Accurate packaging is important when material management matters. For a plastics extrusion company, counting scales account for up to half a million dollars in savings.
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An American-based plastics extrusion company that serves clients from the medical plastics industry ran into trouble with its customers. One of their facilities was struggling to keep piece counts accurate when packaging its products. Operators frequently over-packaged to meet net content requirements. While product giveaway is usually good news for customers, in the case of medical supply—where materials management and reducing waste is serious business—customers were having trouble keeping accurate inventory counts.
The supplier of high quality tubing looked for a suitable solution to comply with the company's rigorous internal acceptance standards. After a successful demo by a METTLER TOLEDO consultant, the company acquired ICS465k advanced counting scales to keep giveaway in check and to fully satisfy customers again. The company now operates 33 checkweighing scales in regional facilities that used to house just four. Everything that operators ship is weighed. Counts for every box are being streamed into a central networked computer system. As a result, management gets a clear view of weighing and shipping activity across the entire operation.
Gone are the days when operators estimated the numbers of tubes they were packing and sending out too much product. Everything is labeled accurately and the manufacturer is providing much better service to its many satisfied customers.
In addition to keeping customers happy, management is expecting a different kind of benefit from the new scales. While it’s still early to tell, the company’s primary facility is estimated to save over $250,000, or perhaps as high as $500,000 annually.