A worldwide leader in the procurement and marketing of fresh avocados and other fresh produce as well as the manufacturing and distribution of prepared avocado products and salsas were looking for a better system.
The company has been proudly serving produce wholesalers, retailers, and restaurants worldwide since 1924. Now, faced with excessive material expenses, downtime, and waste due to coding errors, and a critical lack of after-sales support, they turned to MPERIA to increase efficiency and decrease costs.
The company was using a standard Product Traceability Initiative (PTI) labelling solution that was costly in terms of operational expenses and risks.
By implementing MPERIA’s automated and centralised marking and coding solution with thermal inkjet (TIJ) print technology, they were able to achieve the following:
- MAJOR COST REDUCTION – of material and maintenance
- INCREASED EFFICIENCY – due to automation and centralised control
- STRONGER SECURITY – via tiered user access
- PEACE OF MIND – with excellent after-sales, one-on-one support
- EXCELLENT ROI – solution will pay for itself in under a year
The Challenge
The company ships 12 million boxes of avocados annually. Their 53,000-square-foot facility contains 23 production lines and has served multiple purposes over the decades.
“Our previous marking solution was very expensive and completely lacking in after-sales support,” explained the Operations Manager at the plant. Repeated mislabelling issues resulted in production downtime, waste, and additional expenses to replace materials and product; a new solution was needed. “Data integration issues were not uncommon and—unfortunately—when they cropped up there was no one we could call to help us sort out technical problems.” In short, the traditional PTI labelling solution was costing the team, money and aggravation on an almost daily basis. They needed a more advanced solution that used technology to streamline the marking process; and they needed a reliable and responsive support team to help ensure everything was running smoothly.
The Solution
The MPERIA®️ platform with TIJ technology was the solution. Easy to implement, MPERIA is the only universal marking and coding automation platform that works with virtually any hardware or software. Its impressive flexibility makes it the ideal solution in a wide variety of environments and scenarios.
MPERIA®️ also allows for the centralisation of the marking process, simplifying initial setup and making it easy to scale the operation for growth. The system enables consolidated control over all marking and coding—whether from the factory floor or the production manager’s office—across primary, secondary, and tertiary lines.
The final solution included 22 L50 Printheads with thermal inkjet print technology and one MPERIA Standard Controller. This configuration allowed the company to put an individual printhead on each drop line—a creative idea that wasn’t possible with their old labelling solution. This innovation eliminated 100% of data integration errors as each drop line managed its own PTI coding information—no more camera system required for variable box sizes on the main conveyor line.
The Results
MAJOR REDUCTION IN COSTS: By transitioning from a labelling solution to direct print and eliminating the need for costly label materials, the company was able to instantly reduce overall costs to about one-fifth of what they had previously been paying. Also, because the cartridge-based system reduced maintenance issues to virtually nothing, they were able to eliminate what had previously been regular, ongoing maintenance costs.
INCREASED EFFICIENCY: The MPERIA®️system’s full automation combined with the elimination of labels meant line workers no longer needed to hand apply PTI codes. This allowed the team to reallocate resources to more profitable and productive tasks. It also takes the operations team much less time to manage changes and updates due to the centralised system.
STRONGER SECURITY: The MPERIA®️ system enables different levels of user access to guard against accidental setting changes that could create errors or otherwise jeopardize productivity.
EXCELLENT ROI: After assessing all the benefits of the new MPERIA®️system, estimates suggest that it will take less than a year for the MPERIA solution to pay for itself.
Click here to watch a video on MPERIA® and the benefits it could bring to your business.
For further information about MPERIA® and our range of printing technologies, please call Xact on 0151 479 3020 or email info@xactpack.co.uk