Case study | August 2026

A contract packing company in the Netherlands runs packaging for 20+ brands across food, personal care, and industrial products. Their production model is built on flexibility: short runs, frequent changeovers, and a box size matrix that spans 50+ different case dimensions. Their previous machine — a single-size-capable erector with manual changeover — was the single biggest drag on their operating model.

The Customer’s Pain Points

The packer runs 15–25 different box sizes per week across 3–4 shifts, with run lengths from 300 to 5,000 cases. Key problems:

• Changeover time was the constraint. Manual changeover on the legacy erector took 25–40 minutes with wrenches. With 6–10 changeovers per day, the packer was losing 2.5–5 hours of erecting time daily — before a single case was erected.
• Short runs made changeover cost per case explode. For a 300-case run, a 30-minute changeover added 0.1 min/case overhead — more than the erecting time itself.
• Errors after changeover. A missed guide adjustment showed up as bad cases 50–100 cases into the run, wasting board and time.
• Operator dependency. Changeover quality depended on which operator did it; the variance between operators was visible in the waste numbers.

The Solution: ZRAY Multi-Size Automatic Case Former

ZRAY supplied a three-piece case erector — the configuration best suited to extreme size flexibility — with the full multi-size package:

1. Recipe-Driven Changeover in Under 3 Minutes

• Servo-positioned guides, depth stops, and sealing heads with a 100-recipe library covering the packer’s 50+ box sizes plus spares.
• Changeover is one button: the PLC repositions every axis to the recipe coordinates and verifies blank size at the feed gate before the first case runs.
• Measured changeover: 2.5 minutes average across 40 logged changeovers in the first month — versus 25–40 minutes before.

2. Self-Verifying First Case

• After each changeover, the machine erects 3 verification cases and checks them against the recipe (dimensions, squareness, sealing position). Only after the check passes does the machine switch to full speed — catching changeover errors before they reach production volume.
• The verification results are logged per changeover, giving the packer a changeover quality record for their quality audits.

3. Batch Flexibility Support

• Quick-change magazine allowing the operator to preload the next size’s blanks while the current run is still active.
• Low-minimum-batch mode: the machine idles in low-energy standby between short runs instead of shutting down, cutting the start-stop overhead on very short batches.
• Run tracking per batch: the PLC records cases erected, rejects, and run time per batch, feeding the packer’s per-brand billing and reporting.

Results and ROI

The packer measured 8 months before and 8 months after:

The Capacity Story

Recovering 2.5–5 hours of erecting time per day added ~40% erecting capacity — the packer took on three new brands in the first six months without adding any equipment or shifts. The machine’s flexibility also changed their commercial position: they can now quote short-run contracts that previously made no economic sense.

Annualized financial impact:

• Capacity monetized (new contracts): EUR 95,000/yr
• Reduced waste (changeover errors, bad cases): EUR 14,000/yr
• Reduced labor (less changeover time, less supervision): EUR 12,000/yr
• Total: EUR 121,000/yr against a machine investment of EUR 128,000 — payback in 12.7 months.

ROI Summary Table

What the Operations Director Said

“We used to schedule production around the changeover. Now we schedule changeovers around the production. It flipped our whole planning model.”

Lessons for Contract Packers

1. Changeover time is your true capacity number. For multi-size operations, erecting capacity is not CPM — it is cases-per-day after changeovers. Cutting changeover 92% added more capacity than buying a faster machine would have.
2. Verification beats inspection. Self-verifying first cases catch changeover errors at 3 cases instead of 50–100. That is the difference between a bad run and a small correction.
3. Flexibility is a sales tool. The ability to handle 50+ sizes without stress lets contract packers quote work they previously had to decline.

If your box size matrix has more than 10 active sizes, changeover time — not speed — is the number to fix. Send us your size matrix and changeover log, and we will show you what a recipe-driven machine does to your erecting capacity. Request a changeover capacity analysis or message us on WhatsApp at +86 13681839278.