Packaging machinery manufacturers, end users and material vendors "will have ample opportunity to engage in interactive give-and-take discussions with other participants and the presenters," notes Larry Smith, president of Bemis Packaging Machinery Co., and chairman of PMMI's Industrial Relations Committee, which oversees PPF.
In separate sessions, the forum will focus on three critical productivity factors: operating philosophy, people issues and technology. The first session, on operating philosophy, will explore measurements of cost, line productivity, efficiency, and improvement, as well as partnerships and ECR. People issues looks at basic education, training, work teams and empowerment, safety/ergonomics and automation influence. And in the technology session, the panel will explore changeover and controls/electronics software.
New technologies will also be discussed, including: MS-2000, an on-line predictive maintenance monitor; PLATO-0100, a controller for electronic verification of packaging components; SDS (Smart Distributed System), a device-level control system; and industrial robots. One session will provide hands-on demonstrations of some of these technologies.
