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The Managed System Approach

08/26/2019

When we launched the MUST monitoring hardware and software system in 2008, we recognized the need to keep track of performance over time so we would know how and when to troubleshoot any issues. Machines naturally degrade over time, operators change, film rolls may vary in quality and consistency.

Tracking the metrics of ounces of film applied, number of revolutions per applications, and number of loads wrapped allowed us to see when the wrapper was performing outside of the spec we had established during the initial audit and optimization.

But just knowing the problem wasn’t enough to help us solve the problem.

Since that time, we’ve been able to use the data collected to evolve our MUST system and further develop our approach to stretch wrapping.

One of our biggest takeaways from all we’ve learned is the confirmation that stretch packaging is complex and to do it right requires a managed system approach.

As partners in your packaging, we can’t just come in and install the MUST hardware, change your film, or make a tweak to your machine and expect to maintain performance standards. To be truly effective — and by effective, we mean cost-saving, efficient, and sustainable (See: The Balancing Act of Cost, Performance & Sustainability) — we have to understand your process, get to know your people, understand your goals, be familiar with your facility, know your equipment and capabilities. Only then can we start to design a stretch wrapping solution that will work for you.

Based on this, we’ve honed our approach to start from the ground up. It’s called the MUST Method and it looks like this:

Audit –> Test –> Optimize –> Monitor

The audit is where we come to you and learn all we can about your current process, equipment, material, and your goals with stretch wrapping. Does it just have to get from point A to point B undamaged? Does it need to look presentable for the end user? Will your loads be stored outside, in a hot warehouse, or in cold storage? What are the problems we’re trying to solve?

We take the information gathered from this audit back to our Packaging Solution Center for testing and verification. To learn more about this process from start to finish, see our 2 min. video on the Fit2Ship Testing Process. This is where and how we design the solution that will work for you.

Once we have your solution, we take it back to your facility and optimize to make it work for you there, on your own equipment, and with your own operators. It’s one thing to make it work consistently in the lab environment, but it has to work for you in your plant.

And if MUST Monitoring is part of your contract, we install the hardware on your equipment to monitor its performance over time. You get access to the MUST software so you can know exactly how it’s performing. Even better, our engineers and technicians with 15 – 20 years of experience in the field will know how it’s performing and will respond when action needs to be taken to correct or improve when it gets out of spec.

This managed system approach has revolutionized the way we gain visibility into the whole process, glean insights, and get cost-saving, efficient, and sustainable results for you.

We invite you to visit the Packaging Solution Center in Charlotte to learn more about how we can help.

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