Turnkey at Speed: Accutek’s 80/20 Approach to Custom Builds

The second-generation OEM prebuilds “ready-to-customize” bottling equipment, then adapts them to spec, reducing build variability while improving throughput and consistency.

Accutek's Vista, California Headquarters
Accutek's Vista, California Headquarters
Accutek

For more than three decades, Accutek Packaging Equipment has proven that a family-owned company can innovate aggressively and distribute globally while still operating with the nimble decision-making of a startup. Founded in 1989 by Edward Chocholek and his sons, the Vista, Calif.-based OEM set out to do things differently even from its earliest days. At a time when many custom machine builders crafted equipment one unit at a time, Accutek pursued a hybrid strategy grounded in standardization. That strategy, referred to as its “80% core machine build,” has become one of its strongest competitive advantages. Today, most Accutek machines are built to about 80% completion in advance and stocked as ready-to-customize “cores,” enabling faster lead times, higher repeatability, tighter quality control, and far greater scalability.

“We realized that if we standardized frame sizes, subassemblies, and core structures, we could build 10 or 20 frames at a time instead of making every machine from scratch,” says Drake Chocholek, CIO and Vice President. “It improves speed, quality, and consistency. If you walk through our facility today, you’ll see rows of nearly complete fillers, cappers, and labelers ready for customer-specific adaptation.”

2AccutekAccutek now stocks millions of dollars in inventory—raw materials, precision components, and prebuilt subassemblies—allowing the company to deliver custom-configured lines at speed. This approach proved invaluable during the COVID-19 pandemic, when demand for hand sanitizer filling lines surged, and component availability tightened.

A lifecycle partner

One of Accutek’s most distinctive strengths is its ability to support customers at every stage of their growth. Many businesses begin with Accutek’s benchtop fillers, cappers, or labelers, originally designed for small businesses, labs, and startups. As production needs increase, customers can seamlessly transition to inline automatic equipment and, when volumes surge, to high-speed rotary systems.

According to Drake Chocholek, few competitors offer this full technology spectrum under one roof.

“We started as a benchtop equipment manufacturer, and we still manufacture those systems today,” Chocholek says. “But unlike most benchtop competitors, we also make fully automatic inline machinery and rotary equipment. With Accutek, customers can start small and grow with us—without ever switching manufacturers.”

This ability to scale with customers has resulted in exceptionally high return-business rates, not just for parts and service but for upgraded equipment as organizations expand.3Accutek

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