When Frito-Lay introduced a compostable bag for its Sun Chips brand more than a decade ago, it represented over four years of development, encompassing material and scientific research as well as manufacturing and production. While the sound of those bags led to a marketing miss for such a groundbreaking achievement, the science and production advancement continues to resonate throughout the packaging industry as industrial producers pursue new packaging strategies.

Whether influenced by a sustainability strategy—think thinner containers for the bottled water industry—or a cost-control strategy through more damage-resistant packaging or production automation, the packaging needs for industrial manufacturers are constantly shifting and adapting to market trends, downstream demand, and financial targets. As those needs change, so do the facilities and production lines that make these packaging innovations possible.

The challenge is that, for most managers and leaders of these manufacturing centers, packaging represents only one part of a dynamic and multifaceted facility. The competing priorities demanding attention from an often-stretched staff mean organizations often lack the internal resources and technical knowledge to assess needs, understand available technology, and determine the most effective packaging solution.

It goes beyond just choosing the right production tools to create the desired packaging solution. Influenced by machine size, energy demands, temperature and humidity parameters, as well as interchangeability to adapt production lines, site development and facility programming add significant complexity to decisions that must align production requirements with the latest technology and industry best practices.

Even within those best practices, solutions are rarely “standard.” The unique needs of each industrial manufacturer mean that project approaches for site and facilities require a more customizable solution that effectively addresses those needs, constraints, and sustainability goals. Finding this tailored solution requires a holistic view to balance organizational needs, goals, and challenges.

A Well-Rounded Perspective
For most organizations, constant advancements in packaging as well as time constraints hinder the ability of industrial manufacturing leaders to match their knowledge of product development and production with the required knowledge to develop the appropriate programming and facility for packaging their product. The competing interests between owners and vendors, both looking to maximize their opportunities from different ends of the spreadsheet, can make decisions fraught with uncertainty.

Today’s manufacturing facilities are more than just buildings with warehousing equipment. The facilities themselves are strategic tools that enable organizations to manage costs through energy use, ergonomics, automation, flexibility, shipping access, and even employee attraction and retention. Finding the nexus of all these elements requires a team that brings knowledge not only of the industry and business but also of the technical details and market landscape to foster a collaborative environment for project development.

• Does a new product line require more capacity?
• How much space does current equipment occupy, and how much space is available to accommodate any replacement or expansion?
• Is automation a goal?
• What are the gaps, and how does the facility solution fit into the strategy?
• Does the solution require greenfield development, or can it be accommodated through optimization of a current line?

The expertise that members of a project team bring to the table in site development, technology advancements, and space programming complements the knowledge an owner brings in product development, manufacturing, and distribution. The collaborative environment fostered by this mix of experts helps guide owners through the technical and project management parts of the process to develop that unique solution to fit their needs.

Optimizing Processes
From a packaging process perspective, some of those processes are the same across the board: conveyer functions are similar whether they are at the grocery store, in a manufacturing facility, or the airport. However, every product requires a level of specification demanding a solution that can be far from standard. Determining what is an optimized solution takes a deeper knowledge of good standard processes, parameters, and specifications for design and manufacturing along with insights into the available technology and vendors who can meet these needs.

A case example would be a company that wants to make a product more sustainable and to produce it at a rate higher than what is typical of the market. While the company knows how to make the actual product, finding an optimal solution to bring the idea to market requires research into vendors who can meet the needs with the right technology, designing the equipment to specifications, and customizing where needed to fit the needs of the particular process and space.

By finding applicable scenarios as a starting point, the organization can begin with a baseline and then modify as necessary to optimize for their needs. In this particular case, the project team was able to facilitate design ideas that led the machine equipment vendor to modify their machines and processes to carefully handle the product and the owner to change the look of the product to effectively bring it to market.

One example is the change in product cans. Ten to 15 years ago, canned carbonated beverages came in standard 8oz packaging. Today, however, it is very common to see skinny cans like those used to package hard seltzers. Yet, such an apparently straightforward change requires additional modifications throughout the line. Because a change in can size involves a change in volume, a whole new filler machine could be warranted. Not only do the existing machines need to be able to accommodate the flow of liquid needed to produce at the organization’s target rate, but conveyor belts and other parts of the line also need to be able to adjust.

Evaluating the degree of change only starts with what is needed for the line. Many organizations seek more capacity in order to increase product throughput and therefore profit. Stakeholders typically want a solution that provides the fastest schedule, offers options, and fits in their space, all while allowing them to remain profitable. However, efficiency—the ability to make a quality product—also factors. A lower-cost machine may be less reliable if it breaks down a lot or is difficult to clean, so costs associated with its shutdown reduce production when considering lifecycle financials.

An efficiency evaluation involves assessing which (if any) machines can run at target rates and how many hours a day they will need to do so. Additionally, evaluations also consider what an organization might be giving up by pursuing any given solution. For example, a machine may be three times the size of the existing space. An organization may need to consider purchasing or even building an entirely new facility to accommodate the machine—or, if the cost outlay is too great, adjusting their target rate and finding a smaller machine to fit the existing space. Additionally, organizations may need to consider whether it makes sense to adapt the line to handle different sizes or create an entirely new line that will run only the new size.

By looking at the organization’s vision through an end user’s viewpoint, modifications to solutions can optimize the process that enables a product to come to market in a timely and effective manner. It requires an approach that allows for creativity and improvement, with not only the right voices at the table but also a willingness to think outside of the proverbial box.

Enhancing Reliability
While many industrial manufacturers enter the conversation with questions on how to increase capacity without increasing other fixed costs, concerns over reliability and efficiency drive many decisions today.

There can be several issues that affect reliability: Are machines operating outside of specifications? Are products being fed correctly? Does the sustainable material run differently in the current machines? Were sustainability targets pushed too far (e.g., were plastic bottles made too thin, causing them to turn slightly in the machine)? It can be difficult to identify a specific issue and find the right solution to solve it without taking a more comprehensive view of the entire process and assessing the elements in connection to each other. By looking at the broader picture, the relationship between each element can come into focus, such as how equipment interacts with drains or how the wash-down chemicals used to clean equipment react with the floor coating.

Finding that balance between reliability and efficiency can be as much art as science. While faster machines can, on paper, increase efficiency, reliability may require more manual processes or investments in automation. New machines could increase capacity, but the facility itself may not have access to the appropriate power infrastructure to operate those machines. New sustainable material may be able to run on the current machines but may require different parameters and machine settings that cause the line to lose overall efficiency (OEE).

As that last point suggests, programming the right packaging line is not just a machinery equation. From the need for and the protection of operators to the constructability of the space to house the production line, creating a reliable and efficient packaging process must be examined as a site and facility ecosystem, not only to avoid overdesigning but also underdesigning and misprogramming.

For any industrial manufacturers, placing new products on the market is the goal, and it’s one facilitated by a properly designed and programmed facility that can leverage the right advancements in technology and sustainability to package products more efficiently and effectively.

Whether a new sustainable bag film requires different heating elements, the use of a geothermal system to help heat and cool the facility, or the introduction of automation to package products reliably and efficiently, the elements that define today’s facilities go beyond simple cost control and transportation access. They also stretch the ability of most organization personnel to evaluate effectively on their own.

With the right expertise in packaging processes and a willingness to see possibilities through an end-user view, manufacturers can find solutions that uniquely fit their evolving needs and challenges and enable them to bring their product to market timely and effectively.