This is the story of how Solema, on the heels of its Paperboard division’s 10th anniversary, took on a unique and exciting challenge proposed by one of its long-term partners, P.H. Mountain Corrugated Ltd, a British firm celebrating 25 years in business.
Stable, long-term client partnerships are very important for a firm like ours. Better still, if they lead to mutual satisfaction, inspiring us to keep doing what we do with passion and professionalism, serving as a testament to the reliability that has always been the basis of our work.
Today, we'd like to tell you about a partnership between Solema and P.H. Mountain Corrugated Ltd, a British company founded in 1999 in Louth, Lincolnshire, that has achieved concrete and great results for 25 years. We will also tell you about the unique and exciting challenge they proposed.
P.H. Mountain: a great firm that has flourished, also thanks to us
P.H. Mountain Corrugated Ltd is a British firm that has long term specialization in high-quality packaging, mainly corrugated board partitions and box dividers.
In 2024, P.H. Mountain will celebrate 25 years in business, making this a landmark anniversary. And since Solema has always been their trusted machinery supplier, we also feel part of this achievement. We’d also like to point out that P.H. Mountain was the first company to invest in our Uni.Co machine, blindly believing in its potential. The one sent to Lincolnshire back in 2021 was, in fact, the first prototype of this particular machine, which now boasts 15 models worldwide.
The post-pandemic surge in orders and the need for more space
The 25th anniversary marks not only an important and well-deserved milestone for P.H. Mountain but also the conclusion of an important period of expansion that began in Spring 2022, straight after the pandemic-related stop, subsequently followed by a huge surge in client demand.
The extra work, which led to a rapid rise in orders, meant that P.H. Mountain had to find a new production site in the summer of 2022, since the existing premises were too cramped to handle the numerous inbound requests.
The new facility, located just a few kilometres from the previous one, was completed in a matter of months, and by February 2023, P.H. Mountain was ready to start moving its offices and all machines.
Not the simplest of tasks, because while the offices could be dealt with by a good moving company, the machines, on the other hand, along with all the relative mechanical and electrical equipment, would require the help of whoever installed those machines in the first place.
From the old to the new facility in record time: the challenge we accepted
And so, who better than Solema to help transfer all the machinery in as little time as possible? P.H. Mountain had a very clear objective: to identify, in record time, a specific machine layout for the new location that would ensure optimised production and guarantee the best possible work flow.
Solema immediately accepted the challenge.
After a few meetings between the two work teams, a study was conducted on how to best position the machines at the new site in such a way that would optimise the production flow to the max, identifying the ideal positioning of each single machine.
The Solema team, supervised by the Project Manager, Giuseppe Liguori, immediately got to work. The challenge was both exciting and demanding at the same time: moving the equipment as quickly as possible, minimising downtime and loss of production as expressly requested by P.H. Mountain.
Three machines to place in-line in a specially designed layout
In practice, this meant relocating three Solema machines to the new production space: the Uni.Co, a modular machine for cutting solid and corrugated cardboard, the Andax, a machine for the automatic assembly of corrugated board partitions, and the Roda Gandria, a machine for cutting corrugated cardboard.
Following an on-site inspection and thorough examination of the available space (area and floor plans), Solema engineers conducted extensive studies that resulted in an ad hoc layout proposal, indicating the positioning of the machines and their possible combinations to make best use of the space and ensure optimum programming of the production flow.
The layout considered the production line composed as follows: first the Roda Gandria for cardboard cutting, then the UNICO, which transforms and converts the cardboard into partition elements, and lastly the Andax, which assembles the elements and transforms them into partitions, which, once assembled, are palletised, shrink-wrapped and loaded for shipment.
Solema also looked after the dismantling and reassembly of the machines from the old to the new production facility.
A successful operation, executed on time.
A successful operation to mark the 10-year anniversary of the Paperboard division
This experience allowed Solema to leverage on the expertise of our Graphicart division, carried over to the Paperboard division.
This demonstrates the importance of the designing work that Solema offers through the technical skills of the sales department and other departments of the company, which are thus capable of offering a unique consultancy service based on the client's specific needs, proposing customised solutions that go above and beyond the standard, with tailor-made designs and systems.
A successful operation to mark the 10-year anniversary of the Paperboard division and the perfect testimony to our corporate mission: to customise layouts according to client needs.
What Nick Mountain, Sales Director of P.H. Mountain, had to say
To better understand the importance of the partnership between Solema and P.H. Mountain and, more specifically, this particular operation, we asked Nick Mountain, Managing Director at P.H. Mountain, to tell us his impressions about the move and give us some behind-the-scenes insight. Here’s what he had to say:
Nick’s reply:
“Over the years we have enjoyed significant growth, and Solema have played a crucial role in this success. We decided to take a gamble and invest in the Uni.Co, which at the time was a world first, as we had full trust that the team at Solema had developed an industry leading solution which would help take our business to the next level, at a time where our demand outweighed our supply. This decision turned out to be a turning point in our company’s history and we haven’t looked back since.
I think it is testament to the products and service Solema provide that we now operate a factory with 100% Solema machinery. We have found a fantastic supplier that understands the direction we are heading in, and will support us in any way they possibly can. The move to our new factory was a great example of this. From the minute the engineer arrived on site he had one goal, and that was to get our machines moved as quickly as possible. We would not have been able to do this without the help of Solema.”
The success of the operation was also acknowledged by Paperboard International, the most renowned industry publication, which published an article in the April issue featuring an interview with Nick Mountain.
For more information on Solema, write to info@solema.it or call us on +39 035 654111.