We share our knowledge and stories, always with the support of a marketing communications consultant from Circa Twee, our communications agency. For the past six months, this has been Janneke Buitenhuis. Five questions, five answers.
Solved: new petfood line at lightning speed
With an extra compartment, changes to the factory layout, and new machines, our Petfood factory has undergone a complete transformation in less than four months. All to ensure that our regular client, a manufacturer of various top-quality pet food brands, could meet demand.
The issue: demand exceeds capacity
Cat snacks, in packaging ranging from tubs to stand-up pouches, are in great demand right now. This is perhaps partly due to the increase in pet ownership during the coronavirus outbreak. Regardless of the reason, the product has now become so popular that extra capacity was needed in order to ensure that demand could continue to be met.
“That’s why we investigated whether we could expand our packaging operations for our client”, says business development manager Joergen Pleijte, “without having to incur expensive night and weekend rates. One of the biggest challenges was that we couldn’t risk shutting down our existing operations for too long.”
“Under normal circumstances, this sort
of process could easily take up to a year”
Joergen Pleijte,
business development manager at Vetipak
The solution: complete factory overhaul
Based on the client’s wishes and quality requirements, we produced a proposal with far-reaching consequences. Joergen: “To create extra space, we converted part of the logistics hall into a production area. We’re able to work under the right conditions here, partly thanks to the walls that have been installed. Some of the ongoing operations have been relocated to this new compartment, so we can continue to package even more cat snacks on the ‘old’ machine.”
“We’ve purchased a new weighing head equipped with a big bag discharging system, especially for filling the tubs. The existing top-seal machine for closing the tubs has also been moved to the new compartment.”
The added value: more full cat bellies
By pulling out all the stops, we were able to help our client get up to capacity in just a few months – much quicker than this would usually take, according to Joergen.
“Under normal circumstances, this sort of process could easily take up to a year. However, we were able to accomplish it much faster thanks to good planning, an extensive network of suppliers, and our ability to respond quickly and pragmatically. Now we can fill even more stand-up pouches and tubs... and cat bellies!”
