Reduction of 70% for Time Lost Through Roll Changes

A pet food manufacturer was generating huge amounts of plastic waste and poorly wrapped pallets with a really inefficient pallet wrapping system. Loose film tail ends were hampering automated racking and the spend on wasted film was adding tens of thousands of pounds to packaging costs. We worked together to identify problems, make cost-effective solutions and drive sustained improvements.

The problem

Our consultation and audit found that the pet food manufacturers had been spending around £142,000 on 91,000 Kg net of stretch film each year. Their automated racking system was regularly grinding to a halt due to loose film tail ends blocking sensors, in some cases causing the production lines to stop completely.

Stability and load safety was compromised, with damaged film producing poorly wrapped pallets and staff having to perform regular roll changes to damaged film. Loads were also being rejected because of load movement, resulting in high costs and unhappy clients. With little support coming from the machine manufacturers they approached us for help.

Our solution

Through testing we identified that with some upgrading and refurbishing of the machines we could achieve a 50% reduction in plastic usage, 40% reduction in film costs and improve on load stability and pallet presentation.

We recommended a change to Extremus film to reduce damage and downtime, reduce waste and massively increase stretch, making efficient use of material, cutting costs and improving load stability. We worked with in-house engineers to test and develop comprehensive new tailored settings to optimise across the process.

We trained all operatives to continue to optimise the new system and to work confidently and efficiently to produce a stable load with no loose tail ends. We continue to monitor the set-up and conduct a quarterly audit to ensure savings balance with operational improvements and quality and stability of wrap.