Liquid Packaging Machinery and Small Businesses: The Cost-Benefit Analysis

While the internet, e-commerce, and new technology in general has opened up the market for small businesses, those same advances have created more worldwide competitors for local or regional products. For smaller businesses, packaging products can be both labor-intensive and highly time-consuming, pulling owners and employees away from other business tasks. Investing in packaging machinery can offer benefits to small businesses in terms of efficiency, consistency, competitiveness, and ultimately, cost and time savings.

Efficiency

Investing in packaging machinery offers the significant benefit of speeding up the packaging process while requiring a lower amount of manual labor to prepare products. Not only are more products being prepared in less time, but employees are free to focus on other aspects of the business, thus providing greater efficiency not just in the packaging, but throughout the entire business.

Consistency

Packaging by hand can create inconsistency from bottle to bottle. Fills may not be exact across all products prepared. Caps may be loose on some closures tightened by hand. Adding packaging machinery to the process helps to ensure that each container is filled, capped, and otherwise prepared in the same manner, whether the first product of the day or the last. Both the packager and the consumer can be confident in what they receive from each finished product.

Competitiveness

Adding efficiency and consistency to the packaging process allows a packager to be more competitive in their industry. As noted above, the time saved preparing products allows employees to apply more focus on product development, marketing, contracts, and other business tasks. The automation in packaging allows a small business to increase capacity and meet customer demand, while the consistency provided helps to maintain customer satisfaction and loyalty. Finally, the ability to quickly prepare products on a larger scale often allows a business to offer better pricing on products, all of which can give a small business a much-needed advantage over competitors.

Cost and Time Savings

While the initial cost of purchasing packaging machinery may seem daunting for a small business owner, it is essential to consider the long-term cost savings that an automatic packaging system can provide. By reducing the need for manual labor, a small business can save both time and money. Packaging machinery can also help minimize waste by ensuring precise fills and reducing the risk of error in other packaging tasks, further reducing the costs associated with product loss.

Packaging machinery can provide automation on many different levels, from small footprint tabletop equipment to fully automated lines. While automating the packaging process may not be right for every small business, a carefully considered cost-benefit analysis may show an owner that packaging equipment offers numerous benefits, including those discussed above.