2018 has been a great year for the Douglas Machine team, thanks in no small part to our incredible customers. We’re honored to provide our partners with some of the best secondary packaging solutions in the business. Our shrink wrappers, cartoners, palletizers and machine enhancements have been supporting Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) manufacturers for over 50 years, paving the way for superior business results. Today, we’d like to discuss one of our recent projects to give you a better idea of what it’s like to partner with Douglas.
The Impact of Service & Teamwork
Being awarded a machine order is a huge accomplishment for our team—and it starts with a series of tasks that need to be efficiently completed to ensure we meet and exceed customer expectations. That’s where our Servant’s Heart shines through. This core value of our business represents our never-ending desire to serve and support others. Our commitment to service drives us to do the best work possible, fostering superior results and products for our customers. And because this project demanded close teamwork between many branches of Douglas Machine, our staff needed to pair excellent service with careful collaboration.
At the onset of our partnership with the customer, we presented them with a range of machine solutions to suit their production goals. Together, we determined that an Axiom case & tray packer would be the ideal choice. More specifically, this Axiom machine featured a Velocity Stacker infeed to maximize packing efficiency. This machine exceeded the customer’s efficiency expectations of 98% during their Site Acceptance Test (SAT). This outstanding outcome was the direct result of ensuring the machine was complete at the time of shipment—and supporting and servicing customer team members during machine installation and start-up.
Overcoming Obstacles
Projects can seem effortless when everything goes according to plan. If you want to assess the quality of a business partner, you need to see how they respond when things go wrong. After a successful installation of the Axiom machine, we quickly ran into issues with integrating our machine with the overall production line. Soon after, we determined that the flow and condition of the product to our machine needed improvement. A majority of this responsibility fell on the shoulders of the customer’s Maintenance Manager, who was under severe pressure from leadership due to poor overall line performance and limited production.
Eager to help, our personnel worked closely alongside the client’s Maintenance Manager, providing input to assist them with improving line performance. Identifying and addressing these production challenges took several weeks, but we saw gradual improvements to the condition and flow of product as we implemented solutions. We also participated in several conference calls to help the client review line performances. This approach ensured that we kept focused on resolving open issues and completing the SAT.
The Heroes Behind the Project
A number of Douglas team members played an integral part in this project, including Almir Gezo, Ryan Fernholz, Brad Flies, Eric Korman, Monte Mounsdon, Abigail Bray, Wayne Ellingson, David Johnson, Dan Jensen and Erik Kruger. These employees gave their all to support the customer and their staff as we all pursued success.
Ryan and Almir kept in close contact with the client and ensured that our team understood their concerns and expectations for quality. Brad provided swift and reliable responses to the client’s requests for on-site tech support. Erik Kruger, Wayne Ellingson, David Johnson, Dan Jensen, Eric Korman, Abigail Bray and Monte Mounsdon brought empathy, humility and tireless passion to their work with the client, providing on-site support and assisting with difficult discussions—all while pushing to get production runs to exceed efficiency goals.
Douglas’ team maintained a spirit of positivity and diligence throughout this project, taking definitive action to resolve problems as they emerged and support each other—even when these problems weren’t our responsibility to address. Thanks to their combined efforts and ingenuity, we secured repeat orders for our Axiom platform. Best of all, the client’s leadership spoke highly of both our staff and our machine solution!
Douglas Machine is incredibly proud of the courage and service our team members displayed during this project. These professionals went above and beyond to ensure the success of our customer, securing a promising relationship for our company. We anticipate new opportunities from this client as we work to earn their continued business.
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