Post Date: March 23, 2020

Contract Packagers Boost Productivity During Pandemic

U.S. manufacturing facilities are scrambling to increase its capacity of certain foods, medical products and consumer goods in order to meet the immediate demand of its citizens.  COVID-19 has caused many laborers to be sent home, which puts even greater pressure on manufacturing.  And the volume of output needed by our country has never been at a higher level.

AT Information Products (AT INFO) of Mahwah, NJ is quietly doing its part by providing packaging equipment to the manufacturers and contract packagers across the country.  In particular, AT INFO’s integrated feeder solutions allow for the feeding & coding of packaging materials so vital data can be printed on products.  Variable information, including date codes, lot/batch numbers, and barcodes are quickly and efficiently printed by the AT INFO systems so products are not delayed.

Consider the production of anti-bacterial cleaning wipes in plastic wrap.  Before the wipes are inserted in the packaging, the flat plastic wrapper can be run through an offline feeder/coder system to allow for the printing of batch and expiration date.  The integrated systems are able to efficiently feed the materials one at a time, print the required data, and stack the output while the worker supervises production.

Here are 3 ways AT INFO is helping Manufacturers and Contract Packaging companies in this time of crisis:

(1) Increased throughput – For companies who date code their cartons, sleeves & hang cards by hand, an automatic offline coding system is much more efficient.  The manufacturer can reduce labor costs, free-up skilled workers, and speed-up production.  

(2) Extra capacity when you need it – To slow down the spread of COVID-19, hiring more labor to work in close quarters is a risky strategy when trying to ramp production.  Instead, an offline feeder/coder solution can bump-up to meet short term demand, and also provides for future capacity increases when necessary.  

(3) Accurate code positioning – Both online coders and hand labeling operators may struggle to code irregular shaped material that have hard-to-reach print areas. With the AT INFO solution, the packaging material is presented to the coding device in flat form with the print area readily accessible. This allows for consistently accurate code positioning, increased line efficiency, and reduced waste that results from poorly printed packaging. 

We have systems in-stock and ready to ship so manufacturers can immediately boost their overall productivity during these times of critical need.  To learn more about AT INFO’s integrated feeder solutions visit call (201) 529-0202 or contact us at [email protected].