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Ensuring the Supply Chain Can Support the Customer Base
Seeing growth ahead, packaging supplier Bell Inc. adds to its family of presses to ensure customer service
Sioux Falls, SD — April 25, 2008 — Sometimes the best way to server your customers is to stop accepting new customers until your supply chain can support additional capacity.
Case in point: Packaging provider Bell Incorporated.
"We actually turned down business this past fall," said Ben Graham, vice president of finance, sales and supply chain, explaining that Bell's executive team decided to ensure new customers were being served in accordance with company standards before taking on more business. "Still," said Graham, "it was a tough decision."
The Sioux Falls-based independent folding-carton manufacturer experienced significant growth in 2006 and 2007, adding new accounts such as Barilla Pasta and Wells' Dairy, and reached what the company considered full capacity.
Now Bell has added to its family of presses, bringing much-needed new capacity, flexibility, the potential to add up to 25 workers and readiness for the company's next growth spurt.
Stevens Flexo Press
The new press, a refurbished 32" Stevens Flexo Press, is being assembled now and is scheduled to be in full production at the end of April. Bell runs two other Stevens Flexo presses, "so we already have people who are experts in maintaining the machines, and we're more likely to have the right parts on hand for any situation," said Graham.
But the new arrival is different in two ways, according to Marianne Von Seggern, Bell's vice president of strategic development.
First, the new press has a flatbed, or "platen "die cutter, far less costly than rotary dies but just as functional for many types of jobs. Rotary die cutters are needed for more critical, high-volume cutting but can cost anywhere from 10 to 100 times more, and they take months rather than weeks from order to delivery. "That's overkill for some packaging requirements," said Von Seggern, "so the new press rounds out Bell's ability to put the right job on the right machine at the lowest cost."
Case in point: Packaging provider Bell Incorporated.
"We actually turned down business this past fall," said Ben Graham, vice president of finance, sales and supply chain, explaining that Bell's executive team decided to ensure new customers were being served in accordance with company standards before taking on more business. "Still," said Graham, "it was a tough decision."
The Sioux Falls-based independent folding-carton manufacturer experienced significant growth in 2006 and 2007, adding new accounts such as Barilla Pasta and Wells' Dairy, and reached what the company considered full capacity.
Now Bell has added to its family of presses, bringing much-needed new capacity, flexibility, the potential to add up to 25 workers and readiness for the company's next growth spurt.
Stevens Flexo Press
The new press, a refurbished 32" Stevens Flexo Press, is being assembled now and is scheduled to be in full production at the end of April. Bell runs two other Stevens Flexo presses, "so we already have people who are experts in maintaining the machines, and we're more likely to have the right parts on hand for any situation," said Graham.
But the new arrival is different in two ways, according to Marianne Von Seggern, Bell's vice president of strategic development.
First, the new press has a flatbed, or "platen "die cutter, far less costly than rotary dies but just as functional for many types of jobs. Rotary die cutters are needed for more critical, high-volume cutting but can cost anywhere from 10 to 100 times more, and they take months rather than weeks from order to delivery. "That's overkill for some packaging requirements," said Von Seggern, "so the new press rounds out Bell's ability to put the right job on the right machine at the lowest cost."
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