Page 58 - Ameft Journal 2021-III

P PR R O OC C E E S SS S I I N N G G & & P PA AC CK K A AG G I I N N G G Sidel transforms production conventions with Cermex EvoPack Changing consumer preferences, sustainability requirements as well as the growing need for customization of added-value packs and new selling or shipping units are forcing manufac- turers to adapt their production mod- els and supply chains. Food, Home and Personal Care (FHPC) producers want to move towards a leaner and eco-friendlier secondary packaging philosophy by re-evaluating their cur- rent use of repacking solutions, which generate significant cost, quality and sustainability side effects. Smaller and larger case counts can minimize these effects by managing, storing and ship- ping products in suitable quantities with much more ease and flexibility for future customized retailing needs. To meet the need for extreme case counts while still dealing with the stan- dard high-production formats, Sidel is launching Cermex EvoPack, a highly flexible Industry 4.0 case-packing plat- form for shaped containers in wrap- around blanks, trays & Shelf Ready Packaging (SRP). Nowadays, consumers are becom- ing more demanding in their individual shopping needs, wanting to shop con- 58 AMEFT 3 2021 veniently, at any time or anywhere. Not only does the continuing e-commerce boom reflect this, but it can also be seen in the renaissance of smaller ur- ban stores, with major retailers return- ing to the city centres to grant easy ac- cess to everyday necessities. “Certain FHPC sub-categories or players sometimes have customization needs for up to 40% of their production volumes. Until now, the most common way for producers to approach these requests was to use manual repack- ing services,” says Didier Saussereau, Packing Product Manager at Sidel. Limiting repacking activities and anticipating future customized retailing needs These repacking activities generate costs not only via the extra packaging material used, but also by the additional manual labour tasks, which now exceed the acceptable limits as regards manu- facturers’ competitiveness and margins. The associated environmental waste is making repacking even less sustainable. Finally, the additional handling dur- ing repacking may potentially generate scratches or scuffing on the products. “To reduce and simplify repacking, we are seeing an increasing need for small case counts to help producers reduce the number of products per shipping unit down to the in-demand batches of two, three, or four products. These offer the opportunity to man- age, store and ship products more eas- ily and flexibly for downstream tasks at distribution centres or within e-com- merce order preparations,” comments Didier. In parallel, demand for complex product set-ups will remain and will still require manual repacking manipu- lations. So, with upstream technical ca- pabilities to supply larger case counts, producers could ship the same num- ber of products with less secondary packaging used and wasted. “Now being able to produce both small and large case counts will help them better anticipate trends and ac- commodate new channels, as long as the traditional high production vol- umes of the standard formats are still handled on the same production line and packing solution,” Didier adds. All in One Cermex EvoPack offers an unprec- www.ameftft.com (Source: Sidel)