Materials handling company takes on partnerships

Partnering is allowing Richard Simon to use the breadth and depth of their materials handling experience to design and manage complete turnkey projects

Today's rapidly changing market place makes it very difficult for an individual company to stand alone as a comprehensive supplier of materials handling equipment and systems.

Not only is it challenging to offer a comprehensive portfolio of products and services but also vast resources are needed to maintain a leading position whilst ensuring the latest in technology.

However, more customers are now looking for single source suppliers and in certain market sectors they are out-sourcing project management and engineering expertise on an increasing basis.

Richard Simon believes it has found the perfect formula to address these apparently conflicting situations in the form of strategic partnering.

Partnering allows Richard Simon to utilise the breadth and depth of its materials handling experience to design and manage complete turnkey projects.

As Doug Hacking of Richard Simon points out: "We can supply complete systems which provide the most effective solution for the customer and equipment is supplied on the basis of suitability for a specific project.

Our core expertise is in weighing, bagging and pneumatic conveying and although we offer a wide range of our own equipment, we fully appreciate that clear benefits can be gained by working closely with suppliers of other specialist materials handling equipment.

By adopting this partnership approach, we can maintain our leading position in the global field of materials handling." Customer preferences play an important role in the choice of equipment and Richard Simon wants to provide the best solution for its clients.

Alternative solutions are always provided to give the best range of options.

Each partner is carefully chosen for specific skills, expertise and quality of product and customer support capability.

Richard Simon project management experience can then bring together the collective benefits of advanced technology products and engineering 'know how'.

Richard Simon has offices throughout the world and where considered expedient, working partnerships are formed with local suppliers, in some cases achieved by working with our Joint Venture Operations.

Such arrangements eliminate unnecessary consignment costs and help to support local economies.

Richard Simon has created and developed relationships with many respected operators in the materials handling industry, but the focus has moved recently to forming strategic partnerships with key equipment and technology providers.

Such a partnership has just been finalised with OCME, the well known and established supplier of palletizing systems.

The company provide low level machines which operate from a few hundred bags an hour through to high level, high speed machines handling several hundred bags an hour in the cement and building materials industries.

Another example is that formed with MCZ who make a range of Vertical Form Fill and Seal Machinery catering for 500 g packs at 60 a minute, to about 12 bags a minute at 20 kg.

These machines can handle products packed by volume including food, pet foods and horticultural products.

In other cases there are no formal agreements in place, but both parties recognize the mutual benefits of synergy and strength by working together to provide end-users with the solution best suited to their needs, by companies interested in providing a tailored solution and dedicated to long term support.

Such partnerships have twin benefits for Richard Simon.

If partners like OCME or MCZ require weighers and standard bagging machines then they turn to Richard Simon for support.

An excellent example of where Richard Simon has been selected as project manager for a recent handling installation is at Advanced Elastomer Systems Limited in Newport, Gwent.

Richard Simon's long-standing relationship with AES has resulted in it being selected to integrate, manage and oversee the entire process line.

This includes taking full responsibility for the final commissioning and all the site support activities that are necessary in a high profile project on a modern petro-chemical site.

AES are sourcing the bagging machine and palletizer directly from Italian and US manufacturers, these having been selected to be compatible with other equipment already operational at the AES plant.

Richard Simon is supplying a Big Bag and Octabin line together with weighers and support equipment for the automatic line.

The overall system has been designed to be fully flexible and can pack 20/25 kg bags, foil lined octabins and lined FIBC bags from several holding silos.

The Richard Simon gravity fed UBM nett weighers have two-way tipping weighpans feeding into bifurcated discharge chutes, enabling them to feed either the bagging or bulk filling line.

The bagging machine is mounted on rails below the weighers and can be automatically positioned as required.

Filled bags are transported along conveyors, check weighed and fed to the palletiser for consolidation into final pallet loads.

On a separate line, the octabins and FIBC's can be filled, in different combinations, via multiple 25 kg weighments.

There is also the facility to 'flood fill' the octabins during purging of residual material from almost empty silos.

The UBM weighers are controlled by ComputaPak lV controllers linked into the main PLC.

These units provide extensive user flexibility as well as providing complete historic data for weighments.

AES produce high value elastomer materials so it is vitally important that product giveaway is minimised.

On the previous installation that has now been operational for two years, the company is already seeing impressive results and it has been found that product giveaway has been dramatically reduced.

This is resulting in significant cost saving and yield improvements.

By forming worldwide strategic partnerships, Richard Simon can continue to provide first class materials handling solutions to a wide range of industries.

This approach already has an impressive track record and is offering tangible benefits for customers.

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