Living under the long shadow and rubble left by the Luftwaffe in 1950s London, Alan Roberts and his father made a living out of turning discarded cardboard boxes inside-out, re-gluing and re-selling the boxes. Inadvertently, the East-End business borne out of necessity was actually recycling generations before the rest of the industry even grasped the concept.
Wind forward 60 years from this father and son partnership selling cardboard boxes out of a van and now, the WE Roberts (WER) Group is the leading integrated manufacturer of corrugated cases, cardboard boxes, POS, and packaging solutions in the South East. Attaining a reputation as impressive, prestigious and inventive as its history, Northfleet-based WER has established its business with skilled staff and investment in the latest technology. This technology now includes a new DYSS X5-1630T digital cutting table from AG/CAD.
The relationship with AG/CAD dates back to 1998 when the Kent Company recognised a bottleneck with its sample making department. Employing a highly skilled sample maker that worked around the clock to design, draw and hand cut samples, WER identified the need to employ modern methods to stay ahead of its ever-increasing sample demands. The answer in 1998 was to purchase a KASEMAKE KM602A cutting table from AG/CAD. Sturdy, capable and above-all reliable for almost 20 years, the old table was capable of producing up to 20 samples a day, a leap forward from hand cutting 5-6 samples a day. In September 2017, the KM602A was replaced for exactly the same reasons that it was installed 20 years ago.
A Growing Business With Evolving Demands
The requirement for a new digital cutting table is highlighted by the company growth over the last 10 years. As WER Financial Director, Mr. Richard Puffette says:
For many years, we’ve focused on efficiency by investing in the latest technology. Significant investments like a new case-maker and a 2200mm Peters/Marquip corrugator have given us a manufacturing output of 30million metres of corrugated sheet per year, up from 16million metres a decade ago. Added to this increased throughput, we have reduced our average lead-times from 10 days to just 5 days in the same period. We have doubled output, halved lead-times and only increased our staff levels by approximately 5% over the last 10 years. This is a pretty conclusive indication of how efficient, productive and cost-effective WER is.
Eliminating the Bottleneck
Whilst the managerial strategy to increase output and generate on-going efficiencies is reaping rewards, the requirement for samples has climbed exponentially. This put greater stress on the design and sample division, in particular the aging KM602A cutting table. WER acknowledged the bottleneck and eliminated it by replacing the KM602A with the new DYSS X5-1630T digital cutting table. As the operator on both the KM602A and the DYSS X5-1630T replacement, WER Estimating Manager, Mr. Josh Asbury says:
Our sales department is very proactive and continually requesting more samples. The old machine could only do 20 samples a day and demand was outstripping capacity. I would be processing samples on the KM602A machine for more than 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. The new 3m by 1.6m DYSS X5-1630T can process more than 20 samples in less than two hours. We’re making samples at least 5 times faster than before.
The DYSS has wiped out 75% of on-machine cutting hours for the Estimating Manager. The ISO: 9001 certified company now has capacity for sample growth and quality is significantly improved. Added to this, sample lead-times have been reduced from 24 hours to just a couple of hours.
Typical production runs for WER can vary from 5,000 to 25,000 boxes whilst the state-of-the-art case-making machine can process up to 17,000 cases per hour. As well as achieving such high production quantities, WER has the flexibility and capability to manufacture everything from retail ready packaging, shelf displays, industrial packaging, POS, die-cut boxes, transit packaging and much more.
The Benefit of the DYSS
Whilst the processing speeds, lead-time reductions, labour-savings and rapid pay-back period are justification enough for the DYSS purchase, the unforeseen benefits are far further reaching. As Mr. Asbury continues:
As well as spending significantly less time cutting samples; the KASEMAKE CAD software, its comprehensive library of packages and boxes plus the remarkable ease-of-use are all factors contributing to reducing design times and overall sample lead-times.
Specifying the DYSS X5-1630T digital cutting table with the T-Head configuration that consists of an oscillating knife tool and creasing wheel as the suitable replacement, WER worked closely with AG/CAD to identify the exact specification the company would require. Primarily processing corrugated sheets from B, C, D and E flute as well as combinations of the respective flutes, the DYSS has a high-speed cutting head and creasing wheel that delivers a complete solution for corrugated sheet companies.
One instant benefit was the improved cut and creasing quality. Our customers also recognised the drastic improvement in sample quality, something that has helped our sales division to convert more samples to production business. Whilst the dimensions of the DYSS X5-1630T are the same as the previous machine, the DYSS is more robust, rigid and powerful than its predecessor. This gives the high-speed cutting head a precision platform for high-speed cutting. This makes our samples more precise whilst the stability means we haven’t changed a knife blade in the four months since the machine was installed.
To put perspective on this rigid build platform, we were changing blades almost daily on the old machine. Frequent blade changeovers require considerable setting time as well as an associated blade cost. Furthermore, we couldn’t replicate perforations and we suffered from inconsistent performance. By applying fine solid carbide blades that run at high speeds, our consistency, quality and repeatability are excellent.
The improved cut quality is also replicated with the innovative creasing wheel on the DYSS machine. “We used to use different crease wheels for the different crease parameters such as the board flute, crease depth, width and pressure. On the old KM602A machine we would have to regularly change the crease wheels and manually adjust the wheel pressure to suite the board flute. Unfortunately, the poor level of control would often crack boards and liners or alternately the excessive creasing pressure would weaken the board.
Confidence for the Future
Looking toward the future strategy and growth ambitions of the company and how the DYSS machine fits into the business plan, WER Sales Director, Mr. Ben Wilks says:
The sales cycle starts with the quotation process and the provision of a high-quality sample. With the old table, our samples couldn’t stand up against some of our competitors. With the DYSS, our sales team are confident that our sample quality will exceed that of our competitors. The DYSS also allows us to provide samples at remarkably short lead-times.
What the DYSS gives our business is the scope to exploit new market segments. We are now looking more strategically at the POS, display and different packaging sectors. We also have the capacity and speed to conduct low-quantity fast turnaround production runs that would have needed platens in the past. Creating platens for small quantity work isn’t cost effective and the DYSS makes us extremely competitive and reactive in this new target sector. We intentionally bought the DYSS X5 with the K-CUT Vision system. The aim of this add-on is to target the print industry and achieve high precision and repeatability for turning around small quantity POS work. We will need to continually review capacity on the DYSS, but we will certainly be using it as part of our armoury to target the digital print and blanking for the digital print industry. In 2018, WER is targeting accreditation to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and we expect the certification and the DYSS machine to open new doors for WER.