ISHIDA was established in Kyoto, Japan in 1893 and has expanded into a £250 million worldwide business, split evenly between industrial weighing and packaging machines and commercial scale products.
Some 300 of the company's 1,200 employees are based in Europe, working for a fully autonomous company that believes in the concept of using local knowledge to further global ambitions. The company's European headquarters, just outside Birmingham, was opened in the 1980s and became a manufacturing facility in the mid-1990s. The need to get closer to customers has seen a network of offices and agents built up across the continent as the European operation steadily grew.
That steady growth curve has had a sudden spurt and following a European turnover of £42m last year, reaching the expected £51m would represent a major step forward in the current 12-month period.
UK marketing manager Neil Giles says part of the reason for the near 30 per cent year-on-year jump is the full integration of QualiTech Handling Systems into the stable. Acquisition of the Poole-based tray technology specialist represented recognition from Ishida that the demands of the market had moved on from individual multi-head weighing machines to integrated weighing and end-of-line packaging solutions.
The snack sector has always been a major customer, but its products are well-suited to fresh produce too. Fresh foods and ready meals are the big growth areas now. The Flexible Packaging System (FPS), launched in 2001 started a new era for the company - and for its customer base. "The word solution is perhaps over-used," says Giles. "All customers have challenges to overcome, most of them very different. It is not a case of us coming up with one, standard solution, but a number of one-off solutions to solve the things that keep our customers awake at night."
End-of-line packing, he adds, is one of the few areas in this field where there is still room to save on labour costs and the FPS comes with the project management back-up, the full-time support mechanism and the application and engineering expertise that are crucial to ensure optimisation of any internal efficiencies. Some 44 per cent of Ishida's European employees are in technical roles.
Giles says that there are no other companies in the sector with the range of solutions Ishida offers, but stresses the answer is not just finding the lowest cost. "Getting customers to look beyond the price tag and at the long-term efficiencies and cost savings is a tough job. We pride ourselves on the quality of our components and while we are aware that supermarkets are forcing people to look at low-cost solutions, the way we can justify the value of our machines is the payback timeframes.
"Customers expect high quality servicing and all that comes with it," says Giles. "They want to get the full return on their investment as soon as possible and our team manages the whole process to ensure that. We go through their KPIs with them and develop a solution that meets those KPIs in the most efficient and realistic manner." Reliability and consistency, labour savings and perhaps above all elimination of downtime top the list of priorities.
There will always be a tendency from companies purchasing equipment that represents a significant capital investment to say 'prove it' to the seller and for that reason, Ishida carries out on-site demonstrations for potential buyers in Birmingham. "That allows us to say 'here's what we say it will do and here's what it will do'. Our breadth of in-house expertise is a major selling point and we have case studies and credentials in several different food sectors to back that up," says Giles.
Paul Griffin, director of Ishida's Fresh and Chilled Foods division, feels that automation and the devising of fully integrated systems are benefiting convenience packaging for fresh produce and Ishida has a big part to play.
He says: "In today's competitive markets, with increasingly high consumer expectations and stringent retailer requirements, the line between profit and loss can be very fine. For the food processor, the priority is to deliver the maximum amount of product at the minimum cost. The need to make the most of production throughput and efficiencies is therefore vital.
"In the fresh produce industry, pre-packed product continues to grow in popularity as consumers' busy lifestyles mean convenience takes priority over almost everything else. At the same time, this has opened up new opportunities for manufacturers and processors, such as ready-prepared salads and fruits for both eating at home and on the move.
"Yet with these new opportunities come new challenges for the packing operation. Placing product into trays can be a hugely labour-intensive operation, particularly given the frequent retailer demand to produce packs of uniform weight. Hand weighing can lead to excessive product giveaway, with packers tending to overfill packs to achieve the target weight and avoid any legal penalties.
"Automatic systems can help to minimise product giveaway, increase accuracy and reduce labour costs but they have their own challenges to overcome. For example, the need to create product differentiation and maximise shelf appeal has led to the introduction of new ways to pack and present fresh produce in attractive convenience packs - even the humble tray now comes in a myriad of shapes. Packaging equipment therefore has to be flexible enough to be able to cope easily with new pack types. Flexibility is also vital in a world where shorter production runs and the need for fast and efficient product changeovers are becoming the norm.
"Labelling is another area which has not yet been fully automated at some processors - and labelling by hand is laborious and time consuming. Even where there is automatic label application, unusually-shaped products - and fresh fruit and vegetables were not designed with the needs of packaging in mind - mean some equipment is not up to the task.
"With increasing legislative requirements and the pressure on food suppliers to provide full traceability, there is a need to include more and more information on each label.
"Hand weighing, labelling and packing are all mundane and dissatisfying tasks and therefore not conducive to good presentation or high productivity. This makes it difficult to recruit or retain staff for these jobs.
"Tackling issues such as these has been the driving force behind new product development initiatives of packaging machinery manufactures such as Ishida.
“The introduction of equipment to meet the critical areas of speed, accuracy and efficiency is an on-going process. Recent examples of innovations include Ishida's WPL 5000 weigh price labeller with its unique label cassette system that facilitates fast changeovers; or the FPS Pick-and-Place casepacker, which can place up to 120 packs a minute into cases or euro crates, speeding up operations and typically saving two packers per shift.
"Equally, product development is focusing on the nature of the products being packed. For example, Ishida's Fresh Food Weigher has been developed to enable packers to weigh even very sticky products, such as marinated vegetables, automatically into bags or trays; the special independent spring mounted plungers of the WPL 5000 simulate the action of the human hand to enable the fast and accurate placement of labels, even onto awkward-shaped products.
"Another critical area is the need to maximise the use of factory space. New machine design is therefore delivering equipment with smaller footprints. One way of achieving this is through the integration of individual machines into combined units, such as the weigh price labeller. More recently, Ishida's integrated checkweigher and tray sealer allows pack weights to be verified before sealing, which brings an additional benefit by saving potential product and packaging waste.
"Yet the advantages of automation have even wider implications. Apart from reducing labour costs and increasing efficiency, automatic weighing and packing can bring improvements in terms of productivity, health and safety, pack presentation and hygiene. Reducing giveaway and product waste associated with rejected packs further increases profitability.
"Many of the problems and challenges outlined here will be familiar to processors and packers. Nevertheless, what is clear to Ishida - through many years' experience in all sectors of the food industry - is how different manufacturers and processors, even in the same sector of the market, have different needs and expectations.
"Devising the right equipment therefore is only half the battle. What is equally important is the ability to tailor machines to meet particular product and packaging requirements. It is therefore imperative that processors and packers work closely with machinery suppliers who have in-depth experience and fully understand the needs of the market.
"The logical extension of this is that, rather than merely supplying individual pieces of equipment, the machinery manufacturer can devise a fully integrated line, linking together all the different parts of the packing operation into one centrally controlled unit. This helps to maximise throughput and ensure all parts of the line are working to the greatest efficiency.
"The demand for convenience in the fresh produce sector offers many challenges, but it also provides great opportunities. Today the machinery exists to produce well presented, accurately weighed and labelled packs. For the processor and packer, this can play an important part in increasing profitability. The secret is to find a like-minded equipment supplier who can use the latest technology to deliver a specific integrated solution.”
MAXI-PAC MAKES ITS MARK
LINPAC Materials Handling is an innovator in the grocery and retail industries. It has strengthened its offer with the latest addition to its range.
Maxi-Pac has been designed primarily for use in the retail logistics supply chin. It enables bulk produce to travel from supplier to the retail sales floor without the need for intermediate handling, increasing the efficiency of bulk distribution and display of fresh produce within the retail sector.
According to Linpac Materials Handling's sales director Adrian Dale Maxi-Pac already proved its worth during Christmas 2003. He says: "Sustaining stock availability during busy seasonal peaks is a perennial problem for retailers. Maxi-Pac is the latest in a range of purpose-designed Linpac products which help retailers achieve high levels of stock replenishment efficiency.”
Asda went live using Maxi-Pac to deliver pre-packed potatoes from supplier to store. Asda vegetable buyer Glyn Hughes says: "Using Maxi-Pac we were able to maintain potato stocking levels throughout Christmas and the efficiency of the new unit meant that we could move it from warehouse to store in five minutes - a process which would have taken us between 45-60 minutes using our previous system. Last Christmas when our stores' average weekly customer level rose by 50 per cent, this time-saving and increased efficiency made a huge difference.”
Steve Raybould, who handles Asda for Christian Salvesen Support Services, agrees. He says: "The new unit delivers improvement right across the supply chain and means that one-touch replenishment can be achieved. Previously we were forced to resort to using paper sacks to meet Christmas demand and this invariably meant additional labour and decanting produce from sacks into merchandising units."
Additional benefits come in the form of the greater vehicle fill, as the Maxi-Pac unit folds down. Asda has achieved a 40 per cent improvement in transport costs on a standard
12-metre trailer loading. Handling is improved by ergonomic features such as non-sequential folding and high performance catches. Maxi-Pac can be used within automated packing systems offering further potential for time and cost savings and has been designed with smooth walls for safe use in the retail environment.
Dale adds: "Linpac's understanding of the retail environment and radical approach to product innovation, means it can continue to develop packaging solutions that oil the wheels of the retail supply chain.
"Established products like our Maxi-Nest and Maxi-Fold containers, along with new additions such as Maxi-Pac are offering handling improvements and driving efficiencies over the last 50 metres, giving retailers vital commercial advantage."
No comments yet