Do you want your packaging line project completed on time? Then pay attention to getting samples to the machine builder on time. The single biggest cause of delay in the thousands of projects we have built is product, component, and package samples. These delays are often not day for day. Samples that are 5 days late may cause another project to leapfrog yours in the production queue. The 5-day delay in your
samples may result in a multi-week delay in your project.

There are 4 tranches of samples in most projects. Failure to get any one of them to the builder on time will delay your project:

• Quoting samples are used in small quantities, perhaps only a single example of each format, to develop a proposal. Builders may even need to quote from drawings because the package has not been made yet. In these days of rapid prototyping, this should be rare.
• Engineering samples are samples in larger quantities (perhaps several hundred) that are used by the builder’s engineering team to develop the final design. Quantities required may vary. In some cases, such as a fairly standard cap, a few samples may suffice. In other situations, the engineers may need to do testing development and will require larger quantities.
• Testing samples are required during the build to test various components of functions of the machine.
• Finally, fresh samples are necessary for the Factory Acceptance Test (FAT).

Samples must be identical to those which will be used in production. In one case, a company bought a vial stoppering machine and all the samples sent to the builder were dry rubber. It was not until they commissioned the machine that anyone realized that the operators lubricated the stoppers with silicone. Naturally the machine did not run anywhere near the rated speed. Problems that show up early at the builder are much easier to fix than problems that come later in the field.

The builder will tell you how many samples are needed and when. Make sure that you send at least as many as requested and make sure you send them when requested. Giving the builder good samples (on time) will go a long way to keeping your project running smoothly.