Evolving consumer preferences, the requirements to ensure sustainability, apart from the rising necessity for customization of added-value packs, including new selling or shipping units are compelling manufacturers to adapt their production models as well as supply chains. Food, Home and Personal Care (FHPC) producers are desirous of shifting towards a leaner as well as eco-friendly secondary packaging philosophy by undertaking a re-assessment of their present usage of repacking solutions that leads to generation of high cost, quality, including sustainability side effects. Both smaller as well as bigger case counts would be able to minimize these effects by managing, storing as well as shipping products in appropriate quantities with much higher ease as well as flexibility for future customized retailing needs. In order to meet the requirements for maximum case counts, while still dealing with the standard high-production formats, Sidel is introducing Cermex EvoPack, which is a highly flexible industry 4.0 case-packing platform for shaped containers in wrap-around blanks, trays & Shelf Ready Packaging (SRP).
Today, consumers are becoming highly demanding when it comes to their individual shopping needs, including having a desire to shop conveniently at any point of time and at any place of their choice. With the continuing e-commerce boom having reflected this, it can also be observed in the renaissance of smaller urban stores, with major retailers returning to the city centers to grant easy access to daily necessities.
Didier Saussereau, Packing Product Manager, Sidel stated – “Certain FHPC sub-categories or players sometimes have customization needs for up to 40% of their production volumes. Until now, the most common way for producers to approach these requests was to use manual repacking services.”
These repacking activities generate costs not only via the additional packaging material used but also by the extra manual labour tasks, which now surpass the acceptable limits as regards producer’s competitiveness and margins.
The related environmental waste is making repacking even less sustainable. Eventually, the additional handling during repacking may potentially generate scratches or scuffing on the products.
Didier Saussereau further comments- “To reduce and simplify repacking, we are seeing an increasing need for small case counts to help producers reduce the number of products per shipping unit down to the in-demand batches of two, three or four products. These offer the opportunity to manage, store and ship products more easily and flexibly for downstream tasks at distribution centers or within e-commerce order preparations.”
Similarly, demand for complex product set-ups will remain and will still require manual repacking manipulations. So, with upstream technical capabilities to supply larger case counts, manufacturers could ship the same number of products with less secondary packaging used and wasted.
Didier Saussereau further added – “Now being able to produce both small and large case counts will help them better anticipate trends and accommodate new channels, as long as the traditional high production volumes of the standard formats are still handled on the same production line and packing solution.”
Cermex EvoPack provides an unparalleled secondary packaging size range to manage decreased case counts, containing only two, three or four products, as well as very large transit cases with more than 24 containers intended to go into repacking, while at the same time also being capable of handling standard high-volume case formats.
Didier Saussereau further added – “With its flexible and extreme case count capabilities, the platform can help producers restore industrial margin thanks to significant cost savings as regards the use of material, equipment and energy. Additionally, it will certainly greatly contribute to meeting their carbon footprint reduction and sustainability goals.”
Delivering an exceptional ratio of up to 60 cases per minute in a compact footprint of under 30 square metres, Cermex EvoPack provides quick and repeatable format changeovers ranging from just 5 minutes for a case format change to upto 15 minutes when changing both bottle and case formats.
Didier Saussereau finally concluded by mentioning as follows – “Our goal was also to make the equipment easy to operate and maintain, so we designed Cermex EvoPack by embedding the latest Industry 4.0 technologies, to guide operators and maintenance teams in their daily operations.”
