“We’re spending too much on contract packaging,” he says. “We can’t continue this way. We have to find a way to bring some of it in-house.” Should CPGs look to packaging machinery OEMs to build more flexibility into their equipment? “Definitely.”
Consistently legible and scannable coding also weighs heavily on this buyer’s mind. “The retailers are talking more and more about penalties being imposed for lot or date coding that isn’t legible,” he observes. Laser coding is legible and scannable enough, but it comes at a cost, so that’s no silver bullet, either, he adds.
One more thing this machinery buyer would like to see more of is machine-to-machine compatibility. “I’d like more plug and play,” he says. “It would be so nice if machines had the kind of compatibility I’m looking for without having to buy special and costly programming solutions.”
