A timely collaboration between leading pneumatic components experts SMC UK Ltd and innovative packaging machinery manufacturers, Boxsizer Ltd has resulted in the world’s first intelligent random sizing ful lment machine, able to minimise packaging waste, optimise productivity and deliver savings of up to 80% on regular e-commerce packaging costs.
David Hayward, CEO of Boxsizer explains how this unique and potentially industry-changing machine was brought to market. Boxsizer is actually part of the wellestablished Linkx Packaging Group, based in Suffolk, UK, where there is a hub of industrial packaging manufacturing expertise. About three years ago, we looked at the potential for our business in e-commerce and started to develop ideas for packaging machinery that would best serve this rapidly growing sector.
There were already machines available that could reduce the size of a box on the production line but this could only be done to a preprogrammed single or twin footprint.
That’s fine if you are handling the same item on a continuous basis, such as packs of biscuits, but no good if you have a series of random sized products coming through. That is exactly the issue faced by ecommerce companies, such as Amazon, who are packing sequentially anything from small consumer electronics to furniture on the same line. We are all aware of the recent consumer backlash and media coverage that this inevitable packing waste, additional labour and environmental impact is causing.
At Boxsizer, we have developed a solution to all these issues and customers we have in the United States and Australia are saving literally millions of dollars on their packaging and transportation costs after investing in our Boxsizer machines.
Collaboration was key
Having identified the need for a machine capable of providing random sized packaging on a continuous basis, we knew we needed a components manufacturing partner to help us develop the equipment. We were already working with SMC Pneumatics on our other machines and after discussing our plans with them we felt confident they were the right people to help us.
The Engineering Development and the Product Sales teams at SMC Pneumatics did indeed prove to be the perfect collaborative partners for this project! They not only advised us on the best components for the machine design we wanted to develop but provided additional technical support and refined some standard products to meet particular needs. For example, they adapted their Series CP96 ISO Cylinder into a bespoke self-cleaning cylinder for us that is able to remove adhesive from its shaft so minimising downtime for manual cleaning.
“We are very pleased to be associated with Boxsizer and in particular the Intelligent Random Sizing machine,” said Dave Beesley, of SMC Pneumatics Ltd. “We could see the commercial potential in the equipment they wanted to develop and knew we could bring the type of pneumatic components expertise they needed in order to make it work.”
Working closely with the SMC team in 2013 we built the first demonstrator of the Intelligent Random Sizing machine utilising a range of SMC components including a Series EX260 Serial Transmission unit; Digital Display Sensors; a 5-Port Solenoid Valve; Compressed Air Preparation units; Series CG1 Cylinders and a Cylinder End Lock with Guide.
This demonstrator was so impressive that one of our customers, who sell a wide range of kitchen, household and garden products, agreed to take the machine as a test pilot to see how it would work in a real random packaging environment. It proved a great success, delivering a significant ROI in just six months.
This company handle a variety of standard Fefco 0201 boxes and they chose to use the Boxsizer because of its ability to accept varying box footprints at random, reduce volume to suit the product inside, fold and seal accordingly. By using the Boxsizer, a typical average volume reduction of around 50% was achieved.
We launched the Intelligent Random Boxsizer to the UK packaging industry generally at the PPMA Show in 2015 where it won the Show’s prestigious Most Innovative Automation System and also went on to win the Intralogistics Packaging Award later in the year.
Innovative Solution
The Boxsizer machine works on a simple but highly innovation solution – it automatically recognises and resizes boxes for random, single or multiple, loose or grouped products on the same production line. So a customer’s stock of standard boxes can be used before investing in a suitable selection of sizes to minimise material costs. Different box size parameters can simply be added to the Boxsizer’s programming.
Using a complex system of measurement lasers and cutting blades, it reduces the outer box to the size of the goods being shipped, minimising the surrounding void so that most of the time there is no need for any additional packing filler such as paper or polychips. The box is then crimped, folded and sealed ready for despatch. This reduces handling time, labour and material costs on the production line and the more efficient sizing also means more packages can be fitted into the shipping container or onto a pallet. This cumulative reduction in the volume of individual boxes in turn reduces our customers’ carrier costs as there is much less transportation of fresh air!
Ultimately, every aspect of the Boxsizer process from mimising material waste to more efficient logistics reduces the environmental impact of the packaging and delivery industries.
The Boxsizer machine can be either integrated into an established production line where it feeds data back into the Warehouse Management System to optimise logistics handling operations as well or it can operate as a standalone packing machine.
Million Dollar Cost Savings
Over the last 18 months, we have installed Intelligent Random Boxsizer machines at major packaging and logistics organisations in Australia and the United States where DIM or dimensional weight shipping is already charged. Using our equipment, these organisations are already seeing cost savings worth millions of dollars within six months of starting operations.
One of Australia’s largest ecommerce companies whose annual material packing costs were around Aus $2.2m, have now purchased four Random Boxsizer machines able to handle eight different box sizes without any machine changeover and have now seen annual material costs drop to Aus $1.3m.
They recently completed an Aus $20m investment to become one of the most advanced automated companies within the ecommerce sector. Part of this investment included Random Box Makers and Random Boxsizing machines, which were chosen after the company evaluated systems from France, Italy, the USA and the UK. They specified Boxsizer because of the machines’ versatility, output and innovative technology and cost effectiveness.
With DIM weight shipping likely to be introduced in the UK and Europe soon, e-commerce companies need to look at ways to minimise all their material and shipping costs. Quite simply Boxsizer gives them that solution without compromising on quality or security.
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