Abstract: Our market position is based on superior solutions for our customers. Our mission is to increase our customers’ profitability. We develop digital technologies and business solutions based on our experience, our domain know-how of Lifecycle Services, and available data to increase plant productivity in the corrugated packaging industry.
Our customers’ main focus is to produce profitable corrugated packaging. A BHS Corrugated corrugator contributes significantly to this success because it is the “driving force” of a corrugated box plant or sheet feeder. Within recent years, we have found very simple answers to very important questions. Q: What is our purpose of existence? Q: Why are we in the corrugated industry? A: We have a market leading position because we assist to increase our customers’ profitability every single day above peer group level.
Q: What does the vision of BHS Corrugated mean to become the lifecycle company in the digital decade? A: We will use our 60 years of experience in superior corrugator development. We will adapt our 20 years of lifecycle business expertise. We will combine these two main streams of expertise with the technology of digital printing and establish new plant workflows in the industry of our customers. These new workflows will boost plant productivity significantly, and we will use the power of data in the context of corrugated packaging.
More information about the Lifecycle Strategy
iCorr® – the new family of data driven solutions of BHS Corrugated are the starting point to “make data talk”. That is how we inspire our stakeholders to ultimately use the data around us. Simply speaking, reframing data means to gain valuable information in the process of producing corrugated packaging. Dozens of cases have helped us to develop valuable solutions for our customers. From small solutions like predictive condition monitoring to complex products. Projecting the wear of corrugating rolls will become the relevant input for the MRP/ERP systems of our corrugating roll grinding facilities. Today, BHS Corrugated employs 30 data scientists with various skills in the Big Data Lab at our headquarters in Weiherhammer, Germany. Top executives of BHS Corrugated sit right among the scientists to understand the impact of the future data using technologies in more detail.
More information about iCorr®
To be pragmatic, in 2017 we launched the latest BHS Corrugated “workhorse”: the Modul Facer MF-A within the range of the BHS Corrugated Single Facer family. At that time, “A” was the abbreviation for Automatic – not easy to build a truly automatic machine. This year, the meaning of “A” will change to “Assisted” by wearables, next year to “Augmented”, in the years to come “A” will stand for “Autonomous”. In future, the Modul Facer MF-A will actually make its own decisions how to operate best in the context of plant productivity, not corrugator productivity! All this is only possible because we started to invest early enough in our own big data laboratory, hired talents of various professions and built real products with real customer value.
In 2018, we printed in-house on the RSR® (Roll to printed Sheet in Real time) digital printer for the first time – a joint development with SCREEN Holdings, Japan. 2,800 mm working width, 300 m/min. maximum speed, offline, inline, or realtime with the corrugator startup in 2019. The alpha type results are exceeding our expectations, and we will have to prove availability, productivity, and quality of print in the beta phase to come.
We want to thank all our stakeholders who have provided assistance and support to BHS Corrugated for excellent market positioning in a quite challenging and competitive digital printing environment. We would also like to highlight that we do not suffer from legacy of existing technologies and organizations, but can act like a startup company supported by the best technology partners in digital printing.
More information about RSR®
One undeniably important productivity booster in the sector of plant automation is the so-called intralogistic solutions of the future. Starting from completely automated (unmanned) roll truck unloading, followed by AGV (Automated Guided Vehicles) solutions to supply paper rolls with minimum peeling waste to the corrugator. Digital printing in the corrugator will from then on change the intercompany workflow with much shorter lead times for the converting section of a box plant. In addition, robotic application will find a place to market new products here. This business will be built in and around Chicago Electric, US, acquired in 2017. In 2018 we committed ourselves to a sizeable joint venture – BHS Intralogistics with an experienced R&D joint venture partner, close to the headquarters of BHS Corrugated, specialized in vision and navigation control of logistic indoor applications. BHS Intralogistics will benefit from the entry into other markets and will soon promote its brand in the corrugated industry under the roof of the BHS Corrugated group.
More information about BHS Intralogistics
Also in 2018, the Asian markets became of vital importance for BHS Corrugated. BHS Corrugated Singapore is the new South/East Asia headquarters of our group. BHS Corrugated Shanghai continues to serve the markets in Asia with super selling products and the market entry in India was a real success. The existing Shanghai site with 50,000 m2 is reaching its capacity limits, and we have to consider further extensions. BHS Corrugated started up a new satellite re-grinding facility for corrugating rolls in Malaysia – the first out of three to come. We thank all collaborators for the successful inauguration celebrated in Kuala Lumpur in December 2018.
More information about our corrugating rolls production plant in Malaysia
Among the numerous corrugator start-ups throughout the world, we are especially proud to announce the world’s largest corrugated plant start-up by our customer WestRock in Brazil, Porto Felize. The facility with two corrugators on site will soon produce 480 million m2 of corrugated board per year. In terms of planning, logistics, start-up, and operation, it is a project milestone regarding costs per m² of produced board. It shows impressively the top range of corrugators designed by BHS Corrugated, and proves our slogan that one size does not fit all. Consider that many Indian operations successfully supply the BHS Corrugated Steady Line markets with only 60 million m2 per year.
More information about our different corrugator lines
Great thanks to all our employees, customers, and other stakeholders for their trust in and commitment to BHS Corrugated. It was a pleasure to meet you all throughout the year, working together and achieving our goals together. Our special private thanks to all who contributed to the two family foundations “Angels for Children” managing three public schools with 70 teachers and 1,600 children in Laos, and “LUCE” – the Lars and Christian Engel trust supporting the education and scientific environment in our local region.
Respectfully submitted
Christian and Lars Engel