Automation, robotics and Lean Manufacturing are all the stated rage in manufacturing these days, and Lemu Group is walking the talk.

The company, which now boasts a North American sales and service team, has significantly invested in research and development to address the common refrain of, “We’ve always done it this way.” Lemu Group’s product range has the potential to accommodate faster line speeds and total uptime while eliminating waste and the usual required non-technical manpower.

Lemu Group’s GTU “roll to box” system, for example, can often outpace two flexo presses with automated functions and less manpower as it runs at twice the line speed with one operator. This can free up capacity throughout the facility.

“People are caught in a paradigm and say, ‘Well, we’ve always done it this way, so it must be right.’ Maybe we need to rethink the model of how we manufacture,” explains Andre Beaudoin, who leads Lemu Group USA’s sales and marketing team. “The current process works and there’s product going out the door, but companies can’t do that forever. Manufacturing is going to start getting harder because label converters’ customers want more production and they want lower prices. Therefore, you have to start looking at label production from a Lean Manufacturing standpoint and invest in efficient equipment built for today and tomorrow.”

According to Beaudoin, Lemu Group’s automation technology allows one operator to control an entire converting system from unwind to closed addressed box. In fact, an operator can run two systems. The process involves winding and ejection, whereby a conveyor carries the product downstream to a shrink tunnel or to a collection center. Once there, a robotic arm grabs the rolls and places them into pre-constructed boxes – which are also built through automation. The box is built, taped on the bottom, and the mechanical arm fills the box to capacity with the number of rolls it can accommodate. The box is then sealed, marked with an address label and taken off to a palletizer.

“We have installations around the globe where we have one operator running two systems,” notes Beaudoin. “That’s how easy these system and turret rewinders are, because the systems are totally intuitive. They know based on the roll diameter that’s being ejected because everything is tied in to a central HMI. The conveyors know when to speed up and when to slow down based on the spacing and the timing of the rolls based on their diameter. It’s an amazing thing to watch, it really is.”

In many cases, operators are forced to reduce line speeds to account for the slowdown in manpower at the back end of the press. By automating the process, operators can run the press and converting equipment at its maximum speeds.

“With automation – and this is where we differ from everybody else – we can remove the three people slowing down the process at the end of the press,” says Beaudoin. “They can then be redeployed elsewhere in your facility and you’re running at twice the speed than you normally could have run because one man is operating that entire system. The operator, who’s the artist, is handling the entire press run because that’s where the money’s being made, but he’s got to slow that line speed down. He can’t run 500 fpm, as he’s probably got to back it down to 300-400 fpm, to account for the manual labor at the end of the press. This greatly decreases the amount of finished work you’re able to produce off the end of a production line, for every shift of every day of every week.

“A lot of facilities have a cookie-cutter look, featuring a butt splicer, a press, a buffer unit, a turret, and then the three guys standing there,” adds Beaudoin. “They stop in between cycles and one’s pulling the rolls that are ejected off the turret and someone’s trying to build a box. That’s if they don’t have to shrink wrap the rolls first and then put them in the box and seal it. You then have to get an address label made, slap it on the box and walk it over to a pallet. If you have 20 lines, and you’ve got three people standing at the end of every line, you might have 60-75 people standing around your facility consider the overhead.”

By automating label converting, there is also the opportunity to better handle the workforce challenge faced by so many companies today. Label printers can do more with less as their production lines become increasingly automated.

Lemu Group, which has been in business for 45 years, boasts more than 1,100 installations across the globe. With just several units installed in North America, the company made the strategic decision to expand into North America to further Lemu’s presence in the narrow web label market and the move has been well received.

While Lemu Group had been limited to promoting its equipment at tradeshows and over the phone, the Lemu Group USA branch provides a new resource for label converters.

Lemu Group has also partnered with Martin Automatic as its go-to partner. “Most of the plants I’m working with put a Martin Automatic butt splicer on the back end,” states Beaudoin. “By putting a Martin Automatic butt splicer on the end, you don’t even really need to stop the machine. You just need to make sure you’re keeping your ink wells filled and paper is available.”

Lemu Group will often collaborate with their customers to design modular solutions that are tailored to their customers’ individual needs. “What we’re doing is talking to the customer and listening to their problems, not just throwing a bunch of brochures at them and telling everybody how great we are with an off-the-shelf solution. We are talking to the converter principal and providing a workable solution with a fast ROI. Their success is our success.

“We have customers running 24/7 and 24/6, where the automation doesn’t stop,” he adds. “They’re handling pressure sensitive materials, including synthetics, films and POS rolls. I’m even working with a company doing plotter vinyls and unusal applications that are not in the traditional label business. Interestingly, our roll label automation is not only for use on our equipment but is easily adaptable to any other brand or press or turret.”