Counterpoint: Is Slower Really Faster?

Jack Mans, a 45 year packaging industry veteran and contributor to Packaging Digest, wrote a piece laying out the case for slowing packaging lines down to increase output on a consistent basis. The Faster I Go the Behinder I Get – back when I was a project engineer at Kraft Foods (as it was known [...]

Garvey Workshop in Princeton, NJ 5/26

Mike Earling (VP, Sales ) and I will be presenting a workshop on maximizing throughput at the Healthcare Packaging Conference in Princeton, NJ. We’ll be talking about how to use the theory of constraints to maximize your packaging line’s throughput and get the most out of your company’s investment. It’s on Thursday, May 26th. Click [...]

Accumulation and Traceability of Packaged Goods

I got an email the other day from Suzi Kennefick about accumulation’s impact on traceability. I’m a controls systems validation engineer who is doing a part-time degree in mechatronics. My project is on exploring the replacing of the FIRO (First In / Random Out) buffers we have at work on our filling/packaging line (Bottles) for [...]

What does MTR Stand For?

MTR stands for Mean Time to Repair. In automated processing and packaging lines, Mean Time to Repair is the average time it takes to repair a machine once it malfunctions. It’s used to calculate how much buffering is required upstream or downstream. If your line’s longest MTR is 3 minutes, then you need at 3 [...]

Can Slowing Down Raise Throughput?

Update: I recently made some changes to this article. Most assumed that I was in favor of always slowing down to increase throughput, but it’s actually only advisable if you can increase efficiency by a significant amount (10-20%). All the changes are in the last paragraph. Can you increase efficiency and throughput by slowing down? [...]

Accumulation Tables in a Puck Line

In our previous line analysis examples we looked at a linear packaging line and another with multiple paths. Today we’re looking at a puck system. A puck system is used to move unstable products through a packaging line. They’re popular in the cosmetics and personal care industries and can be purchased from a number of [...]

Packaging Throughput Example

Getting the best performance out of an automated packaging line is a difficult task. It is made up of a series of independent machines that each perform a different function such as filling, labeling, packing, etc. The machines are linked together by an overall control system that records the states of each machine (ie. waiting, [...]