Communicate With All Your Customers

Today’s workforce is quite diverse. There are the baby boomers who still feel more comfortable reading information in printed format; the X-Generation workers who like to surf the internet; and the Millennium generation who look at tweets, e-mails and fast news sources. So how do you get information about your company and products in front of all the individuals who need to see it? You need to diversify your marketing efforts.

Our company utilizes various forms of marketing to educate our existing and potential customers about our products and new technologies. We send out a direct mail newsletter several times a year, we post a copy of the newsletter on our website, we update our website at least once a week (sometimes more often), we send out postcards several times a year, we purchase display ads, we have a Facebook page, we attend trade shows, we write informative white papers that we distribute via our website, we send out press releases, we offer an open house every winter (in sunny Florida), we send out e-mails to our customers with new information, and, of course, we blog.

If you want to get in front our your customers in today’s market, you need to utilize all the resources that are available. It’s no longer enough to place a print ad in a trade magazine and wait for the leads to come in. You need to be more proactive in getting your word out in all the available forums.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.

What Does It Take To Make A Company Great?

I heard a commercial the other day asking “What Does It Take To Make a Company Great?” It made me stop to think. Some qualities that make a company great might depend on the type of company, but other things would be universal to all companies. I believe the following ingredients are required to make a company great:

-Superior customer service.

-Employees who are dedicated to improving their company, not just doing a ‘job’.

-Management that is open to new ideas and encourages employee input.

-Employees who are willing to go out of their way to assist a customer.

-A workforce that embraces, encourages, and epitomizes teamwork.

-Employees who seek out opportunities to learn and improve their craft.

-Employees with a positive, ‘can do’ attitude, who rather spend time solving challenges than grousing about problems.

What are your ideas on ‘what it takes to make a company great?’ Share them with us here.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.

Pocket-Style Unscrambler Problems

The following information appeared in one of my blogs several years ago. The information is still important enough to share again for those who might have missed it the first time.

New England Machinery (NEM) received a call from a customer who had a problem.  They were using a pocket-style bottle unscrambler to feed their containers.  The containers were being fed to the unscrambler from another room via an overhead bucket system.  Occasionally the employee filling the buckets would put the wrong containers into them.  As they traveled through the plant overhead, no one could tell what containers were in the buckets until they were emptied into the unscrambler.  At that point it was too late to stop them from jamming up the unscrambler.

It would then take the company hours to lock out the machine and clean out the wrong containers.  In many instances, the incorrect containers damaged the pockets and the pockets then needed to be replaced.  The replacement parts were very expensive and took a long time to get from the manufacturer. 

So the company turned to NEM for a solution to their problem.  NEM built them its model NEHHLPE-72.  This unscrambler is a real ‘work horse’.  It handles their containers with ease giving them the production speed they need.  But most importantly, now when an employee makes a mistake and sends the wrong containers to the unscrambler, the worse that happens is one of the containers gets jammed in the exit to the bowl.  The operator only needs to open the door (which automatically stops the machine), pick out the jammed bottle and remove any incorrect size bottles, close the door, and push a button to re-start the machine.  It can all be done in minutes, with no costly damage to any part of the machine.  Removing the incorrect bottles is easy as the sorting bowl is at floor level.  No ladders are required to get the components out of the machine.

The customer is very happy with NEM’s solution to their problem.  A linear-style bottle unscrambler (like the model NEHHLPE-72), has a lot of advantages over a pocket-style unscrambler.  They have a smaller footprint, don’t require tag-out to clear jams, they positively control the bottles, are simpler to adjust and changeover with minimal changeparts, can accommodate a large range of container sizes and shapes with easy adjustments, integrates well with any conveyor, is gentle non-marring of containers, some models can integrate an ionized air rinser, and some models offer an integrated hopper elevator to reduce floor space utilization.  The linear-style bottle unscrambler is also less expensive.  To learn more about the comparison of a pocket-style unscrambler versus a linear-style unscrambler, contact NEM at (941) 755-5550 or visit the website at: www.neminc.com

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.

Why Think Outside The Box?

One of the courses I took in college was designed to teach us how to ‘Think Outside The Box’. I wasn’t sure why this was important, but I was game to learn more. At the first class we were shown a film with very quick images that would appear and disappear and no explanation. The pictures were designed to shock you into seeing the average item in a different way. For example it would flash the image of a playing card. The card might be the 4 of hearts, but the color on the card was black, not red.  I recently opened a magazine that had what looked like a photo of an apple with a slice cut out. The slice was laid out beside the apple so you could see the inside. Instead of showing the expected white core and seeds, it appeared to be an orange on the inside.

The ‘photo’ was an eye catcher. It was a great marketing tool that made me stop on that page and read what the article was about. Sometimes we need to shock people to get their attention. This picture did that without offending anyone or being outrageous. It was simple, clean, and very eye-catching. It proved that you can make people stop and think if you just use a little imagination.

I encourage all individuals to use their imagination to see something a little different now and then. It is the only way to innovate and we need innovation to move society forward.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.

If It Isn’t Broke – Should You Fix It?

We’ve all heard the saying, “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.” Most humans dislike change. They especially don’t like change when it is strictly for the sake of change. In the average mind, if you change something, there better be a really good reason for making that change.

In reality it is change that creates progress. We would not drive automobiles if the inventor of the auto didn’t want to create a better method for mobility than horseback riding. As a manufacturer of packaging machinery, our company is always being asked to assist in packaging new product designs. Someone has come up with a ‘better’ way to package their product and needs a machine to allow them to mass produce the new product. Fortunately for them, New England Machinery thrives on new challenges.

Our company’s willingness to ‘fix something that isn’t broke’ has allowed us the ability to offer dozens of different models of packaging machinery. With a strong Engineering Department and the enthusiasm to ‘think outside the box’, we’ve helped thousands of customers package their products better and faster. Sometimes it is better to fix what isn’t broken.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.

Wishing All Americans A Happy 4th of July

We Americans don’t often take the time to think about all the freedoms we enjoy. Our ancestors gave their blood, sweat, tears and lives so that we can live in a country that allows us to disagree with the policies and ideas of our leaders. We can write about our discontent and talk about it without the fear that we will be incarcerated or worse.

This 4th of July take a few moments to think about all the sacrifices that have been made to give us this country with all its imperfections, but most importantly, to revel in our ability to enjoy it, freely.

Happy 4th of July, America.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.

Why Use Servo?

We have recently been answering questions for a few of our customers about the use of servo motors. So I thought this might be a good time to re-print a previous blog about them.

For pharmaceutical companies, the validation process is never easy or simple. Many of our customers were looking for technology to assist them in this process. But they were not able to find the help they needed. Well, their search is finally over. Servo bottle cappers can fill their needs with ease.

One important aspect of the validation process is the torque applied to every cap. A servo capper precisely measures the torque applied to each and every cap and can feed that information back to the operator in real-time. The information can also be stored or printed and saved as part of the validation process. How does it work? Unlike standard motors, the servo motor used in the bottle capping process has its own ‘intelligence’ and can respond back on what it is actually doing.

The servo motors offer versatility in allowing recipe-driven format changes (for different products), torque control, the ability to sense and reject mis-torqued caps, and to document torque values. Accurate set points, via a touch screen, provide the ability to monitor applied torque and inspection/rejection of applied torque. The servo motors also allow the generation of histograms of torque curves for the individual spindle heads which can be used for calibration and/or troubleshooting.

A few companies now offer servo bottle capping, but New England Machinery’s (NEM) servo capper offers more than just servo-driven bottle capping heads. Their servo bottle capper design eliminates mechanical cams in the machine. All motion is pure servo with a totally programmable electronic cam. The NEM servo bottle capper can handle a variety of different closures including sports caps, child resistant, continuous thread, hinged, tilt-top, twist top, metal lug, tamper evident and more. Application torque parameters and bottle height changes are accomplished by selecting menu driven electronic parameters. Changing cap sizes is easily done by simply removing and replacing the collets. All mechanical guides and stars are located using a new compact design quick change tool-less fastener system. The cappers touch screen offers control and information regarding the machine’s functions such as status lights, fault alarms, individual head torque controls, hopper elevator, cap sorter, machine turret speed, and other options including real time data for verification of operating parameters and statistical process control. The screen can also be configured to display applied torque values to the operator for process validation. Call NEM at (941) 755-5550 for more information about their servo bottle capping machines.

The author, Marge Bonura, is the Director of Sales & Marketing for New England Machinery, Inc. (NEM). NEM is a leading packaging machinery manufacturer of bottle unscramblers, cappers, orienters, retorquers, lidders, pluggers, pump sorter/placers, scoop feeders, hopper elevators and much more. The company has been in business since 1974 selling to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, chemical, household products, automotive and other industries. For more information on NEM, visit their website at www.neminc.com.