Highcon and Tilia Labs partner to improve productivity for folding and corrugated converters

As part of this partnership, Tilia Labs will develop functionality to automatically place optimized nicks and stripping lines within the base version of tilia Phoenix, its flagship planning and imposition application that employs artificial intelligence (AI) technology enabling optimal imposition and dynamic jobs ganging. These capabilities are said to reduce the number of make readies and operators’ time on every job and allow Highcon customers to produce more jobs per shift with maximum efficiency and reduced waste.

The inclusion of Tilia Labs’ AI-driven imposition software that enables dynamic ganging is integral to Highcon’s digital manufacturing vision that seeks to break the long-standing link between the number of customer jobs and the number of projected jobs. By allowing tilia Phoenix to account for all jobs in queue and key parameters such as due dates, order quantities, and finishing, tilia Phoenix generates optimized combinations that reduce the number of production runs, makereadies, changeovers. When combined with Highcon’s digital die-cutting systems, this approach is said to allow plants to process many more jobs per shift, increasing total throughput and revenue. This approach is applicable both with digitally printed and conventionally printed cartons.

'Highcon’s Digital Manufacturing Vision dovetails perfectly with the benefits tilia Phoenix’s artificial intelligence brings to our industry. Alongside Highcon’s focus on material optimization and short run production, tilia Phoenix is the perfect solution to continuously feed the machines quickly and efficiently. We are excited about this partnership and look forward to transforming corrugated and folding carton manufacturing,' said George Folickman, global sales director, for Tilia Labs.

Tilia Labs and Highcon already have several mutual clients providing the hypothesis that combining a larger pool of orders in production planning leads to reduced manufacturing costs and gains in overall throughput.

'We came to understand that Tilia Labs’ Artificial Intelligence is a key enabler to our Digital Manufacturing vision, changing the paradigm of production planning and increasing the value of Highcon’s solutions to packaging converters. The optimal imposition and the dynamic ganging abilities will enable substrate optimization and will greatly support the growing sustainability requirements which is part of the core value proposition of Highcon. We are delighted to have established this partnership and to know that our customers will be receiving the enabler to digital manufacturing with every system we deliver,' said Simon Lewis, Highcon’s vice president of marketing.