I had a customer recently whose application called for a palletizer, stretch wrapper and conveyor system. Ten years ago, the customer may very well have designed that system themselves and sourced those three products from various vendors.
But that was 10 years ago. Today, we are seeing a shift in the way projects are managed. Many factors have contributed to companies slimming down their engineering staffs over the past several years, such as retirements, low interest in manufacturing among young people, the Covid-19 pandemic and others. This has resulted in a deficiency of tribal knowledge and project expertise, or even having the time to invest in overseeing an end-of-line project. But that’s where ProMach can step in.
ProMach is structured to assume project management oversight for engineering and installations of all sizes. The true benefit to the customer is having one point of contact for their project from start to finish. They do not need to waste time and resources calling on three different vendors.
For my customer above, we designed a system with a Brenton palletizer, a stretch wrapper from Orion and an activated roller belt conveyance system from Quest – all of which are ProMach brands. On this project, I took the lead and sourced the equipment and installation. If there were any changes on the project, I handled them.
This line is a great example of ProMach bringing its product brands closer together to better meet the needs of its customers. Projects like this allow customers to have one central point of contact, and that contact really serves as a one-stop, full-service provider by connecting the more than 40 ProMach brands together. This level of project management streamlines the planning process, installation, and start-up curve for packaging lines.
We can also manage higher-level projects where a company may be adding an entire end-of-line system. This could include everything from case formers and packers, label applicators, robotic palletizers, stretch wrappers and the controls. Whether is large or small, we still bring one point of contact to a project. Taking on this level of responsibility really frees up customers to concentrate on the things they do best.
I do not see this trend of diminished staffs reversing anytime soon, which makes our roles as project management facilitators even more important. We know the challenges customers are facing today; we are here to help make their jobs a bit easier … and we have been very successful in doing that through the years.
Doug Strong is the Northeast Regional Sales Manager for Brenton. He can be reached at doug.strong@promachbuilt.com; https://www.brentonengineering.com/