A Radiator manufacturer and supplier to the “Big 3” automotive companies has been a satisfied IntelliPack SmartBagger customer for about 5 years following a conversion from Sealed Air’s FIB system. The customer produces and ships over 300 radiator SKUs that vary in size and shape. Because of this variation, weight and the value of the radiator, IntelliPack’s foam-in-bag solution was a cost effective protective packaging solution that minimized warehouse space, labor cost and damage.

However, upon entry of a new Packaging Engineer, the customer decided to trial alternative packaging methods as a means to reduce cost and change the packaging process. The decision maker transitioned a portion of the protective packaging application over to Smart Karton™. The Smart Karton system is a composite pack which uses a heat tunnel to shrink film around the product and suspend it in a corrugated box. The shrink wrap is intended to securely position the packaged product without any additional void fill.

• Significant delays in productivity
• Safety hazard for employees
• Required maintenance and unnecessary down time

Outcome

For this radiator manufacturer, the Smart Karton system created bottlenecks throughout the process because the heat tunnel had to reach a high temperature level before it could effectively shrink the film. This created significant delays in productivity and a safety hazard for employees. Additionally, the shrink tunnel frequently required maintenance which led to unnecessary downtime.

IPS Packaging suggested that the company revert back to the IntelliPack SmartBagger System. In fact, the customer performed a time study on both applications and found the IntellilPack system reduced the processing cycle by 12 seconds per pack. Since the customer ships between 200,000‐500,000 units/year, the impact on productivity and labor costs quickly added up.

The cost differential was further exaggerated as the customer’s damage rate escalated to 5% with the Smart Karton system versus a zero damage rate with the IntelliPack SmartBagger Foam-in-Bag solution.

The customer is now more convinced than ever that IPS' IntelliPack is the smart choice for packaging radiators- Better protective packaging solution, more efficient, best total cost & safer for employees.