Project Overview
Industry: Pharmaceutical
Machinery Installed: Max 12 vertical bagging machines
Outcome: Reduced reliance on manual labour and improved packing consistency
A pharmaceutical supplies company is now operating with reduced packing staff, thanks to investment in an automated bagging system.
The Challenge – reducing cost and improving operational efficiency
The company was previously packing its anti-obesity medications via a fully manual process, which required four manual packing stations.
The UK-based operation of the global healthcare provider is focussed on speeding up the diagnosis and treatment journey of its customers. As well as reducing costs, automation of its operations would allow it to respond to orders quickly, while ensuring pack accuracy, which is vital in the pharmaceutical industry.
Its packs of these medications include two different products, which need accurately feeding into the small aperture of the packing bag, adding to the complexity of the automatic feeder system. The system also needed to handle differing collations of the two products.
The Solution – Bagging machines with auto feeders
YPS supplied an automated bagging system comprising of two Max 12 vertical bagging machines, fed by bowl and swab feeders.
The company is now using the new packing system to collate and bag their anti-obesity medications. Both swabs and needles are delivered from the feeder systems into the pack via the same small bag aperture. Differing collations can be programmed into the system, changing pack contents for each order, when needed.
The Result – Reduced labour, improved consistency
Following implementation, the business has achieved several key operational improvements:
- Significant cost reductions – with costly labour reduced to a quarter of the previous level, employees were redeployed into other areas of the business.
- Improved pack consistency – Finished pack quality is the same every time, with no variability.
- Increased speed and throughput – the automated systems achieve high packing speeds which can be scaled over time, if required.
YPS will continue to support the customer by supplying compatible bagging materials as well as delivering scheduled maintenance visits from the YPS engineering team.
Benefits at a glance
labour saving
pack consistency
Increased throughput
total solution
The Max 12 tabletop polybagger is the fastest machine in our vertical range. It significantly improves speed and efficiencies in packing fulfilment for mail order items. Offers fast and secure bagging without the need for paper labels.
- Achieve up to 50 packs per minute
- Photoeye for accurate bag length detection
- Simple to operate, ergonomic and portable
- Batch counter for accurate production runs
- Direct on-bag printing
