BlueSword adds new "green" to cigarette distribution

Photo by Li Xiaoming

In Yangzhou City Bureau (company) logistics distribution center, the cloth bag automated packaging sorting line is running in an orderly trial.

Photo by Li Xiaoming

Cloth bag packaging

The distribution packaging used by tobacco commercial enterprises to distribute cigarettes to retail customers is mainly in two forms: one is heat shrink film, which is a one-time packaging form; one is crates, including soft plastic crates and hard plastic crates.

Among them, heat shrink film is a non-biodegradable material, although convenient to use, but not in line with the concept of green development; crates, although convenient for storage and distribution of cigarettes, but the loading rate is low, according to statistics, the industry using crates for distribution loading rate is generally 60% to 70%.

So, is there a form of packaging that can meet the demand of cigarette distribution, but also meet the concept of green development, and can greatly improve the loading rate?

Now, in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, this is gradually becoming a reality. By Yangzhou Tobacco Monopoly Bureau (Company) and Shandong BlueSword Logistics Technology Co., Ltd. jointly innovative research and development of cloth bag type cigarette packaging, a blend of the advantages of two forms of packaging, heat-shrinkable film and crates, in the tobacco industry is the first of its kind.

（一）

Photo by Zhang Jian

On the way to delivery, Wang Yibing (center) to understand the use of cloth bags and feedback from retail customers.

In 2013, the industry logistics site will propose the implementation of cigarette packaging box recovery and recycling, advocate low-carbon environmental protection, construction of green logistics.

"The cloth bag packaging idea came from a chance flash of inspiration." When the reporter asked the original creative source of the subject, Yangzhou City Bureau (company) cigarette logistics distribution center deputy director Wang Yibing said that since green logistics has become a hot topic of discussion in the industry, he has been paying attention to information in this regard. At an industry logistics seminar, he learned that a commercial company used cloth bags to distribute shaped cigarettes, but could only pack them manually, not automatically.

Wang Yibing suddenly inspired, can the use of cloth bags to pack conventional cigarettes, and automated packaging it?

From then on, Wang Yibing began to collect cases and materials related to cloth bag packaging. Through research, he found that more than 80% of the industry units use heat-shrinkable film packaging, but very little recycling.

In August 2013, Wang Yibing went to Jinan, Shandong Province, to attend a logistics seminar. In the meantime, he met Shen Changpeng, assistant president and general manager of marketing center of Shandong BlueSword Company.

Shandong BlueSword Company is an early group of domestic logistics field into the consulting, planning and design, software development, equipment manufacturing, system integration as one of the overall solution providers, its business scope covers warehousing, sorting, distribution, management and other logistics construction and operation of many aspects.

The use of cloth bag automated packaging for cigarette distribution is a brand new area for industry logistics. The feasibility and foresight of cloth bag packaging, Wang Yibing and Shen Changpeng two are very excited to discuss in detail.

"We have developed and produced soft plastic crates automatic packaging equipment. Cloth bag packaging in the realization of the concept and soft plastic crates have similarities, but cloth bag packaging will be more difficult, because it is soft, not good control." Shen Changpeng said, this is a new subject, they have the ability to break the problem.

This communication exchange has encouraged Wang Yibing. After returning from Jinan, he immediately made a special report to the leadership team of Yangzhou City Bureau (company).

"The innovative implementation of cloth bag packaging, on the one hand, in line with the trend of green development, can produce good social benefits; on the other hand, it can save energy and reduce costs, which is conducive to enhancing business efficiency." Yangzhou City Bureau (company) director and manager Zhou Qiang Hua told reporters that this innovation, the leadership team fully support.

At the same time, Shen Changpeng also reported to the leadership of Shandong BlueSword Company. Eventually, they decided to set up a research project team with Yangzhou City Bureau (Company) on the subject and carry out technical research together.

（二）

BlueSword Company Contribution

In the assembly workshop of Shandong BlueSword Company, the "Green Three" finished assembling and came off the line.

Just after the National Day 2013, Shandong BlueSword Company sent Shen Changpeng and Chief Designer Li Guangyong to lead the project team to Yangzhou City Bureau (Company) Cigarette Logistics Distribution Center, and the two sides had a more in-depth discussion on the cloth bag packaging project.

Yangzhou City Bureau (Company) Cigarette Logistics and Distribution Center has 4 electronic label manual assisted sorting lines, with an annual sorting volume of about 170,000 cases, using heat shrinkable film packaging. In order not to affect the normal cigarette sorting and distribution work, the Yangzhou Bureau (Company) selected one of the sorting lines for equipment renovation.

In the opinion of Xu Chong, director of the cigarette logistics distribution center of Yangzhou City Bureau (Company), there are two difficulties in this project: first, the development of automated equipment to replace the heating part of the heat shrink film packaging equipment at the end of the existing sorting line, which means that from the stacking link backwards, it is a new set of equipment and operation mode; second, the material and form of the cloth bag, which needs to meet the attributes of long service life, easy to fill cigarettes, reusable, and can be matched with the automated equipment to match.

In terms of bags, Yangzhou City Bureau (company) and Shandong BlueSword company has designed a "sleeve" type, "elastic" type, "schoolbag" type, " box" type and other forms.

"These cloth bag form each has its own characteristics, and finally comprehensive consideration, we decided to use the 'schoolbag' type." Li Guangyong explained that the "schoolbag" type bags are more conducive to all-round protection of cigarettes, while easier to match the equipment, more convenient for folding recovery.

Subsequently, Yangzhou City Bureau (company) cigarette logistics distribution center ordered 20 bags for testing. The bags are made of canvas, army green, 29 cm long and 45 cm wide, and can hold up to 25 cigarettes after being opened.

After the basic determination of the cloth bag form, the project team began to focus on how to achieve the problem of automated packaging - the development of cloth bag automatic packaging machine.

According to reports, the earliest automatic packaging idea is the "mold box" idea, that is, the cloth bag propped open, set into the mold box, the sorted stack of 1 to 25 cigarettes pushed into the mold box, and then pushed into the cloth bag, six mold box like a wheel rotation.

In March 2014, in line with this idea, Shandong BlueSword developed the first generation of cloth bag packaging machine "Green One". "The first generation of cloth bag packaging machine covers an area of nearly 70 square meters, noise in more than 100 decibels, the efficiency of 8 seconds / package." Shen Changpeng said, "Green One" success in research and development, proving that the cloth bag automated packaging is fully achievable.

However, after the excitement, they fell into thinking. Whether it is the footprint or the amount of noise, are not in line with the Yangzhou City Bureau (company) cigarette logistics distribution center work reality.

In May 2014, Shandong BlueSword Company developed "Green No. 2" and continued to optimize the equipment - reducing the number of mold boxes to 3 and reducing the noise of the equipment; adding two positioning rods to the bag tray and improving the automatic bag loading device. The "Green II" covers an area of 60 square meters, and the noise is controlled at about 90 decibels.

The large footprint and noise are caused by the mold box device. After the successful development of two generations of packaging machines, the project team began to think about whether to adjust the idea of switching to "lifting the bag - support the bag - fill the bag - seal the bag" mode?

Through repeated arguments, experiments, in April 2015, Shandong BlueSword overturned the previous design concept, the abolition of the mold box device, the transformation to a simple "grab bag propping bag" structure, "Green Three" developed successfully.

On August 17, 2015, the day is still fresh in the memory of Ding Qiyong, the equipment manager of Yangzhou City Bureau (Company) Cigarette Logistics and Distribution Center: "Green No. 3" was delivered to the operation site of the logistics and distribution center, docked to No. 1 sorting line, and officially entered the commissioning stage.

（三）

Photo by Zhang Jian

Li Jialing, a sorter, is palletizing the cigarettes packed in cloth bags.

At 4:00 p.m. on April 11, the reporter came to Yangzhou City Bureau (Company) Cigarette Logistics Distribution Center and saw the "Green Three" automatic packaging equipment that had been put into use - covering an area of about 15 square meters, less than 2 meters high and with very little noise, the cigarettes were automatically stacked into small piles of 1 to 5 layers and pushed by a pusher into the packaging equipment. ～At the other end of the equipment, the packets are sealed and labeled automatically.

The sorter, Li Jialing, stands at the output end of the cloth bag automatic packaging machine and packs the bags of cigarettes with a disposable packer and then neatly packs them onto the tray.

From February 29, Yangzhou City Bureau (company) for the city's key retail customers to carry out a week-long promotion of the use of cloth bag packaging to listen to the views of retail customers, to seek customer cooperation.

From March 7, they selected a distribution line with 660 retail customers in Yizheng city to try out the cloth bag packaging distribution of cigarettes.

More than a month has passed, how is the effect of cloth bag packaging? Retail customers and what is the response?

The morning of April 12, the reporter followed the delivery clerk Zhou Bixia experienced a "cloth bag delivery.

"Today's delivery of 97 households, 2600 cigarettes, a total of 124 packs." On the road, Zhou Bixia told reporters that, compared with the previous heat-shrinkable film packaging, cloth bags have many advantages, but still need to solve some problems.

For example, before the heat-shrinkable film wrapped cigarettes can be handed over to the retail customer, now need to be poured into the retail customer to prepare the storage container, which gives the delivery staff to increase the "pouring finishing" work link, the average delivery time increased by nearly an hour.

"New things, there must be a process of perfection." Turning to the topic, Zhou Bixia explained that the cigarette logistics distribution center has also taken specific measures to solve these problems -

They developed the cloth bag packaging distribution operation process, improved the customer handover, finishing cigarettes, cloth bag recycling and other work standards, the delivery staff operating time from the initial increase of 3 hours to reduce to 1 hour; for the customer storage inconvenience, the issue of cartons and temporary recovery of cloth bags in two forms, to maintain retail customer satisfaction at more than 90%.

At 9:10, the delivery truck arrived at Qingxing Commercial Bank in Zhenzhou Town, Yizheng City.

"Here it comes!" The owner Song Qiang stood at the door, smiling and greeting, taking out several empty cartons.

"Boss Song, you have ordered 295 cigarettes, please check." Zhou Bixia moved nimbly to put the 12 cloth bags of cigarettes into the empty cartons in an orderly manner.

In less than 3 minutes, Zhou Bixia finished handing over the cigarettes with Song Qiang, and the delivery truck drove to the next retail customer's store. At 1:30 p.m., all 97 retail customers' cigarettes were delivered.

During the delivery process, the reporter heard some complaints from individual retail customers about the storage of cigarettes, but heard more affirmation of the tobacco company's innovative initiatives and support for the green development of logistics and distribution.

（四）

Cartography by Huo Dongmei

Cloth bag with heat shrink film, crate packaging cost comparison.

Practice has proved that the effective implementation of any innovative activity is inseparable from the participation of the masses, and even more so from the support of the decision-making level of the enterprise, as well as the relevant process specifications and institutional safeguards. Yangzhou City Bureau (Company)'s cloth bag type cigarette packaging and distribution project is no exception.

From the very beginning, the project was identified as a municipal innovation project by the Yangzhou Municipal Bureau (Company).

In 2014, the Party Group of Jiangsu Provincial Tobacco Monopoly Bureau (Company) clearly defined the development strategy of "industry model", and "standardization, innovation and development" became the main theme of Jiangsu tobacco commercial system, with policy-oriented, strategy-oriented, demand-oriented and problem-oriented becoming the driving force of innovation. The policy-oriented, strategic-oriented, demand-oriented and problem-oriented has become the power source of the innovation work.

Since last year, the Logistics Management Division of Jiangsu Provincial Bureau (Company) has given full recognition to this municipal innovation project, and the comrades in charge have visited Yangzhou City Bureau (Company) several times to investigate the implementation progress of the project.

In January this year, Jiangsu Provincial Bureau (company) system work conference, Yangzhou City Bureau (company) cloth bag packaging and automatic bagging equipment design project upgraded to provincial innovation topics.

Leadership affirmation and support, coupled with the continuous achievements of the R & D project, so that Wang Yibing and colleagues are more motivated and passionate.

"The cloth bag material is green and non-polluting, the packaging process is low energy consumption, and the handover is convenient and fast." Wang Yibing to the reporter to calculate an account -

Cloth bag packaging compared with heat-shrinkable film packaging, a heat-shrinkable film packaging cost in 0.32 ~ 0.34 yuan, cloth bag reuse times can reach 300 ~ 500 times, the cost of 0.13 ~ 0.08 yuan, saving 24 kilowatts of electricity consumption per hour. Calculated in accordance with the scale of distribution of Yangzhou tobacco, each year can reduce 65 tons of plastic film consumption, save 90,000 kilowatt hours of electricity consumption, saving packaging costs of more than 600,000 yuan.

Compared with cloth bag packaging and crate packaging, the loading rate of hard plastic crates is about 60%, which can be reused about 300 to 500 times, and the cost of each package is about 0.10 yuan, which is similar to cloth bag packaging, but the loading rate of cloth bag packaging can reach more than 90%, and the delivery cost is more than 40% lower than hard plastic crates; soft plastic crates can be reused 150 to 200 times, and the cost of each package is about 0.25 yuan, loading rate of up to 75%, the cost is still much higher than the cloth bag packaging.

Some people may say that the effect of cloth bag packaging is good, but the preliminary investment of more money. In this regard, Yangzhou City Bureau (company) made a brilliant move to achieve the cloth bag "zero cost.

"At present, we have ordered 1000 bags for trial runs. In the future, after the completion of the technical transformation of the logistics center, about 30,000 bags are needed." Yangzhou City Bureau (company) deputy manager Teng Yang told reporters that they implemented a "bag advertising space for bags" program, that is, cooperation with a brand of liquor manufacturers, in the bag for its 3-year advertising, in exchange for 30,000 bags, so the cost savings of 1.2 million yuan.

This can also be said to be for non-tobacco business logistics to explore a path.

For the future development, they have a new idea - "Internet + logistics": develop a mobile client APP, installed on the smart phones of retail customers, while installing a chip on the cloth bag, after sorting and sealing the bag, through the system scan point to point After sorting and sealing, the chip is sent to the APP, and the retail customers are informed 10 minutes in advance to be ready for receiving the goods, and the satisfaction and cooperation of the retail customers are further improved through the form of electronic signature.

This is Yangzhou City Bureau's (the company) cloth-bagged cigarette packaging and distribution project - an innovative practice to crack development problems, explore lean management, and strive to improve quality and efficiency, and a concrete action to implement the five development concepts. The successful implementation of this project has added another "green" to the industry logistics.