Bag Fillers | Bag Filling Machines | Jar Indexer | Weighers

Offering solutions with a difference

Published in: Modern Food Processing, May 2009

In an endeavour to globalise its reach, OYSTAR - The Process & Packaging Group (headquartered in Germany) established it wholly-owned subsidiary in India, Hassiapackaging Pvt Ltd. OYSTAR`S extensive technical know-how in the key areas of dairy products, foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics has been induced into Hassia thus helping it bag quite a few recgnitions like the Pacmachine 2000 and the Intel Pack 2004 award among many others.

Read on to know more as Nishan Chandran delves into the company’s world of packaging.

Customising for India

Hassia Packaging strongly believes and practises continuous improvement in manufacturing processes through constant interaction between internal teams, customers and vendors for achieving the best standards.

To be among the best in the business, as part of the quarterly targets, every individual is assigned process improvements goals, which are regularly reviewed and rewarded. Constant review of technology/drawings from the parent company helps it to integrate the latest innovations/manufacturing techniques as per the needs of the Indian market.

One of the revolutionary changes incorporated in its design is the conversion of machine frames to make them suitable for CNC laser cutting and bending, thereby ensuring consistent accuracy in the frame quality.

Ensuring quality

Hassia Packaging does not believe in quality inspection, rather, its emphasis is on continuous process improvement and controls through empowerment of its technicians and vendors by providing them with effective tools and training.
The supply chain of the company involves complete outsourcing of components, and follows strong protocols. The vendors have not changed since its inception. It endeavours items used in its products are ‘green channelised’ – which means parts can go straight for production/assembly without inspection.

It has achieved this by:

• Selection, monitoring and development of vendors by rating the vendors regularly
• Providing technical support in process design & control and also by providing assistance in selecting the right equipment
• Providing appropriate jigs & fixtures to ensure consistent output, both to vendors and also for in-house application
• Grooming and motivating vendors to upgrade to green channel

Enhancing output

The complete supply chain of Hassia Packaging, right from customer enquiry through manufacturing to customer service, has been integrated within a customised ERP system.
Focus, facilitation, freedom and forums are offered to enhance productivity. Business starts with segregating markets into various segments and then further down to product group and product mix. These product groups and product mix are integrated with the design bill of material and it interlinks with supply chain. This process enables the company to manufacture packaging machines faster than its competitors.

K Ravi, managing director, Hassia Packaging Pvt Ltd, elaborates two distinct philosophies differentiate us
from our competitors.

The first is our relentless focus on applications and the second is on product dosing to reduce give-away, and thereby, saving money.

This approach has given us rich dividends and has kept us ahead of our competitors in several application segments. We add tremendous value even during the evaluation process, thereby leading to useful insights.

Many major multinational companies and also small & medium companies are our clients. What makes our journey satisfying is the fact that we have redefined packaging benchmarks on several occasions.

Integrated ERP system

The integrated ERP system used at Hassia Packaging has been a key to its success because it helps to align departmental goals, which in turn lead to the achievement of the company’s goals. This ERP system, which offers easy accessibility & control, is put to optimum use by logging enquiries and also by booking of purchase orders. This enables to initiate faster design releases, procurement, assembly, invoicing and despatch, followed by installation, commissioning and after-sales service. The ERP system binds the working of individual departments to achieve the company’s goals in a specified time. As the operation of the system is independent of individual excellence, the company finds it easier to maintain consistency.

Research drive

Out of the total annual budget of Hassia Packaging, 10 per cent is invested on research and technological advancements. As a result, the company has become a well-known name for offering innovative packaging machinery. Few key innovations that the company has come up with are:

• Currently available fillers in the market are limited, which compromises the handling efficiency of several products. It offers a wide range of modular weigh fillers. The customer can choose a weigher design that can handle the product he needs to pack, choose performance levels that needs in terms of accuracy and speed
• Existing baggers available in the market cannot be upgraded. In order to improve efficiency, the whole machine needs to be replaced. The modular design of the company allows easy upgradation to a highspeed
  model through a speed retrofit kit. This is beneficial for a new product launch, since the basic model can be procured, and then, based on market response, it can be upgraded to meet the specific demands. This also helps optimise throughput per sq ft of factory area

The company ensures that its products reduce the machine footprint, thus, achieving the best output-to-space ratio. Smaller footprint helps to layout more machines in the available area and results in optimal utilisation of resources.

Importing knowledge; exporting quality

Forecasting the need of the market, Hassia Packaging offers technology for a variety of weigh fillers, which has enabled it to offer high speeds and low giveaways.

This state-of-the-art technology duly made for India has helped in changing the market equation in the country. MNCs like Unilever and Cadbury who were globally using other machines have completely shifted to its machines for all their Asian packaging needs.

Hassia claims that some of these companies might use its machines even for their global needs in future. It offers German technology, which is known for its quality, reliability, ruggedness, ease of operation and maintenance. The high-quality products at reasonable prices and benefit from the high pouching speeds and low product giveaways keep customers satisfied. Out of the total turnover, about 35 per cent is through export to various regions like Asia, Africa, Middle East & Far-East countries.

On a test drive

A new demo room installed in the plant at Hassia Packaging enables the customers to test and judge the ideal filler machine for their particular application and purpose depending on the physical attributes of a product. The demo room is equipped with the latest equipment like DFR for studying the flow properties of product and vacuum test machine for pouch strength testing.

Static charge metres, air/nitrogen flowmetres and the angle of repose tests are also available to help the customer decide the right equipment for their needs. These tests are conducted to analyse and sample the customers’ products on the machines, to achieve best speeds and reduce give-away, thus, offering good value proposition to customers. This is, indeed, a thoughtful initiative to offer in today’s competitive times.

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Files:

 OYSTAR Hassiapackaging Profile - Mfp, May 2009 (394 kB)