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April 11, 2024
Downtime: the archnemesis of uptime. When your packaging and shipping department experiences downtime, it can bring your entire operations to a screeching halt. This, in turn, results in prolonged deliveries, customer dissatisfaction, and a significant loss to your bottom line.
Packaging downtime is an unfortunate inevitability for any company. However, there are several ways you can minimize downtime so your business can perform at the optimum level. In this highly functional article, we will cover four ways you can keep packaging downtime at bay.
Practice Preventive Maintenance
A common phrase you’ll hear in health care is “prevention is better than cure”. The same principle applies to your company’s packaging operations: preventing downtime is a lot easier—and cheaper—than resolving it.
Like with any machinery, your packaging equipment can only run continuously for so long before they start to develop problems. And if you’ve got older equipment, they’ll develop their problems sooner than later. To combat this, schedule inspections on a weekly to monthly basis to examine the condition of your equipment.
Make sure you also set up comprehensive maintenance checklists so that each and every component of your equipment is verified to be in top working order. At the same time, make sure your maintenance team is given enough time to thoroughly check over the machines and provide detailed records of their maintenance checks.
Measure Optimum Output During Uptime
You may learn more from your failures than your successes, but your successes still provide some worthy insight into how your operations should function. When your packaging and shipping operations are running smoothly, develop some key performance indicators (KPIs) and take measurements on how things are performing.
When developing your KPIs, ask yourself the essential questions: how many packages or pallets are shipped out an hour, or a day? How long does it take for an item to go through the entire packaging department? Are there any areas or systems that can be improved to increase your output?
With a solid set of KPIs and careful measurement of your operations, you can determine what optimal output looks like so that when downtime strikes, you’ll notice it immediately and then determine the source of the downtime more easily.
Have Spare Parts Stocked Up
Even the best-made plans can go awry. Machine parts, especially those in constant motion, will wear down over time. These old and faulty parts will impair the machine’s performance, or worse, break it. When your parts are well past their prime, they need to be replaced.
A stockpile of spare parts can be a lifesaver in moments of downtime. Thankfully, most manufacturers of industrial equipment are more than willing to sell replacement parts for their machines. Just make sure you have the manual or reference guide with parts numbers at the ready so that you can request the right parts.
Plan Your Budget for Upgrades
Nothing lasts forever, especially not industrial machinery. When your packaging equipment reaches the end of its operational lifespan, it needs to be replaced. However, industrial equipment can be incredibly expensive and perhaps unfeasible if you cannot budget for it.
If maintenance discovers that a piece of equipment is on its way out during a routine maintenance inspection, or the equipment is getting close to the manufacturer’s recommended lifespan, plan early for expensive upgrades. At the beginning of the fiscal year, set aside a percentage of the yearly budget to go exclusively to upgrades and repairs.
A new piece of industrial equipment can be costly, but a critical failure will be costlier.
Cut Down Your Downtime
Life comes with three guarantees: death, taxes, and downtime. Even the world’s most successful businesses, like Amazon, Apple, and General Motors, will encounter packaging downtime that can stop operations in their tracks. The name of the game isn’t making sure you never have downtime—it’s keeping downtime to an absolute minimum.
Preventative maintenance and spare parts are crucial for addressing downtime in the heat of the moment. At the same time, taking measurements during uptime and planning for upgrades can go a long way toward staving off future downtime as much as possible. Your ability to handle downtime all comes down to how prepared you are for it.
For further reading on managing your packaging operations, be sure to check out our article on why you may need to improve your operations with a stretch wrap machine.
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January 02, 2018
Packaging is a trend that doesn't go unnoticed irrespective of which industry a product belongs to. Modern day packaging serves several functions that go beyond protecting, containing, and preserving products. Modernization in packaging requires it to communicate, promote and transact with the products and in some ways also perform the function of affecting people's perception about the product while influencing their behavior.
While these functions are considered normal today, the scene was completely different 150 years ago. Product packaging has undergone careful engineering and multiple functions of commerce to shrink into a thin film that can be wrapped around products and efficiently secure them. Continuous technological innovations and increasing competition has shaped packaging supplies as we know them today.
For example, in ancient times, there was no need for packaging for food as it was produced and consumed locally. However, with the growth of civilization, the need for containing, protecting and transporting food supplies arose. People started using bamboo, tree leaves, palm leaves, coconut shells and animal skin. Later, when minerals and chemicals were discovered, new packing materials in the form of fabrics, ceramics, paper, metals were developed. Industrial revolution further demanded for better packaging materials and after WWI, several types were seen that included cardboard boxes, molded glass, cellophane, and metal cans. The Great Depression witnessed the emergence of supermarket culture which drastically changed the distribution and consumption patterns. Post WWII, consumers enjoyed the convenience of use-and-throw materials that led to the discovery of plastics and aluminum foil.
Then came the digital age and in the latter half of 20th century, businesses took a global leap and gradually packaging became a distinct factor in differentiating products on the shelf. Going further, with the rise of the Internet, product packaging is seen more as an ESP (emotional selling point).
First came glass followed by metals and paper. Gradually, packaging came with meaning and conveyed buyers about specific brands. This further evolved by innovating shapes of the packaging materials as an identity (for ex. Coca-Cola bottles). Then came self-speaking packages that displayed the product within by using a transparent side, mostly used in supermarkets where there are no salesmen. Various types of plastics then captured the market with easy usability and economical benefits. Bar codes were discovered which took less space on the package and contained much more information.
Packaging companies have been experiencing constant demand as consumers always expect something new. PackagingSuppliesByMail.com has proven its excellence in the packaging industry, and shelves products that are affordable as well as quality approved for the highest performance.