Tag: Packaging Machinery

Take a Telescopic Approach

Written on by frain-sales

The packaging industry often revolves around uncertain futures. New products and packaging ideas come and go with new ideas constantly filling the project queue.

A companies ability to extend new offers, innovate thru testing and new ideas quickly, while maintaining core focus or retracting project load is essential.

Through a vast equipment inventory and flexible payment terms, including rental and lease, we offer companies a way to taste test equipment necessary to execute on new and incremental work, while adding insurance to projects which may need to be canceled or discontinued for whatever reason.

Moving forward is often the best way to get to a point where you can see progress is being made (or not). With Frain, you have the flexibility to get moving and return the equipment if needed based on marketplace performance.

By enabling you to make your first move sooner, we bring an iterative approach to packaging by delivering a minimalistic approach sooner while the bigger picture becomes more clear.

Frain has evolved over 35-plus years in business. From the purchase of our first machine to now having thousands of machines in inventory – we’ve wrapped our certified pre-owned machinery with integration, engineering, and technical services to customize new and used equipment alike for our customer’s applications.

With over 100 years of combined packaging engineering experience, we deliver peace of mind to your project, in addition, flexible pricing and speed to market.

Whether your running just several projects over a years time or hundreds – you can likely benefit from our experience, inventory, and services.

Let us help you extend and contract your packaging needs within a rapidly changing and demanding marketplace.

Call us today to discuss some of the projects on your horizon and how we can uniquely help deliver on them.

Taxonomy of Packaging Machinery

Written on by John Henry

I’ve been working with packaging machinery for longer than I want to confess. One issue that has always bothered me is that machinery terms vary from builder to builder, industry to industry and person to person. When people use the same word to describe two different machines, misunderstandings can lead to costly mistakes. It is critical is that any definition or terminology be used consistently and understood the same way by all concerned.

To that end, I propose the following taxonomy for use in describing packaging machinery.

Function > Type > Level of automation > Package movement > Package orientation > Machine direction > Speed

Depending on the machine there may be additional nomenclature that will be appropriate. Some of the above will not always apply. What the above taxonomy will do is provide a common basis for describing packaging machinery.

Function

Function refers to the main, overall, function of the machine. It may be a filler, a capper, a case packer or something else. It gives an immediate, if rough, description of what the machine will be used for.

Download the complete Taxonomy of Packaging Machinery Whitepaper to continue learning about packaging machinery.

The Yes Men of Packaging and Processing

Written on by frain-sales

 

In the movie, The Yes Man, Carl Allen, played by Jim Carrey, transforms his life through personal development program that commits him to say “yes” to every opportunity that is presented to him within one year.

This turns the personal and professional sides of his life upside down, making them both entertainment worthy for audiences of this comedy.

Similar in many ways, Frain has said yes over 25,000 times to taking on machinery and projects that lead us on as many unique journeys.

We haven’t pigeonholed ourselves into one classification of packaging and processing machinery or complete packaging lines by saying “no.”

Of course, by saying yes, we’ve been able to grow from ONE machine in storage to hundreds of brands and categories of machinery and ultimately approximately 9,000 machines.

Upon visiting us, we’ll be able to showcase some of our CPG adventures, including:

  • What we’ve seen succeed once introduced to market
  • What we’ve seen fail once introduced to market
  • How we’ve excelled in bringing ideas to market faster regardless of outcome
  • How we protect our customers with experience, process, and pricing terms

By saying yes, we have a lot of stories, machinery, and experience you can trust.

Which Came First?  The Machine or The Price?

Written on by frain-sales

When buying, renting, or leasing machinery – start-ups or well-established companies will want a quick take on the price of the machinery.

Even if equipment buyers are in the early stages of understanding what they need, they will want to lock down some semblance of investment early on within their project.

It’s a chicken and egg scenario.  The answer to the question –  “How much will this machine or equipment line cost me?” –  is found only by knowing what exactly you want and what you ‘re willing to invest right now.

You can get a machine that is guaranteed not to work for very little cost.

You can also buy a brand new machine that is overkill for what you really need.  You end up buying too much machine.

 

The devil is in the details.  Here are some key questions to have answered before you shop your next machine:

  • What product are you running?
  • What size of your package or container?
  • What volumes/speed?  (10 per minute = 4,000+ units/day)
  • When do you need to have the machine or line up and running?

Additional questions:

  • How long will you need the machine?
  • Do you have any space / footprint limitations?
  • How are you handling this now / reason for change / people involved and level of experience?
  • What are your main questions / concerns / goals in deciding on the machinery?

 

Once you contact our engineers with the answers to these questions – we can comb our inventory of 9,000 machines and provide you options for one machine or entire packaging lines to best fit your specifications.  We can also provide you terms (rental, lease, purchase) and services (training, start-up) that put you in position to succeed.

 

due dil•i•gence

Written on by frain-sales

After explaining our process to a prospective customer, they simply stated or punctuated a phrase that explains Frain very well:

“That’s definitely due diligence.”

Here’s what our sales person explained to this equipment customer and what certainly makes Frain uniquely due diligent in the packaging and processing equipment industry:

Every machine we sell, lease or rent:

  • Goes through our shop of over 40 technicians who completely check for warn, broken or missing components to be replaced
  • Is fully addressed pneumatically, mechanically, electrically, and cosmetically – nothing leaves our building “as is” or as it was when we acquired it
  • Is set to size with your actual product samples and backed by six month warranty
  • Has to be seen and accepted by the customer running the customers product before it ships
  • Includes our guarantee and two week right of return by the customer if they’re not 100% satisfied

To all of this the prospective customer also replied, “Okay that’s cool.  I like to hear that.”

At Frain, we like to hear that we’re discussing projects with people that appreciate what we do and think its cool too!

okay-thats-cool-i-like-to-hear-that

3 Reasons Our Customers Rent Machinery

Written on by frain-sales

With so many projects coming and going thru Frain, we’ve seen more and more of our customers renting and leasing machines lately.

Like a skier, flying into Colorado and checking out the most ideal pair of skis for the weekend, our customers are constantly refining their equipment needs based on their own needs, conditions, and the shifts being made by an ever-evolving consumer.

Like anything that’s lasted over 35 years, Frain has evolved with customer needs and demands.

This has enabled us to not only see sustainable growth over the years, but to become more and more valuable to our customers with a focus on improving the value we bring.

After seeing thousands of project ship under eco-friendly, rental terms, we’ve come across the three most common trends among our rental customers and insight as to why they choose to rent.

1. Flexibility

Like new, or many times brand new, rental equipment gives our customers the flexibility to respond to the unknown future.

They may order machinery based upon increased demand, business, new retail distributor deals / relationships or they are testing something new, such as a new product or packaging.

rent-packaging-machinery

In either case, many times the future may be unknown in terms of how long the machine will be needed and renting provides the flexibility of returning if or when its no longer needed.

2. Budget

While every company may have enough money, they may not have budgeted for a particular equipment purchase.

Being able to rent machinery enables companies to get what they need for an item, which may not have been included in the original forecast, but will allow them to reach new heights.[kkstarratings][kkstarratings]

Companies like Mars, Clorox, and Meijer have worked with Frain to get to market months sooner and see positive ROI within literally minutes of running the machine under rental terms.

3. Footprint

With machinery and projects constantly evolving, our customers can optimize use of their floor space by returning equipment after renting from us and leverage the freed up space for another project.

Frain helps its customers reach peak performance by delivery quality packaging, processing machinery and complete packaging lines sooner than traditional channels, while offering the flexibility to rent and return the equipment as needed.

Take The Plunge

Written on by frain-sales

Remember the Nestea Plunge?  In Chicago, this time of year, we have the Polar Plunge to support Special Olympics athletes.  And, in the CPG industry all year round there’s a frequent “plunge” that’s made in choosing new product packaging, promotions, and pricing.

In the end, data will show what is successful and what falls short of expecations.  But, why belabor these decisions when you can have your cake and eat it too by executing multiple ideas simultaneously.

Frain recently came across a customer mulling between two different packages types to bring to market in 2017.  The client expected to make approximately $4 MM in incremental revenue per month regardless of package, but believed in discussing (over a period of weeks) which idea might work best.

We calculated at least $25K in lost opportunity for every hour they stalled.  In fact, the initial costs of renting the machinery would be replaced within minutes of running the machinery.  So, before the first hour of machinery usage is over – the machinery is essentially running for free.

Such is the case with many customers we talk to on a daily basis.  Sometimes, we’re fixated by elements that are negated in the long run or even the short run.

Gaining market share and maximizing revenue can come from great ideas – but being able to execute three ideas before your competition can decide on one idea will put you miles ahead of your competition over time.

You’ve heard some doubters say you can’t just throw ideas against the wall and see what sticks.  Today, with companies like Frain who can quickly provide quality machinery for rent or lease – you can.  Throw at will!  Quickly!  And, see what sticks (and what doesn’t).  We’ll support your machinery needs as you inevitably evolve and gain in revenue and market share.  Happy plunging!

 

Grab-and-Go Trend

Written on by frain-sales

Grab and Go, a phrase used in the CPG industry to refer to meals which are packaged and ready to eat on the go, is growing in popularity as a consumer preference.

As Packaging World points out from a recent Foodservice Packaging Institute (FPI) study, Millennials want food that is evermore quick and convenient. Responses this year in particular showed an increase within Grab-and-Go preferences.

This study points to a fact that convenience continues to be a leading consumer motivator among others (transparency, durability, sustainability, etc.). The same is true for packaging machinery.

The need to get to market quickly with new products, while also needing to easily adjust to performance has forced brands to move faster within the supply chain in activating and deactivating all elements involved.

Our clients are asking for one piece of machinery anymore, but instead for multiple machines or how quickly we can assemble complete packaging lines to get products to market within weeks, not months.

The Grab-and-Go concept now applies to our inventory of 9,000 machines which can quickly be deployed, along with new packaging machines to configure complete lines or individually – customized to the customers specific product or application.

For some Millennials, convenience and speed means that they can get back to texting.  For our millennial customers, convenience and speed translates into increased profits and market share.

Goldie Oldies

Written on by Rich Frain

Old doesn’t mean obsolete. Not in packaging machinery. We routinely rebuild machines from the 80’s, 70’s and earlier.

Manufacturing used to be much more stable than it is today. Technology and products evolved slowly. When someone bought a new capper or cartoner there was a good chance it would be running the same package and product 20 years later.

The classic example of this is Coca-Cola. For over 50 years there was only one “Coke” product. Coca-Cola in a 6oz returnable glass bottle. Since there was no need to run additional products, the line could be optimized to run this forever.

This meant heavy duty machinery made up of castings and forgings. It meant standardized designs where reliability and simplicity of operation and maintenance were key parameters. Flexibility? Why bother? The product would never change.

We can see this heritage in today’s machines. A Jones CMV cartoner, Resina capper or Cozzoli filler today looks and runs much the same as it did in the 50 years ago. The benefit in the plant is that after all these years and all these machines, they have been completely debugged. Whatever can go wrong has and has been fixed. The strong designs survived, the weak ones fell by the wayside.

There are some drawbacks to old machines. Safety guarding is one. Electrical and control systems are another. Fortunately, these drawbacks tend to be relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. Safety guarding is easily fabricated from 80/20 material and Lexan. PLCs are incredibly cheap and easy to program. At Frain, we usually don’t even mess with the old electronics. We find it simpler to just tear it out and start anew with PLCs, HMIs and other 21st century controls.

Flexibility can be built into the machine using quick change parts and the addition of scales, blocks and indicators for easy and precise setting.

Old doesn’t have to mean out of date. Many of these older machines are timeless and, with proper care and some periodic upgrades, will still be running when our grandchildren have retired.

That’s why they are called goldie oldies.