Those who choose to use CMS’ services have the advantage of interfacing with an industrial partner who can put in place a deep expertise, gained by manufacturing mechanical parts and complete constructions of machineries for medium and multinational companies for over forty-five years.
Quality and precision are the features that allowed us to establish ourselves on the market and win the trust of our customers. The future of business is more and more customer oriented, customers are every day at the centre of our processes and this is the reason why we chose to give them a voice and let them tell about CMS.
We dedicate this case history to Unifill Srl, a company specialized in the production of industrial solutions and machines for primary packaging, in particular vertical machines for thermoforming and filling of liquid and semi-dense products. Founded in 1979, Unifill has its operational headquarters in Bomborto in the province of Modena, but it works today in more than 60 countries, with sales offices in China, in the USA and Germany, becoming an international leader in the food industry and beyond.
Who is UNIFILL?
Unifill was awarded as Excellence of the Year 2020 in Innovation & Digitization for packaging solutions by LE FONTI AWARDS and recognized as one of the top 12 Emilian companies as “Best small company with registered office in the province of Modena for management performance and financial reliability” by Industria Felix Magazine and Cerved. Unifill aims at increasing its flexibility and ability to react to customer requests all around the world and it has identified our company as a suitable and reliable industrial partner.
In a market that is more and more changing and challenging every day, it is crucial to rely on a supply chain that is technically prepared and able to meet ever-changing needs.
Our collaboration with UNIFILL Srl
In 2020, CMS got the order of ten “TF-02” vertical machines, for the packaging of cheese in innovative thermoformed single-portion packaging. Peelable with sticks, this packaging is particularly suitable for all those foodstuffs that solidify after filling, such as chocolates, yogurt ice-cream or jellies.
Once the product has solidified, the packaging can be easily opened allowing the consumption directly from the stick, as if it was a lollipop in “street food” mode. It is a product especially addressed to very young consumers: children find these peelable single portions extremely attractive, thanks to their nice graphics. Through different serigraphs, this kind of packaging is ideal to entertain children and make them play with their favourite cartoon characters.
The machines ordered to CMS are plants of significant sizes, with 11 meters length and 3-4 meters width, according to the type of stick handling. The size of the machineries did not represent a problem: CMS is the ideal partner for tailor-made solutions. According to the Customer’s specifications, CMS satisfies any customization with precision and accuracy.
CMS processed the order in compliance with Unifill documentation, making its experience available for the project refinement.
The production process
In the start-up phase of the order, the analysis of critical issues played a key role. It is a crucial tool in any process, which we use to plan activities, identify any possible risk and take preventive actions: inside these machines there is a pressure vessel, whose construction requires a specific certification, the Pressure Equipment Directive (PED). It is a directive about the design, the construction and the installation of pressure equipment according to specific safety standards.
We took the opportunity to increase our skills, starting the necessary process to realize this component internally and certifying it in compliance to current law. This led to a positive evolution of our relationship with the Customer, giving the opportunity to CMS to expand its operativity in different sectors.
We chose to offer a complete service, synergistically managing all the supply chain flows to assist Unifill in its business expansion: in a lead-time of 4 months, CMS performed the documentation analysis, the production of the main draw components, the supply chain management for the remaining parts and the assembly of these 10 complete machines, preparing them for functional tests on board the machines. During tests – which lasted about one month – CMS offered its assistance to Unifill technicians. The software was completely installed by the latter, for intellectual and industrial property protection.
Delivery of the machines
Once produced, assembled and tested, the machines were shipped to an integrated industrial logistics hub to be sent overseas.
We believe that this project has been successful and it has created a high-value relationship with the Customer.
CMS operated as an extension of Unifill, thanks to its consolidated supply chain and its quality standards developed over years of activity in the food packaging industry. Maximum attention was paid to traceability and food contact material, according to current legislation.
Offering Unifill a 360 ° service and supporting it at every stage with tailor-made solutions, we began cooperating together and with good results: our commercial contract did not end with this batch completion but we got the order of one more batch of further 10 machines in 2021.
Dr. Davide Sartini, Unifill Vice President Sales & Marketing, comments on the start of the partnership with CMS as follows:
“In recent years, Unifill has experienced a deep digital and sustainable transformation that has led to a complete company reorganization as well as a significant economic growth. This important transition coincided with an unexpected peak demand, in particular from the Asian market. Some markets are so fast that they must be caught immediately, sometimes you do not have even time to react: you just must say yes.
As a result, Unifill had two choices: either deciding to structure itself to cope with the wave, increasing fixed costs, or finding a partner who could support it.
I opted for this second option: I thought the best choice was relying on a packaging industry’s module supplier. I feared that sudden growth could be a bubble, a temporary peak and, in this case, it would have been deeply wrong structuring the company according to potentially unstable quantities. We opted to find an alternative channel, shifting the curve of costs on variable ones, always keeping under control profitability indexes. I started scouting in order to identify possible suppliers able to follow us in this project. CMS was on the list with two competitors and it finally won the order, for several reasons:
Not only geographical proximity and economic competitiveness but, above all, the technical quality of the company and its ability to absorb any fluctuations in demand and significant productivity increases: CMS is equipped with several assembly plants, an important fleet of machineries, a well-structured and equipped production department, able to cope with possible emergencies during assembly or pieces reworking.
We ordered the first 10 machines in April 2020 and after just 6 months we received the first 6 ones. In my opinion it was certainly a success. CMS was the right choice and my team in Unifill recognized it right away.
The relationship I had with CMS staff was very good, both from a technical and a commercial point of view. During my weekly inspections to check the activities progress, the company staff always welcomed me with politeness and availability. I can only thank CMS; it has proved to be an extremely useful and valuable partner. This is the Customer-Supplier relationship that Unifill is looking for: CMS has not only proved to be a reliable supplier but I believe it is the pure essence of a partner you can rely on for a complete supply-chain management.
And now we work for the future.
It is a difficult time, unfortunately Covid-19 has modified geopolitical and geo-economic assets, putting supply chains and economy to the test. We are at a turning point in history, in the next decade packaging will undergo deep changes due to digital transformation, ecological transition and new consumption trends but we look to the future with trust and optimism.
Aware to have by our side not only a supplier, but a new ally on the market”.
WRITER
