The term “manufacturing flexibility” has become an archive label in today’s fast moving, high tech environment. To approach the subject is a true challenge because flexibility requires many significant factors to be considered when designing and installing packaged production lines in a beverage manufacturing facility.
A starting point is historic. For years, beverage production packaging lines were designed to handle a specific size, shape, material and type of package like a 6-ounce bottle in a 24-unit wooden case or a 12-ounce can in a 24-unit tray. To relate all the transitions that have evolved would fill volumes; however, it is important to find the root of the flexibility idea and understand why our colleagues in marketing and our demanding customers play such an impacting role.