BEMIS Factory Located in Terre Haute, Indiana - Essay Example

The major point of the trip was to witness the production lines of BEMIS and observe its operations.

The first part of this paper deals with the process of Excursion which I have seen from beginning to end. First, the resin is melted ( bead-like ) and Repro. The Standards are used to melt the Repro. Then, they are blown up into cylinders until they bubble up to the top of the machine. Once they are on the top, they are flattened using various rollers. After which, when everything has been flattened, these are rolled around a roll of cardboard on a metal rod. Finally, the bar is taken off a plug is placed on one end. The plastic would be now wrapped and multiple rolls would be placed standing right up on a skid. Again, they would be wrapped in plastic and properly labeled, then placed in a box. They would then be sent to the warehouse for shipping and classified as finished goods. It is also important to note that the colors are melted one at a time during the beginning of the process. This goes on daily because operations are 24/7.

Overall, 32 machines produce the rolls. The maintenance for the machinery is done annually where the machines are cleaned thoroughly. The machines are really big so cleaning them for a day would not suffice. The cleaning of these machines is scheduled on holidays so operations would not be affected. Demand for BEMIS products is high so the company cannot afford to lose productive time. I also observed that one roll can be easily made in as short as half an hour or more. Bigger rolls, however, need more time and can take as much as four to five hours. On average, the machines produce 40” rolls in 40 hours. On a daily basis, the rolls produced equal to 540-550 pounds. To be able to achieve this high level of productivity, BEMIS operates for 24 hours. There are 100 employees distributed to work on four different shifts.

Indeed, one can’t help admiring the whole process of production as everything is synchronized to meet the buyer’s demands or specifications. Come to think of it, the products of BEMIS are very many so efficiency is very important. BEMIS can meet all these challenges because it continues to innovate itself and prioritize product research.

The second part of this paper deals with the logistics of the products. Due to the high volume of products produced on a daily basis, the logistics section is very busy. There are also times when companies would require extra orders during peak seasons which makes logistics very challenging. A truck can carry as much as 40,000 pounds worth of pallets. Friday is considered the busiest day of the week so 18 trucks (scheduled and unscheduled ) are available for use on this day. If it’s just an average day, only 600,00-700,000 pounds are shipped by BEMIS to its buyers. Normally, it takes 30-40 minutes to load the products on a truck. Safety measures are put in place to avoid any accidents.
These are the procedures for loading a truck:

1. Get release. Processors need to know the pertinent details of the shipment. They must declare truthfully the type of products loaded on the truck which would be declared as soon as the buyers receive them. Details such as time of shipping, weight, quantity, and other special instructions are contained in the documents like the Bill of Lading.
2. The next step involves pulling or staging pallets to the shipping area. The men driving the forklift and other heavy equipment are very skilled in doing their jobs. The area is cleared of any materials or people that can cause accidents.

3. Ready for the truck. The pallets are organized by batch and carefully assigned to which truck they must be loaded. A supervisor checks this process to ensure that the right truck would be loaded with the right pallets.
4. Loading of pallets in the truck. Once the loading is done after half an hour, the trucks are dispatched to their destination.
The logistics section has 54 employees that rotate on a 24-hour shift daily. Indeed, BEMIS is a very busy company that must operate daily for 24 hours. It can also be observed that the company has taken all possible efforts to come up with innovative ways to improve both its products and services. Read More