You save it…especially when it comes to labor costs.
People are expensive, but they’re worth it, as long as their time is spent in productive activities. Stretch wrapping by hand, watching a load spin while it’s being wrapped, and climbing on and off a forklift to cut film or press “start” don’t qualify. Neither does the time it takes to move a load from the wrapper to a freestanding platform scale. All of that is time wasted and money lost.
Today’s semi-automatic stretch wrappers can include time-saving features that will free your people up for more important tasks and save you money.
For example, a machine that automatically cuts the film at the end of the wrap cycle saves about 30 seconds per load, compared to an employee climbing off and back on a forklift. Over five years, wrapping 50 loads a day, that one feature can save you over $7,500 based on a labor cost of $14 per hour. If the machine also attaches the film, the time saved goes to a full two minutes per load, and a savings of more than $30,000 over the same five years.
Some stretch wrappers have scales built into the turntable, so you can wrap and weigh at the same time. That means you don’t have to move the load from the wrapper to a freestanding platform scale. That saves another 30 seconds to a minute and a half for each load…and an additional $7,500 to $22,500 in labor costs over five years.
What will your employees do with all that extra time? They can do something productive – like load another pallet, print shipping labels, or complete bill-of-lading reports.
The bottom line is that time and labor-saving features in stretch wrappers don’t cost you money; they save you money. They are investments that offer very good returns.
This post was published on July 1, 2015 and updated on July 20, 2015.
July 1, 2015
