Miami Valley Packaging (CONT’D FROM PAGE 26)
larger volume of those in-line glued boxes,” says Williams. “What we would call a four-way bottom, we were semi-automatically feeding 2,000 to 5,000,” says Don Chmiel, VP of Sales and Marketing. “Now we’re running 20,000 to 40,000 across the new gluer.” The market is wide open for existing as well as new customers, even other box plants. “There’s a lot of people out there that can’t produce a box because they can’t glue it and we can do that,” says Williams, adding that he re- cently received an inquiry from another plant about gluing a 7x6x48-inch box that would normally have to be hand fed through a semi-automatic machine. “We could feed that on the Albatross. I feel like we’ll get some more of that type of business. We have the capacity.” The machine has been up and running since July. It was ready to ship from the manufacturing facility in Korea in early 2020, however the pandemic disrupted the delivery. Williams credits AIM with finding a way to get the gluer to
small boxes, as small as a 2x2x6-inch sheet, as well as longer volumes than the original hand-built machine, log- ging significant productivity gains. “We went from running 5,000 in a day to running 50,000 in a day. That’s how well it runs. I’ll even run 500 boxes on it if we have the time.” The average order size on the gluer is about 10,000 to 15,000, and setups take anywhere from an hour for lock bottoms to 20 minutes for straight line boxes. To handle the additional capacity, C&M Conveyor in- stalled automated intake, out feed and a load former on the Signature Albatross, and three new Signode bundlers were added. The gluer has opened the door to many new opportu- nities. “Our biggest customer who buys a ton of in-lined glued product grew to the point where his products fit in really well with that machine. We’re able to handle a much
MVPS. “The guys that built the machine and disassembled it in Korea were supposed to be the ones to come here and re-assemble it. That didn’t happen. Kevin’s team did a great job be- ing versatile and getting this thing done in a completely different manner than planned.” MVPS’ Journey Investing in the Signature Albatross is just one chapter in the history of MVPS’s journey to become a premier and diverse sheet plant. Williams, Chmiel and Phegley purchased the assets of B&L Packaging in 2009 and created Miami Valley Packaging Solutions.. They had been working for B&L for more than 20 years. In 2014, they moved the company to the cur- rent 100,000-square-foot facility. The sheet plant is vastly different today, with a more diversified product mix and mod- ern equipment. In 2009, during the national recession, the company expanded into corru- gated plastic. “That was a steady business and kept us busy and it has grown along with the rest of our business,” says Williams. “We’ve tripled in size in employees, capabilities and annual rev- enue since we bought the company and we’ll go beyond that this year.” They started with 12 employees. There are 36 today. “We are customer focused. A lot of people say that, but that’s part of what got us into plas- tics as well as designing this specialty enve- lope,” says Chmiel. “We’re very open to unique and new ideas for our customers. That’s a lot different from the B&L days. We’re willing to run anything, whether it be quantity, size or material. We focus on satisfying the customer to solve their packaging issues, as well as de- veloping unique designs and this gluer makes all the difference in the world.”
28
www.boardconvertingnews.com
May 10, 2021
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker