EFI releases Packaging Suite 4.0

Packaging Suite 4.0 includes an expanded offering of certified integrations that optimize business and production operations for label and packaging converters. The release expands EFI's offering to include 20 certified workflows that provide ‘unprecedented levels’ of business and production automation geared toward real-world label and package converting environments, according to EFI.

Each certified workflow combines the core EFI Radius ERP technology with modular, integrated components from EFI's portfolio, as well as with key third-party technologies, such as Esko's Automation Engine.

Key features among the advancements in Packaging Suite 4.0 include:

• Significant workflow enhancements for film extrusion and flexible packaging converting, including enhanced support for extrusion and lamination processes with better recording and tracking of weights throughout the core Radius ERP component.
• The EFI Dynamic Intelligent Estimating and Planning component with advanced CRM and job planning capabilities for folding cartons. The component's intuitive, browser-based interface and flexibility to match equipment and processes make it fast and easy to implement and use for fast, accurate and consistent estimates regardless of the user's experience level. It also delivers smart, automated production planning using the most cost-efficient job path.
• Role-based widgets for estimators and customer service representatives in a new Packaging Suite Workbench - a centralized collection of role-based widgets that are defined by user type with an interface that helps estimators and customer service personnel achieve maximum productivity.

Further, packaging operations are able to configure their individual Packaging Suite workflow to address the specific production management needs for products they offer, including labels, shrink sleeves, in-mold labels, flexible packaging, blown film extrusion products and folding cartons.

David Taylor, general manager of the enterprise segment within EFI Productivity Software business unit, said: ‘The Packaging Suite takes complexities out of the software implementation process, improving the day-to-day experience for users in their end-to-end label and packaging converting workflows. Converters and the brands they serve will benefit from key advancements in customer engagement and management, order acquisition, scheduling production, data collection, and financial and business reporting.’

 ‘As an early adopter of Packaging Suite 4.0, we have been able to accelerate our flexible packaging and film extrusion workflow,’ explained Ann Meredith, systems analyst at SPR Packaging in Rockwall, Texas. ‘Packaging Suite lets us purchase and track resins using weight-based units, while being able to review job based activity in lengths or counts when it makes sense. Making this data available in additional units within the software is a requirement for many flexible packaging enterprises and just one example of how EFI continues to evolve its offering to help our industry work more accurately and efficiently.’

Firstan, a UK manufacturer of pharmaceutical, healthcare and specialist food carton packaging, also utilizes Packaging Suite, and its managing director, Andrew Hartwig, said: ‘The big plus is the data capture and planning. We are able to see the capacity we are using on the factory floor, looking at overtime, holidays, and so on for planning. We use it for purchases and factory management. We can now make accurate quotations and know that the margins we aim for are what we will actually get.’

Packaging converters' workflows also gain with easier implementation of upgrades to Packaging Suite, thanks to synchronized delivery of validated and certified software updates.

‘In the past, adding or upgrading a business workflow usually meant packaging converters had to endure a significant amount of custom IT work, slowing implementation, and - in some instances - limiting use of features they had purchased,’ said Taylor. ‘Our synchronized delivery framework gives converters a faster route to success, and a greater ROI as they expand and customise their workflows to address new markets or tackle important business challenges.’