When your audience is as broad as Packaging World's, you'll find some people who don't think changeover is a major issue for their operations.
"We always look to shorten changeover times," admits the maintenance manager for a national food processor. "But I think we're there now." A packaging engineer for a regional dairy feels much the same. "We do so many changes that we pretty much have it down pat," he says. "It's been studied in the past, and we feel we have it the way we want it."
The plant superintendent for a maker of bakery mixes sees no changes in the amount of time needed to convert a line. "We've been doing the same thing for 35 years. Our changes are basically for bag size and some changing to a dot matrix coder."
Perhaps the maintenance supervisor at a frozen foods processor expressed it best when he mixed satisfaction with a little curiosity. "We're pretty much set, but we always like to get quicker [in changeovers]. What we've found is that it's importantto do it right the first time."
