Introduction
At a Glance
To future-proof your case sealer, it’s all about finding the right balance. You don’t want to overpay for capabilities you don’t need, but you also don’t want to be stuck within limiting boundaries. Our recommendation for future-proofing is to start with the places where you’ll first see growth:
- Speed – Leave headroom for sustained rate growth
- Sealing Method – Consider a glue-ready system
- Case Size – Make sure your cases meet tolerance with room to spare
The trick to future-proofing is to buy for the margins – to leave breathing room. And to do that, you need to know your line’s specifics.
Have you ever wondered, “How much is too much?” when it comes to a case sealer? There’s a line in future-proofing – it’s just sometimes hard to define.
We can’t draw the line for your operation, but we can give you a pen. There are three areas that we think are key to future-proofing:
- Speed
- Sealing Method
- Case Size
These are your starting places. Don’t try to future-proof for the full scope of your case sealer. Instead, just focus on the priorities you can, and do your best to find the balance.
In this article, we’ll cover:
- The 3 key areas to future-proof
- How to consider other priorities
- What happens if you don’t future-proof
- How to future-proof for the margins
- How to use an FAT as your safety net
What Should I Future-Proof on My Case Sealer? 3 Key Areas
It’s somewhat unrealistic to expect to future-proof for the full scope of your case sealer. There are far too many factors to think about. But future-proofing for the key areas? That’s smart.
So, what areas should be future-proofed? Here are the big three we suggest:
- Speed
- Sealing Method
- Case Size
It’s not that capabilities can’t be added on in these places later; it’s just that it’s really costly to do so. For a lot of operations, it’s more valuable to upgrade to a new case sealer than to retrofit in these areas. But cost isn’t the only reasoning behind these three, specifically.
Why These Three Areas? The Reasoning Behind the Key Three
Speed, sealing, and size are the three places to future-proof because they’re the key places where growth is first seen. Face it, when your operation is looking to expand, what are the things you hear? “Let’s do it faster;” “let’s do it with glue instead of tape;” “let’s do it with more sizes.”
They’re also the line “make or breakers.” Speed is how you hit target rates and consumer demand. Sealing method is your quality assurance and shipping protection. Case size is how you appeal to your market and maximize shipping cube. If one of these areas no longer works for you – you’re going to pay the price to make it work.
And what’s the price if you don’t have extra headroom in these capabilities? You either retrofit or upgrade. Packaging equipment is usually built with 10 years or more of service capabilities built in. But whether a machine sees all those years on your floor or not, really depends on how much room for growth you left in the first place.
Other Honorable Mentions – Capabilities Often Overlooked
The three key areas we outlined above – speed, sealing, and size – are the three we think you should prioritize when future-proofing. However, we’re not saying they should be the only places you future-proof.
Depending on the state and priorities of your operation, there are sometimes other areas worth future-proofing. Two that we see often overlooked offer good examples:
1
Safety
Perhaps you run a small, relatively low-volume operation. You don’t have a lot of recordable safety incidents, and you don’t really think that additional sensors and guarding are going to be worth it for you.
That’s fair – and you’re entitled to your own priorities. But consider how your view may change as your operation grows. Personal or company-mandated safety expectations might change with the industry. It’s worth taking on a priority now, if you think it’s going to be more important to your operation in the future.
2
Usability
It’s easy to brush machine simplicity and usability aside, if they’re not present concerns for your operation. Maybe you have a really tenured and skilled team. You trust that they’ll adapt to the new machine, regardless of complexity.
But turnover rates in operator positions are relatively high. Once one of your operator’s moves on, usability is going to become a rather important factor. Generally, if a sealer is easy to run, it’s easy to staff. Consider what factors might become bottlenecks for you in the future – or watch where the industry is struggling – and prepare for that now.
What Happens If I Don’t Future-Proof?
“What happens if I don’t future-proof?” It’s a good question with a simple answer: you pay for it.
Adding capabilities to an existing machine is almost always possible in some measure, but only if you’re willing to pay for it. The reality is that no operation wants to pay for costly retrofits. And that’s the primary problem you’ll run into, if you don’t future-proof.
Here are some more specific effects related to the key three:
Speed Effects
You’ll feel the weight of under-rated speed faster than any other factor. Most operations know this, if only vaguely. But the problem with future-proofing for speed is finding where the line for headroom should be. And there’s a lot of conflicting advice out there:
- If you install too much headroom, you’re overpaying
- If you don’t install enough, you feel the limiting effects later
Both are technically true but also unhelpful. Realistically, you should find the balance.
One more scenario here: if you try to push the machine. When you purchase a sealer at today’s rate, but then expect it to do more later… it turns into a maintenance bill. The machine wasn’t made to run over spec, and certainly not at a sustained rate. You’ll be servicing and replacing components regularly.
Sealing Method Effects
Sealing method is easy to forget to future-proof. You do tape now, so you’re going to buy the sealer for tape. And even if you did want to switch to glue later, it’s probably not going to cost that much, right? Adjusting sealing method is actually pricey – tape or glue, it goes both ways.
Most operations start with tape and switch to glue later. Perhaps they even buy the machine, knowing they’ll have to retrofit a glue system in a couple years. But there’s another alternative, and it’s substantially cheaper: buying a glue-ready machine upfront.
Glue-ready means that it’s a tape system, but mechanically prepared to upgrade to glue. It just doesn’t have the specific glue equipment fitted. A glue-ready system may make for a higher capital purchase, but it’s much more cost-effective in the grand scheme.
What’s the Nuance of Future-Proofing for Case Sizes?
Speed? You build a little headroom. Sealing method? You opt for glue-ready if needed. But case sizes? They’re not as straightforward as they may seem. The most common reason a working case sealer is removed from a packaging line is because of a change to the case running on it. And oftentimes, it’s just a small change.
Here’s the key to understanding case tolerance: Case sealers are built around specific geometries – like we said earlier, they’re prepared to meet certain case conditions. That means dimensions, format, material, and anything else, the machine was prepared for X case’s exact specifications.
If a case is already at the edge of the sealer’s tolerance, and it gets a half-inch bigger, it may be out-of-tolerance and cause stoppages, faults, and errors. But take the same half-inch on a case that’s in the sealer’s mid-range, and there’s virtually no issues. It all depends on range and tolerance.
The same could be said for flap length. If you shave a fraction too much off of the flap length, the flaps won’t engage the folding mechanism. And with case format – you alter it slightly, and the sealer outputs cases that won’t stay shut.
The lesson is the same across the board: it matters not only that your cases are in tolerance, but where they are within tolerance. Regardless of how you’re planning to grow in the future, if your cases sit at the top of your range, a supplier’s slight adjustment may be enough to throw everything off.
How Do I Future-Proof My Case Sealer? Buy for the Margins
Maybe we’ve thoroughly scared you at this point. But we haven’t scared you without a solution. How do you future-proof? You buy for the margins.
We mean that you should buy with just a little bit of breathing room over and under your current specs. Consider how this should be done for each of the three key areas we’ve laid out (and any others that are especially relevant to your line).
There’s not an exact number for each operation to build into their margins. It depends on your specifics and your growth projections. But here’s the advice we’ll give to everyone:
Know your specifics.
Without knowing your line, there’s no way to accurately buy for the margins – or to accurately future-proof at all, for that matter. And a vendor can only help you so far as you have your operational specifics in-hand.
When You Shouldn’t Buy for the Margins
After we’ve just told you that buying for the margin is the solution to future-proofing… we’ll just add a caveat. Buying for the margin usually requires additional budget. Some buyers don’t have the money or don’t need the capabilities.
If your operation has no plans or prospects for line expansion, don’t buy for the margins. If your operation is already planning to upgrade this equipment in a few years – and this machine is just a stepping stone – don’t buy for the margins.
Your Final Safety Net – The Factory Acceptance Test
Factory acceptance testing (FAT) is typically the last step before any equipment project ships. The purpose is to make sure the equipment meets your needs, before it’s out of the vendor’s hands. This means it’s also your last opportunity to request adjustments before retrofits become especially costly – think of it as your final safety net.
Problems that arise at the FAT level may be caused by you or your vendor. But either way, you should use the FAT as the final check it’s meant to be. The rule with the FAT is this: don’t let the machine leave the vendor’s facility until the machine works. If they can’t adjust it to meet your specifications, you’re better off returning it than dealing with an underperforming machine for years.
Finding the Balance – The Truth of Future-Proofing
Future-proofing is a fine balance – that fact has never changed. But if other operations have found the balance, so can you. Start with the three key areas: speed, sealing, and size. Then, consider if there are other priorities for your line.
And the real trick to finding the balance is knowing your specifics. Know your specifics, and buy for the margins. If you do that, you’ll be set. And if something comes up in the future, at least you’ll know that you had put every effort in to prevent it.
Are You Needing Vendor Guidance for Future-Proofing?
Give INSITE a call. Our specialists will help you evaluate your line, explore automation, and find the right balance in future-proofing.
