Become friends with the machine salespeople.
Don’t hesitate to get the equipment reps involved even if the change seems minimal.
Qualify the machine, the process, the operators, and the suppliers. Hold them to the specifications, or the machine does not have a chance.
Specification is very important but not as important as setup.
Machinery is unforgiving. If it is not properly set up, maintained, and operated, it will fail.
Machinery needs to be as simple to operate as possible for low-skilled workers.
Analyze your choice of equipment carefully because many company machine stores are full of good machines purchased for the wrong application.
Listen to the people who work with the machinery. A “nickel” solution can sometimes be found. For example, a worker showed up with a foam paintbrush to eliminate label side-peel on an applicator. We just taped it on, and it worked.
Manufacturers tend to overstate the capabilities and efficiency of machinery. Buy better and more capable than you need, as your efficiency will need to improve.
Buy when the economy is weak, and you might be better off buying a second or third machine from the same generation, rather than one new-generation machine.
Buy American! This may not always be possible, but dealing with overseas companies is costly. Some OEM parts can take weeks to get, so keep a spare on the shelf.
Reliability is more important than speed.
A machine is efficient IF people are trained.
Printed materials and packaging machinery MUST be integrated at the beginning of any project. Engineers often design equipment where the tolerance is higher than the tolerance that can be met by printing operations, or they ignore critical design elements for printed materials and specify equipment that cannot accommodate those design tolerances.
