for greater machine flexibility to accommodate more package shapes, sizes, and materials, as well as faster automated changeovers. How does that impact Plexpack equipment, which includes manual, semi-automatic, and fully automatic in line and standalone bag sealers?
Irvine: Plexpack’s tagline is “Flexible Solutions. Certain Results.” It’s a gesture of our openness to deliver equipment that can flexibly accommodate different bag and pack sizes. Automated changeover is also very easy to accommodate, although it comes with some upfront cost which is largely from additional programming and adding extra motors to moving parts. Our bag sealer types (continuous band sealers) tend to accommodate a wider variety of bag sizes and bag types – even for automated solutions. And this is something we are currently [talking about] as it can sometimes be difficult to know what automated solution is the best fit for a given manufacturer.
There’s also a need for easy access to operational data to help operators. How does BW Flexible Systems make that happen on the flow wrapper product line that you lead?
Turner: It was a big focus on this new machine [the Hayssen R300 flow wrapper]. Part of our design philosophy here was, why do we need to make it so complicated? How can we make it simple and intuitive? When you buy a new phone, you don’t get a training class or manual for how to operate the phone. You naturally figure out what it does. That was the design mentality. We tend to put a lot of complexity on the screens, for example, because our software engineers designed the screens in the past. As part of this project, we went to customers and said, let’s whittle this down to what you really need and what you should be changing. We wanted to help keep it simple to understand and run every day.
One of the things crossing over with that is data. We started using an RFID login system, so instead of having a password that users type, you use the same key that you use to get into the building and that’s your login for the machine. We can set your access levels, but we can also track all the changes that you make. We found a lot of people make changes and then everything is off and you don’t know how to get back. But if I have a log of all of the things that have changed, we can sort of hit the undo button and get back to where things used to be.
Training is still important to end users. But how can OEMs make it easier?
Turner: We recently had a strategy session about how to think about training in a new way. We had old ideas that people come here [to our facility] to learn, but we recognize that if something breaks in the house, I’m on YouTube trying to figure it out. So, we are working on bite-size morsels and not massive one-time training. It needs to be delivered at the point that you need it.
Irvine: As standard, we offer remote startup and in-person startup, which always includes operator and maintenance training. Importantly, too, our technicians are multilingual in Vietnamese, Cantonese, Spanish, and English, which is a great help given the diversity we tend to see on plant floors.
What could customers do better to support machine builders as needs change?
Irvine: Talk to us about what you want – even before you look to change packaging. It’s thanks to customer feedback that we are able to fund R&D projects and better service the producers. When they succeed, we succeed – and having an early read into what they are looking for allows us to engineer better equipment for them to use.
Turner: I think we’ve always approached our customers as more of a trusted advisor. Sometimes it means we don’t win an order, but we win the business in the long run. If we recognize a change in material will impact performance, we are forthright about that and transparent and we try to work as partners with our customers. It’s really a three-way partnership in flexible packaging between customers, machine builders, and film manufacturers. We try to partner there and help everyone understand the total picture and impact of changes. I’d rather let you down now than overpromise and under-deliver later. Let’s be clear about what we’re getting into. That’s been our strategy.
