Top Questions to Ask Before Buying Packaging Machinery
The decision to move from manually preparing liquid products to investing in packaging machinery can affect efficiency, the quality of the products, the operational costs, and other factors of a business. To ensure that the effect of packaging machinery is positive on a business, it is important to ask the right questions before purchasing machinery to place on your production floor. Though by no means an exhaustive list, below are a few important questions to ask before choosing your equipment.
1. What Are My Current Production Requirements?
One of the main objectives when adding packaging equipment is to ensure that production demand can be met in a timely manner. Purchasing equipment that cannot meet current requirements simply would not make sense, so to ensure an efficient solution, know your current requirements and only consider equipment that will meet those current needs.
2. What Are My Future Production Requirements?
Similarly, most businesses are not static, in that they will not produce the same amount of product week after week for years or decades. Businesses grow, add products, add sizes and gain shelf space as they become more popular. A business may move from regional distribution to national or international, while others will grow by adding new contracts month after month. In addition to understanding your current production demands, estimate your growth and future requirements to choose packaging machinery that will last through even through the growth stages of your business.
3. Will the Equipment Work With My Products and Containers?
Most packaging equipment - from rinsing and filling machines to bottle cappers, conveyors and more - are built to run a range of products and containers, but certain machines have their limits! Ensure that the equipment you are considering will adjust for your smallest and largest container while also handling all of your different products. Just like with the production requirements, consider not only current products and containers, but any new liquids or bottles that may be added in the future, helping to ensure your equipment meets all of your needs.
4. What Level of Automation Do I Need?
Once you have a good understanding of current and future production needs as well as what products and containers you will be using, you can better gauge what level of automation will be necessary to meet production demand. Again, semi-automatic equipment for a company bottling thousands of product every hour will likely not be efficient. Automatic equipment for a business preparing a few products every hour may be overkill. Again, however, growth and future requirements should be considered when choosing an automation level.
5. How is the Equipment Operated and Maintained?
Understanding the amount of time necessary to start up, changeover, and maintain your equipment will also help to ensure that you are choosing an efficient solution. Long changeover times or complex controls, or extensive maintenance and cleaning procedures can lead to prolonged downtime, effectively killing the efficiency of the packaging process. Look for equipment that adds components for quick changeover, cleaning in place, or other advantages to keep production running during the working day.
6. What Support and Training Comes with the Equipment?
While the building of the equipment is important to ensure the machinery works as intended and in an efficient and reliable manner, the support at and after delivery can be just as important. Most packaging equipment will include wear parts and other components that may need to be replaced from time to time. To ensure run time, look for equipment that is supported by the manufacturer with both technical assistance and a parts department, ensuring that, should issues arise, they can quickly be addressed and resolved.
7. Can the Equipment be Upgraded?
Finally, no matter how well you plan for current and future needs, you cannot always predict every event. As a packager looking for equipment, understand how the equipment can be modified, customized or upgraded in the future. Not only will this inform you as to the flexibility of the equipment should your needs change in the future, but it will also help you to understand the limits of the machinery as well.
Investing in packaging machinery for your business goes far beyond the initial decision to purchase equipment. Understanding what you are getting for your money helps ensure an intelligent and useful decision. At Liquid Packaging Solutions, we offer both semi-automatic and automatic packaging equipment to run bottles from less than an ounce to gallons and more. Our equipment is designed with simple to use controls and allows for customization to meet the specific needs of each project. In addition to building, LPS offers integration, installation, technical support, and a fully stocked parts department for all of our packagers. If you are considering upgrading or adding packaging equipment to your process, LPS has your answer, to the above questions and to any others you may have!