Justifying High Speed Pouching - One Company's Experience

When a European food processor acquired a rival company and assessed its manufacturing operations, it faced a major decision: intermittent motion or high-speed pouch packaging machinery?

A thorough analysis of the available systems made the choice a clear one. The high-speed pouch system reduced packaging labor costs by 60-65%, significantly lowered floor space requirements, improved product quality, and, ultimately, positioned the company to take on new business and grow.

The benefits of a continuous-motion rotary filler stem from, but are not limited to, its speed. Higher speeds from a single filler means that fewer fillers—and consequently fewer operators—are necessary to meet volume demands. Fewer fillers also mean less floor space devoted to packaging operations.

In the European food company’s case, the savings in both areas were significant. At the time of the buyout, the acquired company operated five low-speed intermittent lines handling up to 120 pouches per minute (ppm). Each machine required one operator plus additional labor downstream, where people hand-packed pouches or sachets into cartons. In all, 20 people worked the lines.

By opting for the Pouch King high-speed rotary continuous pouching system from OYSTAR Jones, Covington, KY, together with automated downstream cartoning, the company was able to match the output of the five intermittent units.  They achieved speeds of 800 ppm, with only five operators, including personnel needed for manual palletizing, and after further downstream handling upgrades, they increased speeds to 900 ppm.

With an average operator salary of $35,000 per year, the equipment switch amounted to an annual savings of more than half a million dollars in labor alone. In other words, straight labor costs of the high-speed pouch line work out to 6-7 cents per package, vs. 17 cents per package with multiple intermittent machines.

The European dehydrated food processor continues to operate two of the intermittent lines for odd sizes and flavors and short runs, but replacing the 5 existing units with a single Pouch King and automated cartoning also opened up about half the floor space that had been devoted to packaging before.

The intangibles: Benefits beyond speed

Not all the benefits of the Pouch King are as easily quantifiable as labor reductions, speed gains and floor space savings. Auxiliary ingredient feeders and OYSTAR Jones’ continuous motion sealing system helped the customer ensure top quality in the finished product.

Auxiliary product feeders on the machine help maintain precise recipe control to deliver just the right amount of croutons, vegetable pieces or other ingredients to the soup mixes. Without such feeders, the food company would need to premix its various formulas and hope that ingredients end up in each package in proper proportion--a questionable proposition considering that the variable weights of individual ingredients might concentrate them at particular levels within each batch. With Pouch King’s auxiliary feeder, fill accuracy is precise.

The Pouch King’s continuous sealing maximizes seal quality. The web wraps around the vertical sealer approximately 300 degrees, providing more dwell time and consequently a superior seal.  High seal quality translates to better product freshness. 

The big picture and the big 'prize'

For this European food company, the benefits added up. The company procedure for project justification is three-tiered: a project with a 12-month payback gets immediate approval; for 24-month payback, management will contemplate but most likely approve it; beyond two years, the company will consider whether “the prize is big enough.”

The Pouch King project, with labor savings, had a payback schedule of four years. But the customer decided the prize was big enough given the significant additional benefits of the high-speech pouching system and the company’s business goals.

Neither the European food processor nor its acquisition were well adapted to cost effectively meet demand. And demand was growing.

The company had an opportunity to win all of the soup business of a huge potential customer if it could find a way to fill large-volume orders within the fairly quick turnaround time prescribed by that customer. The existing intermittent-motion packagers were insufficient for the task.

The Pouch King facilitated the needed volume expansion, but with the additional benefits of higher quality products and lower operating expenses. The improved capacity also allowed them to implement a stock building strategy, where the company begins building inventory in June and July for the fast-moving September-to-June soup-selling season.

The company further worked with customers to standardize packaging to reduce changeover and achieve further cost savings and efficiencies. The European food company runs products (200 flavors in all) according to product families (all chicken varieties for one week, for example), and runs families from light to dark, minimizing cleaning requirements.

The Pouch King ultimately allowed the customer to not only realize productivity gains and labor savings, but also to enter into a partnership that grew the business. A pretty big prize by all accounts, and one not achievable with intermittent motion packagers.

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