“Transcontinental has always invested in the latest technologies to ensure its continued growth and better its efficiency with the excellent support of all its staff people,” Olivier said in unveiling new investment for the 500-employee plant in February of 2008.
“We will use this investment to restructure the Boucherville plant to increase its productivity and to maximize its workflow—all to be done according our continuous improvement program.”
Guy Manuel, president of marketing products and services at Imprimeries Transcontinental, says the company expects plenty of improvement in the plant’s end-of-line area once the new palletizing and stretchwrapping equipment get fully broken in.
Set up to palletize two unit loads per hour—each one containing 3,000 printed pieces—the area has been laid out to accommodate an installation of a second conveyor in the event of any future expansion, explains Manuel, who became a strong proponent for the idea of automating palletizing operations after visiting an industry trade-show at the Place Bonaventure exhibition center in Montreal.
“We had seen a demonstration of a palletizing robot equipped with suckers,” Manuel recalls, “and we then questioned the booth staff to find out whether this robot could move freshly-printed pieces, without damaging them, and move stacks of printed pieces of even height.
“When we received a conclusive answer, we started looking for a pallet wrapper that could work with the robot,” says Manuel.
“We eventually chose a Mach 1 unit because of its qualities in terms of reliability, a long life-span, and the sturdiness of its construction.”
As head of maintenance planning at the Boucherville plant, Gilles Lapierre says the new palletizing equipment has transformed the end-of-line work environment beyond recognition.
“Occupational hazards like tendinitis and bursitis were numerous when all that work was done manually,” recounts Lapierre, “but since then, occupational hazards in this plant area have almost disappeared.
“On top of the improved safety aspect,” he expands, “we were able to gain two other key advantages.
“Firstly, the new automated module has provided an immediate productivity gain of 15 per cent, working on the same production schedule,” he explains, “and we got some very important savings in the amount of plastic film used to wrap the same number of pallets, compared to manual wrapping.
“Secondly, only two people are now needed to do the work in this area,” he points out, “compared to eight people used there before to get the job done.”
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