The Challenge

A mid-sized food manufacturer near Graz, Austria ships chilled products on tall, unstable pallets that reach up to 2m in height. The facility manually stretch wrapped around 120 pallets per day, often with irregular and mixed-load configurations.

Manual hand wrapping took 4–5 minutes per pallet, created bottlenecks for forklift drivers, and exposed operators to repetitive strain. To compensate for instability, workers over-applied film, driving up material use and still experiencing film breaks and occasional load shifts during transport.

Manual Process

The previous workflow relied on one dedicated operator, plus forklift drivers waiting in a queue to access the wrapping area. Pallets were wrapped on the floor with manual rolls, walking around the load multiple times.

Before Automation:

• Daily volume: 120 pallets/day
• Cycle time per pallet: 4.5 minutes (including walking, changing rolls, and labeling)
• Total daily time: 120 × 4.5 = 540 minutes (9.0 hours/day)
• Labor cost: 9.0 hours × €25/hour = €225/day
• Rework/issues: About 4 unstable pallets/day needing re-wrapping or extra film

The long cycle time meant a practical throughput of only 13–15 pallets/hour and frequent forklift queues at peak times. To keep tall pallets stable, operators applied extra layers, using roughly 1.2 kg of film per pallet, with little control over consistency.

Automated Solution

The company installed the Rotary Arm Stretch Wrapper RA-1 beside the outbound conveyor, allowing pallets to be placed directly on the floor without ramps. The rotary arm design keeps unstable, tall pallets stationary while wrapping, resolving the safety and quality concerns of turntable systems.

After Installing Rotary Arm Stretch Wrapper RA-1:

• Machine operates at 60% of maximum capacity for reliability
• New cycle time: 2.4 minutes per pallet (including auto-cycle start and film cutting)
• Total daily time: 120 × 2.4 = 288 minutes (4.8 hours/day)
• Labor cost: 4.8 hours × €25/hour = €120/day
• Quality improvement: Rework reduced to <1 pallet/day and film breaks nearly eliminated

At this operating rate, the RA-1 runs at approximately 25 pallets/hour, comfortably within its 25–30 loads/hour capability. One operator can now manage wrapping plus other packaging tasks, while forklift drivers drop and go without queues.

ROI Calculation

The project considered both labor and material savings. By using the RA-1’s 250% pre-stretch, film usage was reduced by around 50%, from 1.2 kg to 0.6 kg per pallet.

Investment:
Machine price: €7,899

Daily labor savings:
Before: 9.0 hours/day × €25/hour = €225/day
After: 4.8 hours/day × €25/hour = €120/day
Labor savings: €225 − €120 = €105/day

Daily film savings:
Film reduction: 0.6 kg/pallet × 120 pallets = 72 kg/day saved
At €1.60/kg film cost: 72 × €1.60 = €115/day

Total daily savings:
Labor €105/day + Film €115/day = €220/day

Monthly savings (22 working days):
€220/day × 22 days = €4,840/month

Payback period:
Machine cost €7,899 ÷ €4,840/month = 1.63 months ≈ 1.6 months

Conclusion

By moving from manual hand wrapping to the Rotary Arm Stretch Wrapper RA-1, the food manufacturer increased effective throughput to 25–30 pallets/hour, eliminated forklift queues, and cut daily wrapping labor time by more than half. At the same time, optimized pre-stretch halved film consumption while improving load stability for tall, unstable pallets.

“The RA-1 has taken us from 9 hours of manual wrapping and frequent forklift queues to less than 5 hours of supervised machine time and almost no rework. Saving around €220 per day in labor and film meant we recovered our investment in under two months.” — Martin H., Operations Manager, AlpenFrisch Foods / Graz, Austria