While packaging machinery improvements continue—and at a rapid pace, in my opinion—the wish lists from packaging production executives at brand owner companies point to exciting future developments.

Here are some of the expectations your peers have, courtesy of panel discussions and other conversations at the recent 2016 PMMI Annual Meeting in Milwaukee, WI. Today’s packaging machines should…

• Enable fast changeover: After the first brand-owner panelist said changeovers should take “no time/no tools/no talent,” others quickly took up the chant. One went so far as to say that changeover speed is so crucial that he decides which packaging machines to buy because of their changeover time rather than their running/output speed. Because consumers want variety and options, the proliferation of stock-keeping units (SKUs) will continue. With today’s shorter production runs, changeovers are more frequent than ever. Getting back up to production speed as quickly as possible between products means more profit to the bottom line. And recipe-driven, repeatable changeovers help boost uptime.

• Solve hiring challenges: Another unanimous comment from the brand-owner panel was they are looking to fix hiring problems with automation. Finding and recruiting the talent needed for packaging production is getting harder—and may be the top issue moving forward. As one panel participant said, “Mechatronics students have jobs before we can even talk to them.”

If not bodies on the packaging line, maybe robots? Another panelist said, “We need to leverage high technology” like self-teaching devices on the machine to show an operator how to operate or fix it. Or as another panelist said, packaging machines need to be smarter because employees are less qualified than before.

• Do double duty: Does your packaging machine do just one thing? How quaint. In the future, we’ll see more systems that do at least two things (like this labeler/multipacker). This not only saves on floor space, but it might also add just the production flexibility you need without additional capital equipment costs to help you handle new products still in development.

• Be affordable: Package engineering executives know exactly what their return-on-investment timeframe for a piece of machinery should be.

Is all this too much to ask for from a packaging machine? I don’t think so.

“It doesn’t hurt to ask” + “you generally get what you ask for” = package engineering advancements that benefit all involved. You get the performance you need for now and (perhaps) for the future, and packaging machinery makers get to design and sell ever-more-advanced machines.

So if you have a packaging automation need or a want, ask for it! You just might get it—and sooner than you think.

Share items on your wish list by commenting below.

Photo credit: Designed by Kjpargeter - Freepik.com

**************************************************************************

See a host of new ideas in packaging machinery, materials and more at PackEx Montreal 2016, Nov. 30-Dec. 1, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.