Is your business in the market for a form fill seal machine? Packaging is a huge part of a business’s operational success and investing in a form fill seal machine is a great way to improve efficiency and reduce labor costs.
However, every food packaging equipment manufacturer is different, and so finding the right vertical form fill seal machine for your business can feel like a daunting task. To get you started on your quest for the perfect form fill seal machine, we’ve put together a quick guide for food sealing machines:
- Choose the form fill seal machine design to meet the needs of your highest volume product.
You might assume that the best way to choose a form fill seal machine is to find one big enough to package your largest item, so that you know it will be large enough to package all of your products, and thus automate your entire packaging operations. However, the larger the item that the form fill seal machine is designed for, the more costly it is, and so you might pay far more than you have to, for only a slight efficiency advantage. In fact, large form fill seal machines aren’t really one-size-fits-all; the machines that are designed for large packages only perform at peak efficiency with the larger product packages, and are less efficient with small items. If 75% of your packaging needs are medium sized, you’d actually lose efficiency by packaging only 25% of your products at maximum efficiency.
You might find it more cost effective and a better operational strategy to purchase the form fill seal machine that is best suited for the product that you produce the most of (let’s say the product that makes up 75% of your inventory, in the example we mentioned above). Since this item is your bread and butter, maximizing efficiency here will give you the greatest catalyst in productivity. This also results in the least amount of wasted material (since using a large machine for a small item wastes the unneeded width in material).
Yes, we recognize that this entails manual packaging of the larger products. Perhaps, as your business expands, you can invest in a second machine that specializes in the larger products later. The point is that if you think you can purchase one machine that will be the jack of all trades (or in this case, product sizes), it will result in being a master of none, and diminish your potential productivity gains. - Use a form fill seal machine manufacturer who has experience in your industry.
Every industry has a different set of needs and requirements. Some industries have particular health and safety guidelines they have to follow, some have regulations on film type and waste. When you work with a form fill seal machine manufacturer who has other happy customers in your industry, you know that they understand the challenges that you face and will be able to make sure that the form fill seal machine you end up with meets your needs perfectly so that your investment is worth the money. - Be flexible on packaging suggestions from the manufacturer.
While you know your product better than anyone else in the world, your form fill seal machine manufacturer are experts in packaging best practices. Yes, if you go to them and say you want a specific type of packaging and nothing else, they may be able to meet your needs. However, if you are open to ideas and suggestions from the manufacturer, you may end up with a form fill seal machine that runs more efficiently with less waste than the concept that you have in mind.
We aren’t saying to throw away your concept and take the manufacturers word for what’s best for your company’s packaging needs. We’re saying the best results come through a partnership between the product expert (that’s you) and the packaging expert (that’s them). - Ask the manufacturer for recommendations for several film suppliers.
The manufacturer most likely isn’t also the provider of film. If they do offer to supply your machine’s film, it is most likely marked up, increasing their profits and your costs. Instead ask for three suggestions for film suppliers, and check them out yourself.
