Interview with Lars Engel, Managing Director of BHS Corrugated Maschinen at FEFCO 2023.
We are here at FEFCO. How do you like the show?
I like it very much; the attendance is great. I think it’s a big success for FEFCO and the organization. As you know, we are a big supporter of FEFCO, so we are happy to see so many guests and friends here in Lyon.
What are the future challenges for the corrugated industry?
The future challenges are of course to be competitive against this new political mainstream that reuse is better than recycling. This is for sure the biggest challenge right now for the industry, and we need to win this challenge together.
We want to ask you about your innovation. How can the Box Plant 2025 face these challenges?
Well, with the Box Plant 2025 we are totally rethinking the corrugated industry. Today, for example, when you take lead times, it is quite antiquated. It takes two weeks to process an order. If you come to the Box Plant 2025 concept, we think in orders to be delivered within two days, because everything becomes digital, from the workflow to the digital print, to not being labor intensive. So, this is a totally new concept, and we invite our customers to discuss with us, to plan it, to make it live.
What role does AI play in the Box Plant 2025?
In the Box Plant 2025, artificial intelligence plays a big role. Well, I don’t like buzzwords, but you need to use the new technologies to make the life within the box plant better, more predictable. The systems need to make their own decisions, and that’s where algorithms, where mathematics, statistics, and machine learning become real.
Also, did we understand that in the future robots will work at all corrugated factories and people will remain only at the factory? Is it like that?
Well, I would not go that far, but for sure, within 2025 we plan to reduce the amount of labor by approximately 50%.
How can BHS Corrugated face the problem of sustainable demand of packaging and at the same time keep the ecological production process?
If you think about it, if you digitize the print in line with the corrugator, you can reduce the grammages of the papers, so you can make every box lighter. And by going lighter, you improve the CO2 footprint of every box. So, it becomes much more ecological and economical together. At the same time, if you think about the today’s analog printing process, it is at the end of its life cycle. The digital print, especially the digital inline print with the Jetliner, is at the beginning of its life cycle. So, you really can bring big improvements, big innovations to our industry.
When you see the results of the digital printer running in line with the corrugator, I think nobody thought that this was possible five years ago
We all know that BHS Corrugated as a company and you as a person always look for the future. Do you have any projects you’re implementing now but you couldn’t imagine them five years ago to be real?
Well, when you see the results of the digital printer running in line with the corrugator, I think nobody thought that this was possible five years ago. We still hear today what is not possible, but we can show you what is possible.
Maybe you have a message for your customers, like about your company, how to assure them that BHS Corrugated makes the best equipment in the world.
I think we make the life of our customers much easier every day. It’s not about selling a corrugator, it’s about operating and performing with a corrugator, reducing waste, being able to produce at the lowest grammages, being able to produce reliably, predictably, at a high-performance level. I think that makes the life of our customers easier, and this is our aim, really to assist our customers day by day, and not only when they want to decide to buy some equipment.
And, since we are from Ukraine, we also want to ask, how did the Russian invasion to Ukraine affect the corrugated market and what is possible to do about it?
What happened in Ukraine is a very sad story, because we enjoyed the business there, working with our colleagues from Ukraine. This is stopped for the time being, but wherever we can support our customers in Ukraine, we will support them. Like we do also by supporting many initiatives in Ukraine, by helping our people, by offering education. So, let’s hope that it turns out to be good at some point of time.
We know that you helped a lot of refugees, like when the war started, a lot of Ukrainian refugees really appreciated it. And maybe you also have your thoughts for the future, like what is the best way for the corrugated industry to deal with such market problems caused by political situations?
I think for Ukraine, we decided to do all this help, especially regarding that we help people to learn German language, to find a new way how they can work, when they are refugees or when they are living in Germany. I think language is always a good base, and it will help us in the future, that we can maybe have these people help us later again, when everything in Ukraine is good again.
Thank you for your time. Thank you for the interview!
Thanks a lot!
corruga.expert
