This successful retail mail fulfillment company was being held back by its packaging operation. New problems arose each time the company tried a different method, with no end in sight.

The customer’s operation suffered from low productivity, capacity issues, and customer complaints.

They had tried everything from craft bags to peel & stick bags and even wicketed baggers — a total of four different systems before asking Sharp Packaging for a better solution.

The L-bar sealers which this customer formerly used required operators to hand-load the bag’s contents and then wait to seal the bag. A coldseal system turned out to be expensive, slow to set up, and extremely difficult to keep running; what’s more, customers complained about unpleasant odors the sealant left on soft goods. Peel & stick bags offered disappointing productivity at just 100 bags/hour.

We provided a complete machine-and-bag system that incorporates thermal printing directly on the bags.

Our Sharp MAX ™ 20-inch bagger with integrated imprinter allows pre-printing of company information, reducing steps in the packaging process. Its non-proprietary parts and standard print drivers allow connection with almost any system.

Thanks to increased production efficiency, our customer now needs fewer work stations, which means they save money on labor.

The Sharp 2.5 mil HD Mailer used in this process is a complete wrapper and shipper in one. It utilizes co-extruded, multilayer high-density mailer film that provides excellent opacity to protect materials from view or puncture. Customers print the shipping information directly on the bag. Our expertise in this area makes Sharp the leader in mail fulfillment and co-extruded mail film.

Thanks to increased production efficiency, our customer now needs fewer work stations. Ease of operation with the Sharp MAX — including easy setup and changeover — contributes to this improved efficiency. The Sharp workstation is no larger than a hand-load station, so it also saves floor space.

Overall, the user-friendly Sharp MAX provides:

  • Reliability
  • Ease of operation
  • Labor savings
  • Material cost savings
  • More up-time
  • Ability to print full-color ads directly on the bag to target existing customers

Productivity increased dramatically, from 100 bags/hour with peel & stick bags to the current 350/hour with the Sharp bagger. Training time has been drastically reduced, saving labor costs. Training on other systems took three to four weeks. On the Sharp system, operators complete their training in one week.

Total Packaging Cost Summary

  • Significant decrease in labor and training costs
  • 250% increase in hourly productivity