I was reading an article on Clay Christensen’s MilkShake Marketing and applying it to what we do at Package Machinery.   It made me realize that Bundling is a job to be done by many of our customers and what we provide is a means to help them do it with our bundle wrappers.

It took the concept beyond what is important to me – that we provide wrapping machinery that is more sustainable by using less packaging material and energy – to what our customers really need  – reduce packaging and associated costs without sacrificing product integrity, safety or appearance.

We think about the lofty goals our bundling machines can serve: reducing packaging material and saving energy because we like to think we are making the world a better place and solving a global problem.

Our customers think about their job, not our aspirations. Their job is to get their products to the retailers safe and sound and looking good. Sure, there is overlap between our common goals.

Reading this article made me realize that we need to think about the job our wrapping machines are designed to do in the framework of the problems they are made to solve.

So what is the job our bundling machines do?

• Reduce or Eliminate chipboard or corrugate. One customer used our bundling wrapper to eliminate an intermediate chipboard box. Payback 18 months. Another calculated a 12 month payback through corrugate box elimination.
• Create energy saving opportunities. Another justified the purchase on the energy savings alone compared to their shrink bundler.
• Make retailers happier. Retailers don’t like having to open corrugate – box cutters can damage products – and then dispose of the corrugate material. They are pushing the product manufacturers to make their lives easier. opening a tuck and food paper or film wrap on a bundle does not require a box cutter and leaves much less to dispose of.
• Save on transportation costs.  Eliminating cardboard packaging material creates more space for products and takes weight out of the shipping costs.

Why should our customers gamble on buying into Bundling?

• Continuous cost reduction is key in an era of rising food prices and flat or declining incomes.
• Most major companies have to report on their CSR what they are doing to save the planet and reduce their footprint.  This is a business decision, not a save the planet decision.
• The risk – reward tradeoff makes lots of sense. Bundling is easily proven and tested.  Most of our customers have already done it with product somewhere. The Europeans are way ahead of plants in North America and have proven out this technology. We have prospects who can show us what their company did internally somewhere else to prove the bundle integrity and safety in transit to warehouses and retailers. That leaves us with explaining why to buy from us.

So what it comes down to is Why buy a Package Machinery Bundler?

• Believe it or not, we have proven bundler designs from the 1950’s. Were people more ecologically minded then or just cheap?
• We know how to update those proven machine designs with servo technology for the best of all possible worlds.
• We know how to adapt our proven machine design to the specific problems of specific bundles. We customize all our machines for the specific application and we make them flexible enough to handle more than one size.
• Our bundles machines are designed to run either kraft paper or BOPP (and equivalent) film.  Take your pick or have the ability to run both.
• The little things, like we are based in the USA or are women-owned, are secondary to our ability to solve our customer’s problem efficiently and effectively.

Bundling is a job to be done and we can help you do it. Give us a call at 1.413.732.4000 or email sales@packagemachinery.com to tell us more about your job.