PROBLEM/CHALLENGE        Printer Friendly (PDF File)

A major player in the entertainment industry uses sophisticated automated equipment for its high-volume, bulk manufacturing and packaging of CDs and DVDs. However, some of its clients’ products require custom assembly of components in the packaging process.

In March of 2004, this manufacturer projected a higher-than-normal need for hand assembly of products. As a result, it sought suppliers outside its local geographic area to meet its hand assembly needs. The company is sensitive to draining the local temporary labor force and wanted to draw from a larger metropolitan pool.

SOLUTIONS

MD Packaging Services Inc. was offered the opportunity to bid on a two-year commitment for hand packing CDs and DVDs and their respective components.

MD Packaging Services committed to a six-month capital investment in excess of $1.5 million, including 40,000 square feet of operating space, four high-speed, high-volume shrink wrap machines and heat tunnels, skilled supervisory and temporary labor resources, and packaging supplies.

RESULTS

Forty days after a firm client commitment, MD Packaging Services was fully staffed and operational to manage hand pack and shrink wrap demand that required two to three eight-hour shifts per day, seven days per week.

The hand pack work is the engineered, systematic assembly of various components including a titled CD and/or DVD and associated labels, instructional booklets, artwork, and cases into consumer-ready products. The components for the hand pack projects range in number per the client’s “job instruction.” The MD Packaging Services team has assembled DVD units with as many as eleven different sets of disks, artwork, booklets, and labels.

The assembled units are then packaged in various combinations of inner cartons, shipper cartons and unit quantities and palletized according to predetermined patterns. The completed pallets are then shipped to the client’s distribution centers around the country. All processes throughout the operation are documented by internal quality teams at various checkpoints from component receipt to shipping.

MD Packaging Services processes up to 192,000 consumer-ready units per day, depending upon the complexity of the engineered standards for production and/or the number of components required to complete a job.

BENEFIT TO MANUFACTURER-CLIENT

Maximizing space utilization: According to the purchasing manager for the manufacturer, MD Packaging Service’s hand assembly accomplishes the necessary work for which the manufacturer would have to use highly productive space dedicated to highspeed, automated manufacturing. “We could do the elements of hand pack which MD Packaging does at the same or less cost,” he said. “However, we would have to sacrifice highly productive space within our own walls, which is better utilized as high-speed automated manufacturing.”