Mike Abare, Magnum Systems’ technical sales manager, focuses on the power of automated packaging lines in maximizing return on investment (ROI).
Mike reveals insights on optimizing efficiency, reducing costs and harnessing the benefits of automation in ways you might have yet to consider. Discover how bag placing, palletizing and automated palletizing with stretch wrapping contribute to a streamlined and profitable packaging operation.
Tune in to AIM and unleash the true ROI potential of automated packaging lines.
Transcript
Mike Abare Show Intro:
Welcome to Magnum Systems Podcast, where we'll aim to dive deep into the world of: “A” for automate, “I” for integrate, “M” for manufacturer. I'm your host, Mike Abare, and I'll be bringing you expert interviews, thought-provoking discussions, and real-world case studies that shed light on the latest trends and developments of systems integration. Whether you're a seasoned professional who's seen it all, or just curious about manufacturers who are revolutionizing their operations, this podcast is your one source resource. So sit back, relax as we aim to cover all the challenges, automation and integration is solving today. Let's do this.
Mike Abare:
This is Mike Abare, your technical sales manager from Magnum Systems. Today we're going to talk about return on investment related to automating packaging lines, specifically around three main variable cost generators, bag placing palletizing and automation of palletizing and stretch wrapping. Magnum Systems works with customers every day looking to evaluate the feasibility of automating packaging lines.
Some of the common questions are: What is the length of time commonly used for determining timelines for ROI evaluations? What portions of the packaging line can be automated? And can you elaborate more on the anticipated savings associated with automating bag, placing palletizing and stretch wrapping? Before we dive into this topic, we must define the word automation. It means different things to different people. Customers might say, I want a fully automated system. This might mean that an operator is currently filling the bag by hand and wants a simple bagging machine to speed up the process or to develop more accuracies in their process. Or perhaps they already are doing some automation of just the bagging process and now they're looking for a system that will actually place the bags on the bagging machine. Or it could be that they're looking for a fully automated system that eliminates as much human interaction as possible, taking that bag all the way from hanging it on a bag place or on a spout, on a bagging machine through the ceiling process, through the production line, all the way down to palletizing, where a robot then actually removes the bag off of the process and puts it on a pallet.
So when we start defining automation, that's where we need to start, is understanding what our customer’s needs truly are. Defining that word automation. From our experience working with thousands of customers over the years, most customers seek a two-year ROI on their projects. Of course, this varies by company and what their desired ROIs may be. Companies might have a higher ROI tolerance when the scope of the project provides other benefits, safety, compliance, or even perhaps contracts with customers or contracts they're trying to be awarded. People ask, what areas of packaging lines are often automated? As I mentioned earlier, typically we see three areas in a packaging system that focus on automation, bag placing, palletizing and stretch wrapping. These areas are commonly automated for several reasons. Manpower being the largest financial reason. These jobs are repetitious, can be dirty and quite laborious. Plus, given the market these days, there are fewer people to do these jobs.
Rest assured, when the line's not producing owners quickly see the need for automation. We're often asked, can you elaborate more on the anticipated savings associated with automatic bag placing palletizing and stretch wrapping. All three areas are ripe with opportunities to save money through automation proving desirable ROIs are possible. We're often asked to expand on how companies can save money with automation. Well, I mentioned earlier labor savings. Certainly this is the biggest or the most significant amount of return on the investment is what labor savings are there. Certainly, as I mentioned earlier, this is the biggest part of that evaluation. And certainly when we talk about removing labor, please keep in mind that as we remove that labor, but perhaps find them a higher quality or a higher paying job within the company as they can be repurposed somewhere else. There are other intangibles, though, we must think about.
What about when that employee doesn't show up for work? Employees do that from time to time. What about when employees go home sick that day? You know, most of these events are not predictable. We generally don't get advanced warnings. Hey boss, I'm going to be out sick next Tuesday. And so, it leaves their production manager sitting high and dry in the moment trying to figure out if there's a temp service that can help them, or if they got to repurpose another employee to the line. And unfortunately, some of the times the lines go down for lack of manpower. Let me tell you this. Packaging machines show up for work. They're dependable, they don't get sick. Yeah, they require some maintenance. But I can also share, people require maintenance too, some more than others. Did we talk about work comp claims? Think about it. Your operators are picking up 25, 50, 80 pound bags all day long.
What are the ergonomics of their work area? Are they designed for employee movement? The twisting, the turning, the lifting, the setting down of bags? And I don't know about you, but my body's not built to lift 50-pound bags all day long. So what about employee fatigue? It must be pretty dang tiring to lift 50- pound bags. I don't know about you, but I get tired. And when I get tired, I'm prone to more mistakes that is not only mental mistakes, but also physical mistakes. And so all of a sudden that starts impacting the consistency or the quality of the work that I'm doing. And that brings us to another bullet point. What about consistency? Not only are packaging systems dependable, but they're designed to be consistent, consistent with their production. They will do the same mission time and time again without interruption. They don't get distracted, they don't go to the water cooler, they don't have to take bathroom breaks.
And what about their accuracy? Bagging machines today are quite accurate. They can weigh to two-tenths of a pound in most cases. Ideal for customers, especially with pricey ingredients. Most customers are happy to get within a half percent or even 1%, and they can live with that. We have a customer, as an example, a recent installation that they required that their bags weighed no less than 50 pounds. They could weigh more, but they couldn't weigh less prior to the automation of their system. Their employees, their operators were hand scooping product in to top off the bags so they could weigh that 50 pounds. Not only was the bag being handled once, it was being handled a second time by the operator to get the accuracies. What would happen if you had a machine that could do that consistently, time in and time out? And that's what happens when we automate packaging systems.
We get reliable, consistent production day in and day out. We don't have to worry about the machines being off or missing the mark. All of that is reportable through modern day technology, through PLCs, through data reporting mechanisms. So the guy who's managing the production floor, the quality assurance people, everybody within the organization can see the high quality of work that's being produced with an automated system. Certainly the larger the volume of the product to be packaged, the greater the return on your investment. What I do want to caution for those of you who are considering the automation of your packaging lines is this, don't let good enough kill your desire to consider an automated system. Our website is chock-full of blogs. One of the topics is, is good enough killing your profitability while the blog is targeted toward feed mills? The message is easily transferable to most packaging situation.
So, if you're considering automating your packaging system, I would ask you this, reach out to an expert in the industry, preferably a Magnum salesperson, and let them walk you through the process of understanding your application, understanding how automation can best serve your needs and determine the feasibility of automating your lines. We can help you through the ROI formulas. We can take you down to the path where one of our regional sales managers, an expert in packaging systems, can easily help you identify the areas in your system that are worthy to be automated and which ones might be affordable or provide you an opportunity to be approved by your management team. At the end of it all, the last thing we want to do is spend time proposing a system that is never going to go forward. We'd rather work with the customer that knows their budget and then we can find a solution that works within their budget to provide the largest amount of return on investment possible. I'd encourage you to reach out at your first opportunity to a Magnum expert.
Mike Abare Show Close:
And that's a wrap for this episode of AIM. Thanks for listening and thanks for joining us today. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about the topic we discussed today, feel free to reach out to us on our website or social media channels so you never miss an episode packed with valuable insights. Please join us next time as we continue to explore the ever-evolving landscape of system integration. Until then, keep aiming for success. This is Mike signing off. Good day.
