The Belgian company Smart-Flow SA, which has been family-run for 27 years, supplies industries such as automotive, retail, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, food, chemicals, agriculture and poultry throughout Europe. The product range includes a wide range of standard and customised containers and pallets for transport and packaging.
The logistics industry has become more synonymous with globalisation than almost any other. The supply chain has long since developed into a strategic cross-sectional function within the company in order to optimise the challenges of global supply chains, securing capacities and own warehousing. Logistical processes are being broken down further and further and suitable solutions are being sought along the entire logistics chain. The right packaging for transport and storage plays an important role here. Customers compare and expect their requirements to be met. This is nothing new, and yet success cannot be taken for granted. Developing good packaging solutions for logistics is still a challenge despite technical and digital progress and global supply chains. „people's business“ - Development and production in close communication and partnership with the customer.
Sustainable approach
The company Smart-Flow shows how this can be achieved. Together with Gamma-Wopla, it is part of the family-run Vandewiele Group. With 90 employees and an annual turnover of 40 million euros, both companies develop and produce innovative plastic containers and pallets for industrial logistics.
In the largely robot-controlled production process, Smart-Flow alone uses 200 tonnes of plastic material per week, which corresponds to nine lorries of incoming material per week, in order to injection mould 4,500 pallets per day or 22,500 pallets per week. 95 per cent of the material is high-quality and carefully selected Recyclate as a raw material, because the company has the Young talent award for digitalisation in mechanical engineering firmly in view. Both the reusable and disposable pallets are recyclable. The products are taken back at the end of their life and ground up again. The advantages of plastic packaging over cardboard and wood in this area are obvious: durability, lower weight (ergonomic factor), hygiene, protection of the goods and cost-effectiveness are the customer's arguments time and again.
A firm eye on the future
At sister company Gamma-Wopla SA, on the other hand, 95 per cent high-quality virgin material is used for the production of containers. In some cases, complete series of coordinated stackable, nestable and foldable containers are produced in the form of standard or customised solutions, all of which impress with their smart details. Their design and function are 100 per cent customised to the logistical requirements of the customer aligned.
The future is firmly in sight. The second management generation with his two sons has already been established. „It's no longer enough to work in a lean and cost-effective way; you also have to make the organisation agile and flexible,“ says Jan Vandewiele, describing his company. „To achieve this, we have developed a team of highly skilled employees who complement each other very well in terms of their profiles and working styles,“ continues the CEO. The young top management also fits in with this.
Free from global supply chains
During the development and production phases, Smart-Flow is in direct communication and a narrow one, partnership relationship with the customer. „For us, proximity to the customer is the be-all and end-all in order to be competitive. Then our cross-industry expertise, flexibility in production and ultimately a good price-performance ratio come into play,“ owner Jan Vandewiele is convinced. „With our company headquarters in the centre of Europe, we can coordinate closely with our customers during product development and, if necessary, in personal discussions. Customers benefit from the large selection of products when looking for a solution. We are also free from the disadvantages of long, global supply chains and can guarantee delivery capability.“
Application example from practice
What it means in concrete terms to be a partner in logistics and a Customised packaging solution The example of Bericap, a company based in Ingelheim, Germany, clearly demonstrates the importance of developing new solutions. Bericap is a global manufacturer of plastic closures of all kinds. The market for closures is very innovative and dynamic, especially in terms of functionality and weight reduction. Just think of PET drinks bottles or dosage dispensers for cosmetics. The often multi-part closures are produced on Assembly islands which means a high degree of intralogistics. In addition, semi-finished products are transported on pallets to an external warehouse.
For both of these, Bericap uses a own processes optimised range of Smart-Flow. Michael Hiller, Supply Chain Manager at Bericap, emphasises with regard to the development process that Bericap had already used plastic pallets in the past for hygienic reasons, but was not satisfied with the durability of these products. They found the new Smart-Flow prototypes exciting and a very complex development process was set in motion in a very short space of time.
It is a rackable monoblock pallet, extremely robust, non-bendable and, with a tare weight of eleven kilograms, very stackable. Wider, reinforced centre feet, rounded outer edges and special anti-slip studs have been added for Bericap and the pallet's cleanability has been optimised. The otherwise standard lip on the side of the edge, which prevents the load from slipping, has been deliberately omitted here so that the boxes can slide easily off the pallet when stacking. This was important to Bericap. Each improvement step was first subjected to a real-life practical test before the newly designed SF800PES range with special add-ons was handed over to the going-live phase. According to Michael Hiller, all in all, he was ultimately convinced that Smart-Flow could also offer customised solutions at a reasonable price. competitive price could offer. His company also benefited from the short delivery times. The process was described as real teamwork. In the end, the customer had a pallet that was 100 per cent tailored to their production. This pleased the supply chain manager responsible, as well as Smart-Flow. The right mix of product, technical expertise, state-of-the-art production facilities and flexibility were the key to this optimal customer solution.
