Mity-Lite uses on-demand packaging

Mity-Lite of Orem, Utah, takes the business of sitting down very seriously. That’s because it’s a leading manufacturer of lightweight chairs and tables. So, when the company looked to improve efficiencies, every method and tool was evaluated against three key operational drivers: quality, delivery and cost.

To help achieve its primary goal of providing accurate, complete and on-time shipments to customers, Mity-Lite installed an on-demand packaging system (Packsize, [url=http://www.packsize.com]http://www.packsize.com[/url]) to streamline the way tables are packaged for shipping.

Before installing the new system, Mity-Lite’s vast product offering forced the company to stock more than 45 box sizes. “Planning for packaging needs was difficult,” says chief operations officer Brian Bowers. “Our corrugated stock inventory took up significant warehouse space, and we often found ourselves with too much inventory of slow-moving boxes and frequent stockouts in other sizes.”

The new system builds exactly what’s needed when it’s needed. Selecting from three sizes of corrugate, an associate selects and enters the size and number of boxes needed into the machine’s keypad. The machine cuts the cardboard to size, complete with score lines and a glue tab. The flattened box is delivered onto an out-feed table. Another associate inserts the box into an automated gluer. The tables are then inserted into the custom boxes, closed and staged for shipment.

“With the switch from purchasing and storing finished boxes to building boxes on-demand, we have enjoyed several layers of operational improvement and cost reduction,” explains Bowers.

Customized boxes have eliminated generic boxes that sometimes required alterations, and the footprint for the company’s corrugated stock inventory has been reduced by 60%.
The implementation of the on-demand packaging system was an important component in the company’s overall operations strategy, and according to Bowers, continues to support Mity-Lite’s advancements toward a one-piece work flow.