Contract packager works with machine supplier to meet customer demands

To flexibly meet customer demand for shorter runs and multiple products, German contract packager KLOCKE works with its machinery supplier to train employees to quickly set up and changeover machinery.

Romaco_klocke_training_center
Romaco_klocke_training_center

Around the globe, contract packagers must be able to quickly accommodate customer product changeovers. KLOCKE Verpackungs-Service GmbH, headquartered in Weingarten, Germany, processes an average of 5,000 packaging orders annually at its two plants in that city. These include primary and secondary packaging of human and animal medicines, cosmetics, dietary supplements, foods, and chemical-technical products. KLOCKE uses blister and multi-component packaging, different peel- and break-off solutions, as well as wallet packaging.

The company services primarily mid-sized customers that require frequent product and packaging changes. Sometimes up to 10 different packaging types are produced from one batch to meet different specifications of the individual target countries. Such demands require efficient product changes, so KLOCKE focuses on optimizing its processes, especially its set-up operations. In a joint training center, KLOCKE employees receive training on how to best work with its blister machines, provided primarily by Romaco.

Training center delivers benefits

In March 2008, KLOCKE opened a joint training center in Weingarten, together with mechanical engineering specialists Romaco Pharmatechnik. Equipped with two blister machines from Romaco Noack, including cartoners by Romaco Promatic, product change and set-up processes are taught weekly by a Romaco technician under production conditions. Each KLOCKE employee receives at least four intensive machine-training sessions per year. "In this manner, we have been successful in reducing our set-up times in production by 65 percent,” says Dr. Thomas Schreder, managing director of KLOCKE Verpackungs-Service GmbH. "We strive to continually raise the level of our educational training while simultaneously increasing the motivation of our employees.”

Working with Romaco, KLOCKE developed a systematic method for the optimization of set-up times. First, individual workflow of the basic set-up of the blister machine line was analyzed and evaluated segment by segment. Using videotapes, it was possible to continuously improve the processes and formulate the corresponding specifications. In accordance with these instructions, the individual set-up sequences and the correct handling of the tools were studied.

In quarterly sustainability tests, the mechanics and the machine personnel provide proof of their abilities. On average, a set-up operation lasts 45 minutes, with the current best time clocked at 26 minutes. During this time, all formats are exchanged on a cleaned machine; the top and bottom foils are threaded, and the empty blisters are processed. At regular intervals, the practiced set-up operations are also monitored during actual production

Flexible structuring for product changes

During the product change, the machines must be cleared, cleaned, and prepared for new product. These processes are all regulated via Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) guidelines to provide quality assurance in the manufacture and packaging of pharmaceutical products and foods.

In this way, all processes must be monitored and approved by a third person. For these GMP times alone, an hour must be budgeted on average. Even for the cleaning of a machine in accordance with GMP specifications, at least 60 minutes is required.

In addition, there is the change of format parts, the conveyance of the new product, different test runs, as well as the validation of the individual process parameters. The following applies in general: the more precisely the individual steps are coordinated, the shorter the set-up times. In addition, the current standby status of the necessary machine equipment is a prerequisite for fast delivery times on the part of the contract packaging company.

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