By Digital Output Staff
Behind the scenes of a manufacturing facility, logistics are crucial to success. This includes not only the goods being manufactured, but for our purposes, the packaging of those goods. The printing and/or converting of packaging introduces another element into the overall logistics process.
Customer Centric
FEPA S.p.A. of Italy is a leading supplier of corrugated cardboard packaging. It offers made-to-order products with service level agreements that provide its customers with confidence and trust.
Renamed FEPA in 2023, the company has been in business since 1960, but was originally known at Sandra S.p.A. It employs nearly 550. With two plants in Northern Italy, its customers are fast-moving customer goods clients from food and beverage, hygiene, fresh fruit, and vegetable markets.
Meeting client needs is something FEPA is proud of, “we pride ourselves on our levels of customer satisfaction—our product is service, and we invest in our people and technology to deliver our product,” shares Daniele Plazzi, chief innovation officer, FEPA.
To achieve a high level of customer service, FEPA manufactures its board and boxes in addition to offering the option to print high-definition graphics on the packaging. This helps provide customers with a full-service solution.
“We are responsive, flexible, and adapt quickly to requests, which helps us compete with the larger companies and groups that operate in the same space. We offer our customers something that the larger groups can’t—we react quickly, we are pragmatic, we are lean, and we respond immediately. Our typical time to market is between three and four days.”
Automate Productivity
Mastering quick response times requires a robust production system. FEPA is a long-time adopter of solutions from eProductivity Software (ePS). It uses the company’s PC-Topp manufacturing execution system to manage its planning and production operations.
“We regularly report using the data in the system and provide management with overviews on productivity, by day, week, shift, or machine. The data collected allows us to make informed decisions on areas of the business that require attention,” explains Plazzi.
The corrugated cardboard packing supplier uses ePS’ CorrTrac, part of CorrSuite—a suite of industry-specific solutions designed for corrugated. CorrTrac is a roll stock inventory management solution, managing stock levels, tracking usage, and optimizing inventory management processes. CorrTrac integrates seamlessly with PC-Topp.
“Before we had CorrTrac, we only knew the paper quality; we had various paper suppliers, geographically disparate, and minimal data that we could work from to make sensible decisions. With CorrTrac, we can quickly identify what specific roll was used for an order; it has meant that we can consolidate and optimize our paper stock, which has been a massive cost savings for the business,” admits Plazzi.
ePS worked closely with FEPA to ensure CorrTrac integrated into its SAP solution as well. The results have “transformed” how the company works, according to Plazzi. Its inventory is much easier to navigate, allowing for real time monitoring of stock consumption and availability.
“A purchase order is created and automatically sent to CorrTrac with all the required details included to guide production from the purchasing department. All inbound logistics are sent back via CorrTrac to SAP. All movement from the warehouse to the corrugator and vice versa is tracked. Rolls are scanned to identify supplier, amount, and location, and the roll’s movements are tracked and reported back to SAP via CorrTrac,” he continues.
In addition to PC-Topp and CorrTrac, FEPA uses ePS’ Escada Profile, a closed-loop process control solution that enhances corrugated board manufacturing by pushing production lines to achieve high speeds.
Using the solution ensures warp-free, high-quality board. “With Escada Profile, we create recipes based on paper quality and supplier, allowing us to determine the best recipe for success. This has significantly reduced the amount of waste and downtime for us,” says Plazzi.
High-Level Operation
With these solutions in place, FEPA is positioned to operate not only at peak efficiency thanks to its recent technology upgrades, but its employees are even more apt to function at high levels of productivity.
“Everyone is moving in the same direction—we all benefit from the optimized plant with the technical innovation. It’s allowed us to hire new team members easily; we heavily relied on recruiting experienced and skilled people in the past. Now we can take on people with experience not specific to our industry—it’s been a game changer for us, especially in more recent years when recruitment across all industries has been difficult,” admits Plazzi.
Dec2024, Digital Output
