There are many ways to improve profits for your business, but one of the most effective methods is by reducing material costs. Minimizing waste and optimizing usage can eliminate unnecessary costs and ensure your materials and procedures are as cost-effective as possible. Reducing material costs entails a lot more than simply making smart stretch film purchases. You need to find cost-effective packaging technology solutions that improve stretch film usage throughout your entire workflow.
Stretch film makes up one of the biggest material costs in secondary packaging warehouses. Fortunately, smart practices, quality machinery, and innovative packaging technology can maximize your cost-effectiveness and reduce waste in your facility. Discover how to effectively reduce stretch film costs and improve both productivity and bottom line in your business with this guide.
The Consequences of Stretch Film Waste
It’s critical to reduce and control stretch film costs at your facility. Inefficient or inconsistent wrapping leads to product damage during shipment and immense material waste over time. Optimizing stretch film usage allows you to spend less on material cost, saving you money and freeing up room in your budget for other investments.
However, price isn’t the only reason to pay attention to stretch film waste. Sustainability is a growing motivator for a wide range of industries. Reducing waste and increasing the effectiveness of materials—especially non-degradable materials like plastic stretch film—helps improve your business’s carbon footprint. Sustainable practices have the added benefit of being a great selling point. More and more consumers want to buy from or work with companies that prioritize sustainability.
Finally, optimizing the properties of the stretch film helps reduce product damage. Making the most of your stretch film means reducing waste while simultaneously maximizing efficacy. The end result is secure products, reliable shipping, and more cost-effective processes.
Maximize Material With Pre-Stretch Film
The more you stretch your film, the further your money goes. Stretch films are engineered to expand without sacrificing strength or integrity, allowing you to wrap product loads tightly and securely. The more you stretch the film, the further your investment goes.
Hand stretching can only get you so far, with most hand wrapping only accomplishing 60 to 80 percent pre-stretch. Investing in machine films delivers much more material for your money. The right stretch wrapper technology can pre-stretch film to be 200 to 400 percent more. Pre-stretch increases the amount of material at your disposal, allowing you to create more securely wrapped loads for less money.
Be Smart About Stretch Wrapper Equipment
As with most parts of your packaging workflow, the right equipment can revolutionize your practices for greater efficiency and productivity. If you’re wrapping more than 10 loads per day, your warehouse will benefit from an automatic or semi-automatic stretch wrapper. Wrapping too many loads by hand drains both time and labor. By switching to stretch wrap equipment, you make wrapping loads faster and safer while simultaneously freeing employees to focus on other tasks.
Making an informed decision about stretch wrap equipment allows you to implement the perfect solution for your specific facility. The goal of stretch wrap equipment is to provide fast, secure, and consistent results for your product loads. Stretch wrappers can further stretch film to maximize the cost-effectiveness of your materials. Additionally, stretch wrap machines create a consistent, stronger, and more secure wrap and therefore reduce product damage, saving you even more money in the long run.
Optimize Containment Force
Containment force holds your load together for secure shipping to reduce primary packaging and product damage. Each load’s containment force is the result of the tightness of the stretch film (the wrap force) multiplied by the layers of film. More film layers and a tighter wrap lead to a greater containment force.
Optimizing containment force creates stable loads that travel safely through the supply chain. The key is to make each load’s containment force both reliable and cost-effective. Adding more stretch wrap revolutions (and therefore more layers of film) increases material costs, so it’s a good practice to first increase the wrap force. A stronger wrap force creates more security with less material.
Automation Is Key
As we mentioned above, hand wrapping product loads is a much slower and inconsistent practice that can’t take advantage of stretch film’s full potential. Automated stretch wrap machines prevent you from losing money in film costs by maximizing the value of your stretch film. Fully stretched film, fast and consistent wrapping, and reliable implementation of containment force allows stretch wrappers to successfully wrap more product loads in less time than any worker could accomplish.
Automatic vs. Semi-Automatic Stretch Wrappers
You can find both automatic and semi-automatic stretch wrapping solutions. Each solution has its benefits, but you must choose the right one for your facility to fully maximize the cost-effectiveness of your stretch film. Semi-automatic stretch wrappers—such as turntable, rotary arm, or robot stretch wrappers—may require some human interference or supervision. For example, workers might have to physically start machines, attach the film to the load or cut the film at the end of the wrap cycle. That’s why fully automated systems are ideal for demanding, high-volume facilities.
Both automatic and semi-automatic stretch wrappers speed up workflow, increase the stability of loads, and free up labor so employees can focus on more skilled tasks. Furthermore, both types of stretch wrap machines maximize your stretch film effectiveness and reduce material costs for your warehouse.
Leverage Robopac USA’s Cube Technology
Robopac USA’s stretch packaging equipment uses our Cube Technology to make the most of every inch of stretch film. By optimizing pre-stretch, film placement, and containment force, our Cube Technology is proven to reduce film costs by 30 to 55 percent. Purchasing a stretch wrapper with Cube Technology is a major part of how to effectively reduce stretch film costs in your facility while reducing product damage by 40%,
Cube Technology combines all the above methods of reducing stretch film cost to create a reliable and consistent stretch wrapping solution. Multi-Level Variable Containment Force allows you to adjust the containment force nine times on each load, giving you complete control over your wrapping. Meanwhile, Strategic Film Placement offers precise wrapping for better load stability and stretch film optimization. Finally, Multi-Level Variable Pre-Stretch allows you to pre-stretch up to nine times on each individual load, once again improving control over your wrapping and allowing you to make the most of your stretch film.
Stretch wrap machines improve the way you use stretch film and save your facility money. Learn more about the stretch wrap solutions available at Robopac USA to begin lowering costs, reducing waste, and maximizing productivity today.
