Wednesday, May 28, 2014

NEM at ExpoPack Mexico 2014

New England Machinery will be exhibiting at the ExpoPack Mexico 2014 show June 17-20 at Centro Banamex, Mexico City. We will be located in booth 2120. Our booth will feature our latest model, the NELPSO. This machine is a monoblock bottle unscrambler with secondary orienter. It offers a space-saving design with high speeds and quick changeover.

The machine will be paired with a model NEDP gap transfer that will be turned at an angle and sped up to ‘throw’ the bottles exiting the NELPSO into the air returning them to the hopper elevator that feeds the NELPSO. Known as NEM’s ‘Flying Yellow Bottles’ display, the exhibit is always a crowd pleaser.

If you plan to be in Mexico City during those dates, don’t miss the show and be sure to stop by NEM’s booth #2120 to say hello. We love to meet our customers and make new friends as well.

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.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

What Makes Happy Employees?

Our company is very picky about who we hire. We want individuals who will fit in with our corporate culture. We look for ‘the glass is half full’ minded people. If we surround ourselves with individuals who have the same up-beat, can-do personality, we can move mountains. We have been fortunate to find a dedicated group of people who share our vision and want to be here to help grow the company, while securing our own futures.

We have superior management that truly cares about our employees and their families, a great benefits package, and employees are encouraged to improve ourselves through continued learning opportunities and internal advancement.

While there will always be days at work that are ‘challenging’ I have been at New England Machinery for 14 years and have no interest in going elsewhere. Compared to some of our other employees, I’m a new comer. We have quite a few employees who have been with the company for 20 plus and 30 plus years.

So in answer to ‘what makes us happy?’ - It is having the opportunity to be productive every day, in an atmosphere that encourages us to be our best while allowing us to support ourselves and our loved ones. You can’t ask for more than that.

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.

Monday, May 19, 2014

Superior Customer Service – What Does it Take?

I wrote this blog four years ago, but it is still important information today. What makes a company stand out when it comes to Customer Service? Responsiveness probably ranks as Number One. How quickly are your customers calls answered? How quickly are their needs resolved? Number Two would probably be Quality. How do your customers rate the quality of the service they receive? Are their issues resolved to their satisfaction? Number Three might be Communication. Does your Customer Service Dept. communicate well with your customers? Are they thorough at answering questions and explaining procedures? Do they communicate the available dates and times and costs for service visits? The Fourth would be Follow Up. Does your Customer Service Dept. follow up with the customer to make sure all issues were satisfactorily resolved?
How do you know if you are meeting the above criteria? Listen to your customers. If you don’t hear them saying anything, then ask them. When I first started working for New England Machinery, I sent out a questionnaire to over 3,000 customers. The questionnaire focused primarily on our sales processes and Sales Dept., however, there was one or two questions asking about our Service Dept. I was totally surprised by the responses we received. The majority of the responses pertained to our Customer Service Dept. and were all extremely positive. They raved about our Parts Dept. manager and how well she took care of their needs. The accolades continue to pour in over ten years later. There is no substitute for good customer service. It is the main ingredient in creating repeat customers.
Find out if your Customer Service Dept. measures up. Ask your customers what they think and really listen to what they say. If it’s not what you want to hear, then you need to make changes. Don’t delay. Every day you are not performing to your customer’s satisfaction, you are at risk to losing valuable customers. In this economy every single customer counts.
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.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

A New England Machinery Customer’s Testimonial

We at New England Machinery are blessed to have a really great team of employees. We know it, but it is especially great to hear it back from our customers. We recently received an e-mail from Dr. Z. of Weber Scientific after a service visit by one of our service techs. Dr. Z was more than happy with the service visit. In his own words:

“S. did an absolutely tremendous job for us. I never expected to get so much done, and the machine is running better than I have ever seen it run. It is exceeding my expectations. Since S. was gracious and patient enough to allow me to work in the vicinity, I learned a lot about all aspects of the machine and its maintenance. At the end of the day we found that our packing team was having difficulty keeping up with bottles coming down the line. I have never seen this before, and this is definitely attributable to improvements in the unscrambler. I can’t say enough good things about S.”

We appreciate the Doctor’s kind words. We know we have the best employees, but it is always great to hear it reconfirmed by our customers.

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.

Monday, May 12, 2014

Solving A Complicated Packaging Production Line Challenge

As a design and manufacturing company, we are often asked to ‘do the impossible’ by a customer with a difficult challenge. So we were not surprised when a large company came to us with a new request.

A major manufacturer of household cleaning products needed to unscramble 11 different containers (all different shapes and sizes bottles from 100 ml to 5 liter) and secondary orient 7 of them, with speeds from 90 to 150 cpm. They had limited floor space so could not fit two separate machines on the production line.

NEM built them a monoblock unscrambler/orienter (our model NELPSO). This machine combines the ability to feed, unscramble and secondary orient in a space-saving footprint. Three separate applications resolved with one simple answer.

The manufacturer was so pleased with the performance and space saving benefit, that they ordered a total of three machines for three different lines. NEM took a complicated challenge and came up with a simple, cost-saving and space saving solution. We take our customers’ production line challenges to heart and work hard to make them successful.

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.

Monday, May 5, 2014

Building Relationships in Packaging

How important is building relationships in the packaging machinery industry? Vitally! Relationships are critical to the buying and selling of packaging machinery. A production plant must keep their packaging lines running efficiently. The decision to purchase a new machine is based on need and ROI. As in most industries, there are numerous available products that claim to accomplish the task required of the new machine. The final purchase decision may depend on a single individual, or a committee charged with finding the solution. In either case, the amount of money being spent, combined with the importance of getting the exactly right machine, require a strong level of ‘comfort’ that the final decision is correct.

No two packaging lines are exactly alike, so it is not always possible to compare a machine that works exceptionally well for one company’s packaging line and assume it will do the same for another. The purchaser is often dependent upon the salesperson to have the knowledge of what model machine and what options on the machine will exactly fill their production line needs. This requires a level of trust that is only possible when the salesperson has proven themselves to the buyer. The purchaser and seller need to have built a relationship that now becomes a partnership in the process of commissioning the machinery that will be a success for both parties. They are in effect co-dependents needing to be assured that each will deliver the requirements to complete the sales process, machine build, installation, and successful startup to complete the cycle.

None of the above would ever begin to start without a strong relationship between the buyer and seller. You may take a chance and purchase a $200 tool that is recommended to help you do your job from someone you don’t know well, but you won’t put your job on the line, risk hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the ultimate failure of a non-producing, down production line, without having a solid relationship with your salesperson.

Visit NEM’s website at www.neminc.com for a link to an interview regarding this topic between the author and Kevin Price, radio host of The Price of Business. The Price of Business is the longest running show of its kind in Houston, it is on Bloomberg’s Home in Houston, Business Talk 1110 AM KTEK.

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.