Eight reasons retailers should consider automated packaging

Whether you're a startup company preparing to stay ahead of the game or you're a well established business that wants to fine-tune your manufacturing process, automated packaging can be a key differentiator between you and your competitors.

You may have been working with an e-commerce business and realised how crucial delivery times are, so you realise the impact of warehouse automation.

Customers these days expect fast deliveries. As a business looking to keep up with the volumes of orders and increasing demand, as well as hoping to improve your customer retention, it’s the perfect time to invest in automated packaging systems.

If you’re having doubts regarding this warehouse investment, take a look at the following reasons and realise how they could pay off in the long run:

1. Increases task accuracy 

Employees assigned for manual labour in the warehouse could be physically tired doing the same heavy job for an extended period continuously.

Some tasks include stacking boxes and lifting heavyweight, which may contribute to wearing them down. They might feel fatigued earlier in the day, which will affect their productivity overall. Such physically demanding jobs can even lead to boxes slipping off due to inaccurate stacking. 

This is one thing that automation can easily do when you buy industrial machinery for your packaging needs. Boxes stacked by machines remain accurate even after hours of use. Additionally, you can also save your staff from doing hard labour. 

2. Cost-effective

Savings can be achieved through automation. A company can save thousands of dollars annually by not having to hire people to do the packaging. You have to note that besides salaries and hourly wages, workers' compensation, unemployment benefits, and social security are also included in labour costs.

Additionally, bringing in temporary workers when your staff is sick will increase costs even further. By contrast, automated packaging equipment often requires only one operator.

You can save hefty amounts of money in which you can invest to add more machinery later on. You can also invest more in retail technologies to keep your business on top.

You don't necessarily have to automate packaging to eliminate the jobs of valuable employees. Automating will instead allow your employees to work on other fields that need to be prioritised. In addition, hiring the right person will prevent turnover costs, which are always costly for any business.

All you need to do is employ several qualified packaging machine operators, and you won't have to worry about errors and incur other expenses. 

3. Better protects your employees

Workplace injuries can be increased over time by repetitive motions. This happens even to the most trivial tasks in the packaging assembly. Such accidents would mean you'll be losing staff sometimes while compensating for paid leaves and disability. 

Injuries are inevitable when your equipment is older and there’s more manual labour to be executed. Your employees can suffer from back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and the like. These health hazards can all be escaped by implementing an innovative, automated packaging system.

4. Decreases errors

Despite qualifications and skills, every human worker makes mistakes. Automating reduces errors, which is a crucial benefit. Packaging machines can do the same process repetitively, ensuring that accuracy is retained.

This might not be the case for humans as a human body can only do so much. They might cause an error due to fatigue, lack of focus, and other aspects that affect the body. 

You can save costs by eliminating human errors and investing in accurate packaging machines instead.

Business is a world where human errors are a significant problem, and this type of error must be eliminated. Because packaging machines are incapable of making mistakes, they’re sure to perform their tasks accurately. The result is that errors are eliminated, which speeds up production dramatically.

5. Easy to maintain 

A large part of the reason for the low maintenance of automated machinery is the design. Packaging equipment usually conducts the same tasks repeatedly, so it won't require moving parts that need constant care and monitoring.

Hence, these automated machines have fewer chances of breaking down. There's an apparent gap between the capacity for devices compared with humans. Humans need to rest and can't work 24/7.

On the other hand, robots don't need to take breaks and continuously work on packaging without catching a shuteye. 

Another strength of using packaging pieces of machinery is the lack of human injuries. Robots don't feel any pain and won't have to deal with accidents as their accuracy is higher than human performance.

With automation, your business can save money intended to compensate for injuries that employees have done during a packaging-related task.  

6. Optimises resources 

When packaging your products, some resources can be maximized more with the help of machines. For instance, when using elastic films, peoples’ strength can only expand it to a little larger than its original size.

However, machines can expand it double the regular size, making it more feasible and cost-effective to package more products safely. This means there’s no waste on the elastic films. 

Whatever kind of packaging your business uses, whether seals, stickers, boxes, or containers, machines can maximize the use of these resources so no waste will be generated.  

7. Increases job satisfaction 

Workers' morale improves with fewer injuries, decreased burnout, and increased efficiency. When packaging tasks are automated, your employees won't experience much trouble with their job, resulting in job satisfaction.

This is the best investment you can have, cutting costs, modernizing operations, and keeping your staff happy all at the same time. 

8. Improves customer satisfaction 

Increasing customer satisfaction and service will be made easier with automated packaging. Customer wait times can significantly be reduced when human errors are controlled and speed is improved.

Your customers will also buy from you more than other competitors since they know you're applying an automated system. As a result, customers develop trust between themselves and the company since they know that no human error will occur during the packaging process. 

Conclusion 

Automation of your packaging line allows you to adjust to demands quickly and supplies your products on time without errors and defects. This systematic process also results in happier employees and more satisfied customers.

Many industrial challenges can be addressed with automation today, and it may be widely adopted in packaging. With all the reasons stated above, it's apparent how your company can benefit from such a smart investment.