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Packaging Line Capacity and Buffers
Christoph Recher, Sales Manager, and Thomas Czioska, Head of Sales & Marketing, of LoeschPack explain how to find packaging line constraints and plan capacity. Recher says to start where downtime, scrap and inefficiency are highest, and suggests 20% extra capacity for buyers with no experience. Czioska stresses that the whole line has to fit together, and that LoeschPack simulates the size and positioning of buffering systems.
Key takeaways
- Christoph Recher recommends analyzing where the most downtime, scrap and inefficiency occur, and starting there.
- Thomas Czioska says a very fast packing machine makes no sense with bottlenecks before and after it; the whole line has to fit together, and buffers help smooth out highs and lows.
- For buyers with no experience, Christoph Recher says 20% extra capacity is a good number to start with, and LoeschPack can simulate the whole process.
Common questions
- How much extra capacity should I plan for when buying packaging equipment?
- Christoph Recher of LoeschPack says that if you have no experience whatsoever, 20% extra capacity is a good number to start with. He adds that LoeschPack can simulate the whole process because it knows the availability of its machines, and customers rely on the efficiencies LoeschPack provides: "in the end we have to fulfill these, and we do."
- Is it better to buy a faster wrapper or to improve product supply to it?
- According to Thomas Czioska of LoeschPack, the whole line has to fit together. A very fast packing machine makes no sense if there is a bottleneck on the front side and the back side. You need the right equipment from beginning to end, and a buffer helps smooth out the highs and lows.
- How do you size and position a buffer on a packaging line?
- Thomas Czioska of LoeschPack explains that buffering has a huge impact on line efficiency, and the right type of buffer depends on factors such as available space and room height. LoeschPack normally simulates the line to determine both the positioning and the size of the buffering system.
Transcript
Tom Rougeux, President, Piepenbrock Packaging
So, back to constraints in packaging. How does a packaging engineer really know whether the upstream feeding and production is actually limiting the output? Where does the constraint on production usually lie?
Is it providing product to the feeding system or the feeding system itself?
Christoph Recher, Sales Manager, LoeschPack
I would say you have to look at everything at first, analyze where you have the most downtime, the most scrap, the most inefficiencies in your whole process, and that should be the point where you start.
Tom Rougeux
And how does selecting a buffer, sizing a buffer, even incorporating a buffer at all, how does that affect the consistency of product getting to the wrapping systems?
Thomas Czioska, Head of Sales & Marketing, LoeschPack
There's a huge impact in terms of buffering products, because it's a question of efficiency of the line itself. And you always have to figure out what kind of buffer you want to use. It always depends also on available space, room height, things like that.
And what we normally do is really we simulate it to figure out the positioning of the buffering system and also the size of the buffering system itself.
Tom Rougeux
So would you say that it would be maybe more important to provide a consistent supply of product to the wrapping system, or just buy a faster wrapping system that has an inconsistent supply to it? Which would be better?
Thomas Czioska
No, it has to be, it should fit, the whole line has to fit together. It doesn't make any sense if you have a very fast packing machine in between, but you have a bottleneck on the front side and on the back side. So you need the right equipment from the beginning up to the end, and it should fit to each other.
Tom Rougeux
And does a buffer help smooth out those highs and lows?
Thomas Czioska
Absolutely, yes.
Tom Rougeux
Very nice.
How much extra capacity should our customers think about having when they buy a packaging piece of equipment? If they know they have to produce 100 pieces a minute, how much extra capacity should they plan in their equipment?
Christoph Recher
I would say if you have no experience whatsoever, 20% is a good number to start with. But here we can help out our customers, because we could simulate the whole process. We know the availability of our machines, and that in the end gives us a good feeling to us, because we provide efficiencies to the customer which the customer relies on, and in the end we have to fulfill these, and we do.
