Package Production Efficiency

HiFlow MIS for Established Packaging Provider

By Cassandra Balentine, DPS Magazine 

Packaging applications represent a steady business for capable print providers. However, like other segments of print, customer demands are evolving. For many, this means more frequent, shorter and complex runs. While the equipment is able to handle this type of work, it can become inefficient and expensive to produce without proper workflow.

 Specialized software helps to automate the process, eliminate human touch points, and better communicate with customers, allowing package converters to handle an increased number of smaller jobs at a bigger profit. MTC Poland Sp. z.o.o. is headquartered Vienna, Austria with printing house in Pruszków, Poland. It supplies Poland and exports to more than 25 countries including Europe, Scandinavia, and the U.S. factory in Pruszków employs a staff of 85.

 “We are family-owned company with a modern equipped production site with all necessary quality certificates implemented—BRC IoP, HCCP, and GMP,” says Lukasz Szczepanski, CFO, MTC Poland. “Our goal is to establish a long-lasting, strategic partnership with our valuable customers,” comments Szczepanski. 

To do this, MTC consistently delivers high-quality packaging work and offers a variety of printing and finishing technologies. Among its offerings, the company converts blister packaging for pharmaceutical, provides laminates and specialized foils for cosmetic packaging, as well as thermoformed packaging, rotogravure printing, magazine sachets, and specialized products like Easy Snap packaging. It serves global leading brands. MTC Polska is part of the MTC Holding Group, family owned company, which was founded in 1986 in Vienna. Group branches are present in six countries—Austria, Croatia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia. The MTC Polska company was established in 1993 in Warsaw. Reliable Equipment, Software To support its range of packaging applications, MTC employs rotogravure printing machines, HD flexography printing machines, lamination machines with solvent based, two component adhesives, and slitting and die cutting machines. 

The package printer is able to produce very low order quantity—minimum order quantities in pharmaceutical are five to ten kilograms and for cosmetics 250 square meters as well as long runs of more than 100 000 square meters. Its rotogravure printing process allows for up to nine-color printing to enable high-precision, centered prints, double-sided prints, high-quality prints, and small production lots. It’s two-color flexographic capabilities enable the packaging provider to produce work with up to two colors for very small production lots with high precision of centered prints and a high-quality printing possibility. Its eight-color flexographic equipment also allows for very small production lots with a high precision of centered prints and high-quality HD printing. Its lamination equipment allows for the finishing of aluminum foil and plastics solvent-based water-based—or solvent-free lamination—and well as internal print lamination.

In addition to its equipment investments, the company finds success with the HiFlow software solution. HiFlow Solutions provides MIS/MES systems designed to help label and packaging manufacturers and printers operate more efficiently and profitably. The company provides a full range of consulting, implementation, and machine integration services using the latest information and communication technologies to increase efficiency, productivity, and profitability. MTC started the process of selecting a new MIS system due to the ending support of its old system as well as the need to expand the system with new functionalities, such as the ability to add the lamination process. The package printer selected HiFlow because it had most of the required functionalities, as well as it met the functionalities required by its demanding clients from the pharmaceutical industry. “Not all software vendors were able to meet these requirements,” states Szczepanski. 

“HiFlow provides MTC with comprehensive service of orders, from the acceptance of the order to the departure of the finished product to the customer,” he offers. Szczepanski says all of its processes are currently supported by the system, enabling the company to have easy access to them. “The efficiency of the analysis of the entire process is now much easier,” he concludes.

To meet the specific and evolving needs of its pharmaceutical and cosmetic client base, MTC enlists the help of powerful MIS tools to streamline the process to ensure quality and efficiency from order entry to delivery.  Oct 2020, DPS Magazine