Located near the Great Lakes, our customer manufactures marine grade epoxies for use worldwide in boat building and repair, architectural restoration and high-tech aircraft. Pipeline was invited in the summer of 2011 to walk through their plant with the plant manager.
The plant manager presented several of their products and filling operations. He also showed us a heat shrink tunnel used to seal clear sleeves around one of their canister products. The plant manager explained how he and his staff hated the clear sleeves as they were hard to handle and cumbersome to apply before shrinking.
Back at the Pipeline office, our Packaging Engineer gave some thought to the plant manager’s comment. Using standardPVC piping and a $20 Shop Vac, he mocked up a small vacuum applicator that opened the sleeve while drawing down the fiber can. The operator could then easily remove the wrapped can and send it through the heat tunnel for the final shrink.
Our customer was amazed that we would take such a personal interest in their concerns. They were quite interested in the unit when we estimated they could save up to 15 seconds per sleeved can vs. hand application. Both the customer and our Packaging Engineers are interested in carrying on the dialog to discover other opportunities to improve processes and increase their profitability.
That’s People at the Core. ™
