Handling jobs running from hundreds to millions of pieces, from business card to poster size, Blanks Printing and Imaging fulfillment division gives real meaning to the term quick changeover. With "can do" teamwork, the fulfillment group has plenty of tricks up its sleeve, such as keeping some equipment on casters to facilitate quick reconfigurations. Fulfillment manager Diane Allison also gives credit to three new pieces of packaging equipment for helping keep up with volume that has approximately doubled every year since 2002:
- Lantech's SW-3000 shrink packaging machine and tunnel have been key to increasing throughput and cutting response time, while saving 2 in. of film width and turning out retail-quality packs for one very demanding customer.
- A Lantech C-2000 case erector has eliminated many hours of dedicated weekly hand labor, not to mention queued-up towers of erected cases that occasionally fell over, while helping implement one-touch kitting.
- Finally, a Lantech Q-300 stretch wrapper paid for itself in months by cutting film and labor in weighing and wrapping up to 100 pallets a day.
Originally a prepress shop, Blanks Printing & Imaging has evolved into a multifaceted graphics, production, and fulfillment operation that employs over 100 people. The company serves a broad base of regional, national, and international customers, including high-end promotional agencies.
Fulfillment manager Allison says employee motivation at Blanks is higher than anything she's seen at other places she's worked, with every staff member working "above and beyond the call of duty" routinely.
"One of our keys to growth is that we always assume a customer's needs are changing," she says. "We constantly ask about their plans, what they think they'll need, how their operations are evolving, and then we strive to establish the processes that will advance our customers' plans."
Rapid-Response Fulfillment
One of those processes has been fulfillment, which started in the company's packaging department in a small area on the building's second floor. Fulfillment has since taken over approximately 19,000 sq ft. Much of the department's work consists of drop-shipping market-specific point-of-purchase material and store signage to support weekly ad supplements mailed to consumers, so turnaround time is nearly real-time.
"We may receive materials in the morning, and ship 1,000 collated kits to individual locations that afternoon, combining materials we have produced with those of other suppliers or product samples," says Allison.
A typical project consists of 1,000-5,000 packages, but the department is equipped to shrink wrap runs from 300 to thousands of packages as needed. The smallest items shrink-wrapped are business card size; the largest can be 16 in. wide by over 30 in. long.
"The key to our strategy is rapid response, so changeover time is critical," Allison says. "We have to be able to tear down in the middle of one job, switch over to another, then jump back on the original work and finish it. We often collate directly onto the lugged infeed conveyors of the shrink wrappers, which are about 20 ft long, then may do more kitting on the exit side before the conveyors terminate at the case erector. The kitted components are placed in the case, then sealed and labeled by downstream machines."
The fulfillment department got started in shrink wrapping with a manual L-bar machine borrowed from the company's bindery department, then moved up with a purchased automatic L-bar machine. That machine's 33 pack/min output proved insufficient for the growing volume, and one customer's quality expectations were hard to meet using it.
For most printers, shrink wrapping is needed only for shipping/storage protection, or simple convenience packaging for the customer, Allison explains. Her department, however, also must do retail display-quality packaging, where packaging quality can influence customer perceptions about product quality.
"We ship retail packs of as few as 25 sheets of paper that are later unpacked by the customer, inventoried at his end, then pulled and shipped to a retail outlet," she says. "On these packs, the corners can't curl or puncture after wrapping; there can be no dog ears of any kind; the clarity and even the tactile feel of the film are critical. More to the point, this customer inspects every package we ship because any returns from a retailer are costly. Our new equipment facilitates meeting his requirement of 100% perfection on received goods. In the long run, it's cheaper for all of us to adhere to this standard going out our door."
Researching New Equipment
To meet this requirement and handle additional volume, Allison developed a set of requirements and started research on a second shrink-wrap machine, attending trade shows, talking to other users and vendors.
"I'm not a machinery person, I had no preferences; I just knew my requirements and took them to vendors, working through the selection over 6-9 months," she adds. "We methodically work through a sound ROI and consider how long a machine will be viable for us if the customer mix and needs change. We wanted a machine adaptable to small or long items, easy to changeover and maintain, and with output significantly better than the 33/min we have with our existing machine. We have non-English speaking people working with us, so we also focused on a machine that would be intuitive to set up."
She notes that Lantech's distributor arranged for several cartons of product to be shipped to Lantech, and after an on-site evaluation of the machine at the factory, Allison ordered an SW-3000 shrink wrapping machine and ST-900 shrink tunnel. The new Lantech system was immediately pressed into service upon arrival.
"The ability to store 16 recipes in the control made it easy to transition into this machine at the outset, when we were still learning our way around," says Allison. Its side-seal and cross-seal systems have also been maintenance- and trouble-free. "Another manufacturer's machine we looked at required a fairly skilled maintenance person on hand at all times in the event a jam caused the side seal to fail," she adds. "That's a cost we don't need built in."
The SW-3000 is a flight-lug machine capable of wrapping up to 75 packs/min, with on-the-fly film tracking adjustment and side-seal/cross-seal systems that never need cleaning. The flight-lug infeed provides tight control of unstable products and accepts a minimum package of 3 x 1 x 1/8 in. up to a maximum of 40 x 15 x 6 in. (l x w x h). The adjustment-free rotary side-seal system common to all Lantech shrink machines cuts and seals simultaneously at minimum temperature to avoid melting film on components that could degrade performance or cause a stoppage. The unique system requires setting only of temperature. The seal head can be threaded and checked "cold" for operator convenience. Cross sealing is maintenance-free, too, with a seal bar that cuts and seals with separate surfaces.
Finding a User-Friendly Machine
The machine has proven very user-friendly to non-English speaking staffers at Blanks, because the film carriage uses logical settings based on package height/width, with inch-denominated scales on the machine for carriage height, inverting bars, etc. All settings are related to package dimensions in a systematic way.
"It's obvious how it works," says Allison. "Once you have the package dimensions, you set the scales and conveyor speeds, thread film, and you are pretty much ready to run. This gives us great flexibility with little downtime." Best of all, the machine typically uses a roll of film 2 in. narrower than required for the same work on the L-bar. This nets a savings of about $20 per roll of film. "We're able to use 6 in. rolls now, where 8 in. was our smallest in the past."
Allison is very selective on films, too, and made sure they were tested on all machines she looked at, with her product, during this last purchase cycle. She has settled on Cryovac Xenith and D940 in 60 ga. for most projects.
The ST-900 convection-heated tunnel has been a factor in the improved quality of the shrink wrapping. Some of the display materials include expensive plastic components easily damaged with heat.
"We can tightly control our bag size on the Lantech wrapping machine, and this lets us minimize our heat settings on the tunnel and still get a good-looking pack," Allison explains. "The L-bar machine and tunnel are more limited in allowing for a perfect package consistently."
Both shrink machines run hard all day long, and the L-bar machine still has an advantage for Blanks because it allows some "cheating" on product size that's not possible with the side seal machine, Allison explains. As for the standard of 100% perfection on the retail packages of paper, notes Allison, "Nothing can ever be 100% the first time because of the variable of the human element that you can't take out, but the Lantech machine is easily more than 95%, while the L-bar is around 80-85%."
A Case of Labor Savings
With high volumes of drop-shipping every day, Blanks has a big appetite for cases and used to dedicate 4-6 people to erect cases for the kitting line, giving them several hours' head start to build boxes. Those towers of boxes were a nuisance that could fall like dominoes, and took up lots of floor space.
That has changed with the arrival of a Lantech C-2000 case erector, which survived extensive prepurchase evaluation, including having filled boxes tested by FedEx.
"Our cartons ship individually by FedEx ground, so they have to withstand real-world conditions, and they 'absolutely positively' have to arrive in good shape -- reshipping and redos are out of the question with the schedules our clients work on," Allison says. "FedEx testing was crucial in our decision, and we found some machines could not make a box that would pass without additional taping prior to shipping, or customization by the corrugated manufacturer. If something's a little askew on a case, or the center seam overlaps, you can destroy the integrity of your tape and have a bursting situation. Lantech's distributor worked with us by allowing us to use a demo machine long enough to test a variety of cases for different projects."
The C-2000 machine is sited on the discharge side of the shrink machines and makes boxes on demand, so packers can efficiently build kits and feed the cases downstream for sealing and labeling.
"We had the smaller model on trial, but bought the larger machine and have ended up doing more on it than we ever anticipated," Allison states. "We've saved tremendous labor already and even brought more work in from other departments. If the bindery has a shipment of millions of pieces that go 2,000 to a box, for example, they can bring the skids up to our conveyors, and we can handle the job much more quickly." Most of the boxes are 200-275 lb single-wall, but Allison says the machine will run double-wall on certain sizes. "We found the specs on this machine very conservative; it'll do much more than Lantech says, which is good. They don't overpromise, and we don't have ideal conditions. It's just a very forgiving machine that always makes a square carton, never jams. We load 200 blanks in the magazine, and it makes boxes on demand at about 15 per minute."
The C-2000 works with a range of case blanks from 7 7/8 x 5 7/8 x 3 7/8 in. to 25 5/8 x 17 3/4 x 23 7/8 in. (l x w x h). The machine has a number of reliability-enhancing features, such as powered infeed from the magazine, and a hinged pickup frame that grabs the case on two panels using suction cups. By gripping two panels and squaring the case with the pickup frame, even irregular or damaged case blanks are controlled through opening, then held square and erect for flap closing. Special slots in the major flap folders prevent sideways movement of the case while it is pushed into the exit drive. There, it is gripped on the sides between two belt drives that pull it across the tape head.
The last stop before the FedEx truck is a Lantech Q-300 stretch wrapper with integral scale, sunk into the floor so the table is flush. This machine, too, was vetted extensively, and is paying for itself rapidly through greatly reduced film consumption and labor over previous hand-wrapping methods.
"We used a loaner for some time, and determined that reliability and user friendliness were big advantages with this machine -- critical with our workforce," Allison states. Pallet volume varies from 20 up to about 100 per day, with the fulfillment, bindery, and shipping departments sharing the wrapper.
As Blanks ramps up on its variable data printing, the fulfillment department expects demand to grow.
"We'll be supporting another product, so changeovers will be even more frequent," Allison says. "But we're confident in our system and the support from Lantech's distributor. Anyone who had doubts about these machines has seen what an improvement they've made in our throughput and efficiency. This machinery has eliminated our weekend work and greatly reduced our overtime. Where people used to expect to work until 10 p.m., they're now out by 4 or 5. We've reduced our material consumption, and built capacity to absorb a growing workload. No one would like to go back to the good old days."