Autocrat Inc. provides this recipe on its web site (www.autocrat.com)
for a coffee milk shake—"a Rhode Island favorite," says the Lincoln, R.I.-based coffee roaster: Add two tablespoons of coffee syrup to a 7-ounce glass of cold milk. Shake well in a beverage shaker and serve.
Simple, just like the 107-year-old company's philosophy: "Only the best will do." Autocrat strives to achieve the best throughout its facility, from roasting custom blends of coffee for private-label customers to packaging and shipping its products worldwide. To improve operations and increase output, the company installed a new packaging machine last year. Previously, Autocrat packaged approximately five bags of coffee per minute. With the new machine, output increased to approximately 16 bags per minute.
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Coffee maker Autocrat
Inc., Lincoln, R.I., installed this Paragon Express™ semi-automatic label
applicator last spring. The system increased the speed and efficiency of
the company's coffee bag labeling operation.
Photo courtesy of Kilbane
Communications for Winco Identification.
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But the packaging machine presented a
labeling challenge. Employees at Autocrat manually labeled empty coffee bags
prior to packaging. "The system was slow and inaccurate," says Dave Bulman,
Autocrat's production manager. "The placement of the labels varied from bag to
bag." Autocrat needed a new labeling system to keep up with the speed of the
packaging machine and to maintain its "only the best will do" philosophy. "We
wanted labels to appear in the same location to create a consistent,
high-quality image," Bulman says.
After researching five labeling systems,
Autocrat purchased a Paragon Express™ label applicator system last spring from
Winco Identification, a Nashua, N.H.-based systems integrator. The
semi-automatic labeler can apply preprinted labels to bags, pallets, cases and
cartons. It's a tamp-on applicator, relying on power and air pressure to adhere
labels to desired surfaces.
Lou Perrara, Autocrat's plant manager, says the company selected Winco and the Paragon Express system for several reasons. Winco offered competitive prices and could modify the label applicator to fit Autocrat's specific needs. In addition, the labeling system is operator-friendly, Perrara says.
With the new labeling system, Autocrat employees now apply approximately 1,000 labels per hour to coffee bags—10 times more than before. "Not only has it increased our output significantly," Bulman says, "but the labels are consistently in a more accurate location, which is important to the private-label companies we do business with."
Winco installed the system in Autocrat's facility, and a Winco technician trained workers on operating and troubleshooting the label applicator. "The setup is very easy," Bulman says. "It takes about five minutes." When a new roll of labels is inserted in the applicator, the machine automatically calibrates itself. Bulman says a few labeled bags typically are thrown away during the calibration process. But the number of wasted bags is significantly lower than when labels were manually applied and those with skewed labels had to be tossed.
Once the system is ready, workers place coffee bags in a designated spot on the labeler. A fiber-optic sensor in the applicator detects when a bag is in place and applies the label at a feed speed of 18 to 22 inches per second. Autocrat uses approximately six different sizes of pressure sensitive labels, ranging from 1 7/8 x 7/8 inches to 7 x 6 1/2 inches. All the labels are in roll formats, with 1,000 labels per roll.
Bulman is pleased with Autocrat's Paragon Express. The biggest challenge was "learning the quirks and demands of the machine," he says. For example, employees must thoroughly clean out the applicator once every two weeks. But overall, the system has been a boon to the company.
Perhaps Autocrat can add this simple recipe for success to the 14 others on its web site: Place a roll of 1,000 pressure sensitive labels on a Paragon Express label applicator. Add one glossy coffee bag at a time, label the bags, package with gourmet coffee beans and serve a quality product to satisfied customers.
—Susan Keen Flynn
Autocrat Inc., Lincoln, R.I., uses its new labeling system
to apply these 7 x 6 1/2-inch, 4-color pressure sensitive labels to bags of
gourmet
coffee beans.
