The Impact of Time on Purchasing Reconditioned Equipment

There are over 14,000 new products introduced to consumers each year.

Many, if not most of these new products, are made using reconditioned packaging or processing machinery solutions.

In the normal course of new product project management, time is always the most overlooked element of scheduling (new product) application deadlines.

Not surprisingly, significant amounts of time are dedicated to the completing customer contracts, specifying production requirements, calculating plant space requirements and footprint, forecasting volume, selecting the packaging, finalizing the budget and financing; and coordinating internal marketing, production, inventory management, logistics and finance activity relating to project launch.

Conversely, realistic time requirements related to sourcing the required packaging/processing equipment solution/s are often underestimated or misunderstood. Sourcing a piece or pieces of equipment suitable to a project application is only the first step.

If buying used, the quality of the machinery must be carefully evaluated. Resource allocations involving time, parts, materials, expertise and expense to recondition the equipment must then be determined.  Product samples must be made available, the equipment set to at least one size, and a production run on those samples completed, before the equipment is ready to ship.

Once received, one to two weeks are generally required to install, adjust, test, train personnel, and potentially integrate the equipment with an existing line.

The average piece of used packaging equipment, regardless of source, requires 191 hours of skilled labor to recondition electrically, pneumatically and mechanically, replacing any worn or damaged parts, and being set to one application size, aside from integration.

All of this may require two to as many as 12 weeks to complete.

Once the equipment has been selected and rented or purchased, reconditioned equipment providers often find themselves tasked with the challenge of providing project ready equipment in compressed (underestimated) time frames, necessary to meet product launch deadlines.

Delays resulting from change orders, parts delays, waiting for samples and materials, and variable packaging configurations, can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in production and drive up costs per unit in ways never anticipated in the initial project budget forecast.

Anticipating this process, planning, equipment and vendor selection, sample availability and careful communication will insure project timelines are met, stakeholders and customers expectations are satisfied and the probability of a successful product launch is maximized.