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Ozpak

Ozpak is a full-service, contract wine-packaging company. Based at Nagambie in central Victoria, it offers services in packaging, laboratory facilities and skills, logistics, tank farms, filtration and bulk storage. From its establishment in 2000, Ozpak is now one of Australia's top packaging operations that handles premium-quality wine.

As such, equipment needs to be reliable.

Ozpak has two bottling lines; one with one packing station, while the second has two, with two labellers at each station. Both lines run five days a week, 16 hours per day, outputting 6,000 bottles per hour.

Jake Lloyd, who’s in charge of wine logistics at Ozpak, says, “Our old applicators were around 12 years old and parts were becoming hard to get if we needed to replace them. They had probably run their race, and were starting to become less reliable.

“We were averaging three minutes a shift per packing station of downtime, including roll changes and breakdowns. That may not sound like much, but those three minutes over three stations is nine minutes per shift, and over two shifts that’s 18 minutes a day, which is an hour and a half of downtime over five days.”

OZPAK

INDUSTRY:CONTRACT WINE BOTTLING + PACKAGING SERVICES
APPLICATION:CARTON CODING + BARCODES
TECHNOLOGY:LABEL PRINT & APPLY MACHINE
Package Coding Software
 

BACKGROUND

Ozpak is a full-service, contract wine-packaging company. Based at Nagambie in central Victoria, it offers services in packaging, laboratory facilities and skills, logistics, tank farms, filtration and bulk storage. From its establishment in 2000, Ozpak is now one of Australia’s top packaging operations that handles premium-quality wine.

SITUATION

Because Ozpak handles premium-quality wines, its equipment needs to be reliable and efficient, outputting a professional-looking product.

The company has two bottling lines; one with one packing station, while the second has two, with two labellers at each station. Both lines run five days a week, 16 hours per day, outputting 6,000 bottles per hour. The existing applicators were 12 years old, with parts becoming hard to get if they needed replacing. Reliability was also decreasing.

Ozpak was averaging three minutes a shift per packing station of downtime, including roll changes and breakdowns; this equates to nine minutes per shift over three stations, or 18 minutes a day (over two shifts), which is 1.5 hours and downtime over five days.

 

BUSINESS NEEDS

Ozpak wanted to reduce downtime and continue outputting highly professional-looking products that match clients’ brand promises.

PROCESS NEEDS

The business needed a carton coding solution that would fit in with its existing production line and processes. Equipment also needed to be highly reliable. Ozpak was wanting a larger label to give it more flexibility in printing information that different clients want.

SOLUTION

The company has lasers and coders from Matthews, including for permanent lot coding and traceability on bottles, but also researched other suppliers to find the best technologies and service.

It chose Mathews because it valued the ongoing relationship with the supplier. It also found the recommended solution better than others. On Matthews’ recommendation, Ozpak installed two Evolabel Label Printer Applicators (LPAs), with two units on each packing station.

OUTCOME

The solution has given Ozpak several benefits. Firstly, downtime has been cut by two-thirds, averaging just one minute per shift, for a total of 30 minutes a week.

The units also allow Ozpak to apply a larger sticker to cartons than it previously could, which gives it flexibility to print more information. The Label print & apply machine also give Ozpak a more consistent printand- application position than the old units, which benefits the packer’s customers. The old units relied on rollers to apply carton stickers, whereas the Evolabels have a tamp pad on an extendable arm that applies carton labels. Staff find the units very easy to use: supervisors send out the messages to the printers and the line operators easily ensure that the machines don’t run out of ribbon or labels.

Reducing downtime has allowed Ozpak to increase production volume. Because both lines output 6,000 bottles per hour, saving an hour downtime on these carton coders alone equates to 6,000 extra bottles per week that Ozpak can pack for clients.

“On top of the extra 6,000 bottles we can output, the clear print on the barcodes makes the labels easier to scan, so saves those at the distribution end of the supply chain time as well. It’s a win all round.”

— Jake Lloyd, head of wine logistics, Ozpak

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