What causes fluctuation in stretch film usage when production seems to be running at a stable pace?
That is a great question. Thanks for sending it in. There will be a lot of people interested in this answer. To begin, here are a couple of factors to consider:
First, most companies consider stretch film as a supply or MRO purchase (since there is no good way to relieve inventory as a direct cost of goods sold), and therefore, expense their stretch film when it is received and invoiced by the supplier. You may order a three-month supply, for example, which could be a truckload of film. Depending on the timing of the receipt of material and the supplier’s invoice, we have found that the amount expensed in a specific period will not track with your actual usage. Factor in plant shutdowns (planned and unplanned), holidays, and maybe some seasonality, and that disparity becomes even greater. In addition, even though you run at a steady pace, you may be wrapping different SKUs, which can have different wrap patterns. A taller load will have more wraps than a shorter one. In other words, your product mix will also contribute to a variance in film usage. The result is a disconnect between financial reports (when the cost of the film is recognized), the number of pallets produced, and actual film usage. We have a solution for you, but I will get to that shortly.
Second, things change over time. We get older (hopefully wiser), and technological advances and breakthroughs in health care are examples of some changes that we see happening almost daily. This also applies to simple tasks, such as stretch wrapping a pallet. So, what can change in the process? Let’s start with the equipment. Mechanical wear or pre-stretch idler roller adjustment will reduce the amount, or percentage, that the machine is capable of stretching the film. This absolutely will degrade your load containment while, at the same time, increasing film usage. Sensors can become loose and/or misaligned, which can increase the number of wraps the machine applies to the load. Now, let’s consider what impact operators may have. We find, with almost every audit that our Field Service Engineers perform, that the settings on at least one machine have been altered by an operator. They may do that for several reasons, but what they may not realize is that, in almost every case, load containment is reduced, and film usage is increased. In other words, you are paying more for less load containment.
I say this often because it is important, you purchase load containment, not just stretch film. It takes an optimized machine and a certain amount of stretch film to achieve your standard. People tend to focus on the price of a roll of stretch film, or maybe downgauging to reduce cost. They may achieve a lower cost per roll, but then much later find that to meet their containment standard, significantly more film had to be applied, which eliminated any savings, while the additional film applied took more machine time and constrained plant output. They may even find that the cost associated with load failures has also increased. So, overall, it’s an unexpected net loss rather than an expected net gain.
The challenge is that there is no common denominator that can accurately tell you what your film usage is, or more importantly, what it should be, based on what you are producing, and then alert you when it changes from your established load containment standard.
We recognize the challenge you face, and as I mentioned, we have a couple of solutions for you. Over the last few years, we have developed a nationwide network of Field Service Engineers. These are not contracted resources; they are highly trained and experienced direct Allied employees and are in place to make sure your equipment is optimized and to provide operator training. I had a meeting recently with an equipment manufacturer, one of the largest globally, who boasted about the number of service people they had in the US to support their customers. While that was impressive, it was only 30% of the number we have in place to support our customers. That shows the extent of our commitment to creating value for our customers as we focus on long-term relationships rather than on transactions.
Speaking of technological advancements, since we understand the physics of load containment, we have used that knowledge to design a system that will monitor all the critical aspects of your stretch film process. By critical, I mean anything that will affect your cost per pallet or load containment. We did not piece together off-the-shelf technology, we designed our patented system starting with a blank piece of paper. It takes about an hour to install the Rapid IQ on a machine and does not require any connection to the machine’s controls or your IT infrastructure. We have a user-friendly portal that will provide you with all types of statistics, as well as live telemetry, it will even let you know how much film is left on the machine. In addition, we can email whatever report you might like over whatever timeframe you want. But most people today have more to do than time to do it. Respecting that, you never need to open the portal or read a report. If a parameter violates a limit, the system will immediately notify you (or anyone in your organization) via text or email. Action can be taken, in real time, to fix the problem and to keep you on track. If action is not taken, notifications can be escalated. Now, you can monitor stretch film cost per pallet and usage, and be notified if it changes, while you have an opportunity to do something about it.
Thanks for asking!