With the advancement of Industry 4.0 automation and the increase in labor costs, more and more companies are now focusing on improving the end of line automated packaging; or new investment in production lines to directly automate the complete line of production – that is, they want the supplier to achieve a turnkey project; rather than a separate piece of core equipment. In this regard, you certainly do not want this turnkey automated secondary packaging line that you have put your heart and soul into to hinder the development of your order, then the following are some suggestions that we feel you can keep in mind.
What product did they sell?
No matter manufacturer or trading company, They all have their own company’s main sales products； manufacturers will be the production of several major series of products, if it comes to the integration of the whole line, will be additional outsourcing partner products, but this does not affect the cost, after all, there is a strategic partnership partner, both technical or after-sales will be better than your separate procurement; and traders will choose the full range of products will be sold, which may allow you to directly in a one-time purchase of all equipment, but this will involve a technical and stability of the equipment, this issue we put aside. But at least at present, you need to judge whether their products belong to your planning products, so you can make the next judgment and choice.
Know their industry experience
Although you see that they have the product you need on their website, this is not enough to reduce the riskiness to purchase; you also need to know their personal expertise as well as their industry experience; Take for example, the case erecting station, does it understand the carton erector equipment will relatively effect with the quality, shape, and structure of your carton. And how to deal with those problems, this will important. Because it is a fully automatic end-of-the-line production line, It is not possible to still employ a person at that workstation to observe whether it appears to be a problem.
Know their project experience
Turnkey projects are different from individual equipment applications. Just because you are experienced in using a single machine does not mean that your experience with a single machine can replace project experience; these are two different levels of skill. We will take our regular case sealer machine as an example, this is in the box packaging industry, all must be used; it is also very simple packaging machinery, but this simple only for its individual application. When we make the integration with a case packer or palletizing robot as a composed of the automated packaging line, according to the Hennopack team’s previous project experience, this station we would not adopt a traditional case sealing machine, even if the traditional case sealer could meet case top flap fold and seal, but we always keep our value for the Turnkey project–more intelligent, as well as less human intervention and high human safety protection.
In the turnkey integrated palletizing and carton packing project, our case sealer will customized special function for the complete system control, we will add the safety door in the sealer two sides to protect labor operation safety. Due to each roll adhesive tape will have a fixed length, and we also add the run-out pre-warning, this could let the operator pre-know to replace adhesive tape without affecting the production line packing. In addition, for the adhesive tape run out or cutting out, our system will be sensing and alarm the main system. Of course, in the future, the case packaging will go to 4.0 of the general trend, our case sealer also equip with PLC control, and this Plc also has ethernet communication, this could let you directly contact your automatic 4.0 system without any change or replace anything, just adopt the Network cable to contact. We need to consider project experience more than simply the equipment itself.
Know they are in delivering foreign projects experience
Having done project experience doesn’t mean the experience that suits the needs of a foreign country. After all, foreign countries are not the same as domestic pursuits as well as positioning. In China, much domestic equipment is directly pulled to the customer site for installation and commissioning, and not according to the customer’s sample for the actual operation of the plant internal testing as well as operation; and there are many functions that are not considered in detail in China, after all, in China, the cost of labor is still lower than abroad, but also can use human assistance; in foreign automated packaging solution project inside, is not allowed to have such ideas. We need to be as simple as possible, easy to understand so that customers can easily install the hands, easy to operate.
Let’s talk about the installation and commissioning aspects. In China market, due to the geographical Advantages, the manufacturer could dispatch engineers to the customers with fewer travel expenses, and their cost will be less with enough time to install, so they don’t need to make any mark in cable or machine because they are professional. But for the foreign, it will big difference, because customers have invested money and need this equipment to be put into production as soon as possible to bring them benefits; in transportation as well as sending personnel abroad, this time may be wasted for 1-2 months; if for installation complications, the installation time needs to be longer, which makes the customer’s investment delayed and increases the cost for the customer.Therefore, project experience is not necessarily reliable, as it needs to be combined with more technical experience to qualify as a turnkey qualified secondary automatic packing line supplier.
Especially in the current situation of the COVID19 disease epidemic, it is more difficult for us to go abroad, as well as the need for more time, which also examines the quality of the supplier technology. As shown in the picture below, it is a turnkey project of automatic packaging designed by HENNOPACK for a milk powder company in New Zealand, which is designed for automatic unpacking, spider robotic hand flexible cartoning packer, case sealing, multi-line random size robot palletizing; involving up to 9 carton sizes SKU types; but it is because of the experience of HENNOPACK team in designing and supplying automatic packaging lines for foreign customers for many years, and the senior knowledge of foreign customers’ application requirements. Our turn-key projects can be installed and commissioned by the customers themselves, and the whole production line can be run automatically without our personnel going to the site for installation and operation. customers’ engineers only operation step by step by our manual with some control guide. This reduces the risk of the customer contracting the disease in such an epidemic situation, and also quickly allows the customer to produce real inputs and save a lot of installation costs.
Know their ability to machine customized parts
In turnkey projects, the components involved are not only our conventional equipment, but also more customized components for system linkage between equipment and equipment; in the whole line automation packaging project, the whole line testing process may involve changes to these customized components, and if the factory does not have the basic processing equipment, there will be a great delay in the customer’s delivery time, and it will not be very smooth for the commissioning continuous work. This is one of the bases we need to consider.
Know the manufacturer space
A turnkey project, no matter how big or small it is, is a qualified supplier that needs to be tested inline and have all risks taken care of before leaving the factory. When a supplier its workshop is not enough to accommodate more equipment for the whole line of commissioning, then this will affect whether your equipment in your factory can function properly, you pay the money to buy the equipment is the right, this is also a problem we should consider?
Finally, the automation packaging line turnkey project involves a relatively large input from the customer, we can not just look at the price quoted by the supplier alone for comparison, but more of a contest between the technology and the riskiness brought to you high or low.
If you are ready to do a turnkey project for your product, you can discuss it with the technical team of Hennopack.
