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| | The Czech company Visimpex specializes in the distribution and production of fasteners from Asia. The product range includes fastening elements such as screws, bolts, nuts and washers. For Visimpex automation has been the big boost in terms of market expansion and meeting new customer demands.
Visimpex – from manual to automatic
Visimpex was founded in 1992 specializing in the distribution and production of fasteners from Asia, and because many of the Asian suppliers did not deliver the goods in the required design, Visimpex developed their own system of boxes and packed everything manually. However over the years, the range of products grew considerably and so did the quantity of each product, and in 2002 Visimpex therefore decided on a new investment plan which would gradually introduce new automatic packing technology to the company.
Cost efficiency through higher output and better quality
The Visimpex investment plan focuses on three overall requirements:
• Automatic weighing, filling and packaging of products into 7 format box system
• Capacity for future growth
• High quality equipment from a highly experienced supplier
According to Production Manager, Mr Jan Valter from Visimpex their investment project started out with a thorough analysis of the specific production and packaging needs. ”Our key words were: a. Cost efficiency increase through increased output and reduced wage costs, b. packing accuracy, speed, etc. should be higher than by manual packing, and c. packaging flexibility to comply with the marketing demands of the customers.
BILWINCO ahead of three competitors
Visimpex scanned the market for potential suppliers of weighing and packaging equipment, and four potential producers from Europe were selected. BILWINCO was listed as one of four potential suppliers.
On the selection process Mr. Valter says: ”We visited the potential suppliers and inspected their products thoroughly. But when we met BILWINCO and saw their equipment in operation at a plant in Šroubárna Turnov we were convinced that the equipment produced by this company was of a high quality and also held the great potential in technology and high capacity we searched for. BILWINCO outdistanced competition on several accounts:
• Technology solution
• Highly professional approach of the company representative. He addressed us promptly and visited us in our company to negotiate and clarify our requirements
• Quality of produced products
• Referees – we verified the references at the customers
• The dialouge during price and terms of delivery negotiations
BILWINCO supplied the first automatic weighing and packaging system for Visimpex in 2002 and a second one in 2005. Both systems mainly include:
• Automatic Lift and Tip Unit with Storage hopper
• Multihead weigher
• Box handling and box filling conveyor system
• Automatic box erector and box closer
• Automatic box labelling station
• PC solution integrated with Visimpex Navision IT System
For small production batches and many change-overs
The heart of the first system is a BW007H multihead weigher – a small compact weigher suitable for weighing processes with only few capacity requirements. In this particular case, the weigher handles many different portion sizes from 300 g to 6000 g – at a speed of up to 20 portions per minute. The line handles many small production batches with several product change-overs.
For long production batches and few product change-overs
The system delivered in 2005 is a high-capacity line for longer production batches with fewer product change-overs. The BW110H multihead weigher can handle up to 50 portions per minute, depending on portion size. At Visimpex, it weighs portion sizes of 1500-4000 g at a speed of up to 25 portions per minute.
Pay-back delivered as promised
Our expectations have been met – practically as well as financially”, explains Mr Valter. ”Our analysis contains an economic part- evaluation of the pay-back from the entire investment. The calculations and further details remain a business secret, but it is safe for me to say that in both cases the efficiency of our
investments has been proved. We consider BILWINCO to be a highly professional partner. The equipment enjoys a high technical standard, the company deals with our requirements in great detail, and the sales team is highly efficient. Generally, we consider our investment in the BILWINCO packing equipment as strategically weel-founded and technologically successful”, concludes Mr Valter.
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