Scott Gorton, Fapco’s in-house, degreed Packaging Engineer, from Michigan State University, has been engineering packaging solutions to protect the most delicate automotive and OEM parts for over 30 years. His most challenging engineering work usually starts when the client’s team discovers a problem.
“Basically, what happens is one of our team members or the customer calls with an issue of parts that are damaged. The major automakers and many other OEMs track their damaged parts and there is a percentage they will not tolerate,” says Gorton. “The first thing we do is to get a sample of the part to take a look at. In the automotive industry especially, so much of the packaging is designed sight unseen. It’s designed from what is known as ‘commodity standards’—the headlamp from one model gets packaged the same as a headlamp from another.”
Gorton explains that this fact of life is volume driven. When the automaker releases over 80,000 parts per year, there is no time for individualized package design. This leads to problematic packaging for some parts.
“Many times Fapco is the first firm to get the part and place it in a carton. Sometimes we are able to see a problem right away and raise a flag before the program moves forward. We then go to the customer and correct the packaging to protect the part,” states Gorton.
Engineering creative solutions to protect tough-to-ship parts is a value-added benefit of doing business with a full-service contract packager such as Fapco. When there is a problem that the OEM needs to fix, Gorton’s department does their job as part of the overall services.
“We usually start by developing a prototype of what we believe will solve the problem. If we are really concerned about our solution, we may go to the packaging lab and do some drop testing to make sure the new packaging protects the part.”
Other manufacturers expect Fapco to provide specifications for packaging as part of their new-model specifications. In this case Fapco acts as an extension of the OEM’s team to provide this service.
Environmental standards are also coming into play. All wood parts must be heat treated to ship outside the United States. Many materials, such as foam “packing peanuts” now have an environmentally friendly alternative. Greener molding foams are also coming on the market. Corrugated cardboard, wood and most of the poly bags and plastics in Fapco packaging are completely recyclable.
Parts Inspection To Customer Standards
The value added services at Fapco continues to expand, including an improved parts inspection program such as for services like automated small parts kitting and parts procurement and cold seal packaging.
“Our Tier One Parts Purchasing Program eliminates a wide array of costs, hassles, and bottlenecks for our customers,” says Fapco President and CEO Larry Gardiner. “Fapco now owns the parts we receive from the OEM-directed vendors. To us, owning a part is just like putting our name on it. With our new expanded parts inspection program, you can bet we are going to take this ownership seriously and inspect these parts to our OEMs’ standards or higher.”
As the Fapco Tier One business increases, parts inspection is becoming a greater component in the mix at Fapco. Customer Service Representative, Jim Page, addresses this expanded piece of business.
“From major automakers to OEMs in every niche of business we serve, everybody is looking to streamline their parts receiving processes. As OEMs partner with us and increase our role as a consolidator, they are looking for us to take on a greater role. We are stepping up to the plate to take on this work and relieve our customers from these obligations. They want assurance that the products they acquire from Fapco and their Tier Two directed suppliers are ready to use.”
Page explains that as Fapco progresses with this new Tier One Parts consolidation process, the parts inspection must align with OEM expectations and procedures down to specialty training of its employees. From the right tools to their proper utilization, they must be appropriate for the methods and the parts involved.
“Some of our OEM firms asked us to match parts to their specification drawings performing an FAI (First Article Inspection). If this inspection fails, we document it in the system and repeat the inspection on the next series of parts to assure there was not a bad production run from the vendor.”
Page explains that with other major OEMs a visual inspection is often adequate. This can entail a comparison to a perfect part wired to a board or a “go-or-no-go” photographic book. This technique is especially effective when parts are mislabeled.
Fapco is pushing for higher standards of inspection for many OEMs like industrial replacement OEM parts.
“It really does need to get down to the drawings and specifications with many OEMs. This is something we are working on with the manufacturers to allow us to take it to the next level. The more we can relieve our end customer of these obligations, and do it in a cost-effective manner, the greater value we bring to the table.”
“Most manufacturers understand the costs of their systems and processes. Our management team assists the customer to define what potential savings are and help them to put a hard dollar value on what may be soft costs so they understand the savings we estimate when taking over many of these traditional processes,” Page concludes.
Reddi-Crate Packaging for Critical Parts
When a major industrial equipment OEM needed a campaign to replace large drawbars for towing, the design team at Fapco used modifications to its Reddi-Crate square-tube packaging to lower costs and ship the parts more quickly.
“To handle lengthy heavy parts, we added wood bracing to the ends of our Reddi-Crate packaging to stiffen the crate and keep the part from moving around,” explains Jim Robinson, Plant Manager for Fapco. “All our wood is heat treated and stamped so we can ship these parts overseas without issues. We bolt the drawbar down inside the crate. We then add a couple of components with a clamp and a bag inside, put the cap on it, band it, and stencil the part number on the outside and we are ready to ship.”
Tough-to-package parts that must be protected, such as drawbars, crankshafts, drive shafts, axles, hydraulic cylinders, tube housings and others are traditionally packed in wooden crates. Wooden crates are costly, labor intensive and heavier making the parts harder to handle. Traditional tube packaging is problematic because it does not stack easily and is even dangerous when the bands holding the stack of round tubes together are cut.
“Reddi-crate is a great solution for the customer,” says Robinson. “It takes the place of a wooden crate or a traditional wrap-around crate. It’s less expensive and saves time and labor costs as well. It even saves time from building a wood-framed wrap-around because we don’t have to run the materials through the machines to form the seams.”
The drawbar is a critical part designed to connect to a tow vehicle to tow a large, very expensive generator or compressor to some very rough construction sites. This project was taken on as part of a recall program to replace flawed drawbars in the field.
Fapco began using Reddi-Crate, one of the ITW Reddi-Pac packaging solutions, five years ago and is an authorized distributor.
Wrap It Up
Lighter and More Affordable
Lighter weight and less bulky than wooden crates and other packaging options, Reddi-Crate is more affordable to build, warehouse and ship.
Easier to Handle and Stack
Unlike conventional shipping tubes, Reddi-Crate is stackable, won’t roll and can be fitted with skid runners to allow heavier parts to be handled by a forklift.
More Flexible in Fabrication
Reddi-Crate is easier to build than wooden crates, and fits more easily with specialized engineered solutions to prevent damaged parts.
Whether its plastic clamshell packaging, Reddi-Crate packaging, small parts packaging or cold seal packaging, Fapco Inc. will work to help your business grow. Get Started with Fapco Inc. today!