Setting: A Tuesday afternoon, midday, a grocery store shelf
Characters: A woman, our client’s bottle, and thirty other bottles of a similar product
Situation: Our client wants the woman to pick their product, but what will make it stand out from the thirty other bottles?
Solution: A uniquely shaped, aesthetically pleasing bottle and sprayer
Problem: The clients’ high-speed bottling line is not equipped to handle the new bottle and nozzle shape. High-speed filling rates must be maintained for the newly designed bottle to be a success for the company.
EPIC Solution: A custom automated high-speed bottling line, designed for the unique shape of the bottles & nozzles that meets the end user’s strenuous expectations.
Key Features:
- Custom in-feed line, un-scramblers, filler, case erector, robotic case packer, sprayer inserter
- Modified unscramble and filler to correctly handle rounded bottles and nozzles
- Quality checks, including one to make sure accurate nozzle and bottle mating, performed by a specialized packaging inspection machine vision system
Read about the full solution in our high speed bottling case study.
Finding a Better Solution:
EPIC helped the client find a better solution by doing the following:
- Utilizing Front-End Engineering: EPIC uses our front-end engineering process to complete due diligence when it’s most needed, at the beginning of a project. Goals, success criteria, budget and schedule are all clearly established during front-end engineering.
- Automating pragmatically: Successful solutions balance expense, line operational goals, and line speed. A better solution emphasizes the most important factor for each client – whether that’s line speed, product quality, budget, etc. – without jeopardizing the others.
- Following the golden rule: EPIC treats clients how we would want to be treated.
- Maintaining fair and open relationships: Whether the relationship is between EPIC and a vendor, EPIC and a client, or EPIC and an employee, we believe in treating everyone fairly. For example, we do not have formal agreements with any suppliers so that prices can remain fair for clients.
- Being as “Un-Corporate” as possible: We want to empower our project managers to get things done and move projects forward. We actively try to reduce bureaucracy.