Winchester, VA – Monoflo International, a premier manufacturer of quality, injection-molded reusable transport packaging, has completed construction of a new 325,000 square foot storage and logistics facility, located at 100 Ezra Ln. in Winchester, Virginia. This expansion will double Monoflo’s existing warehouse space to accommodate the tens of millions of plastics totes, pallets, trays, and bulk containers the company manufactures each year.
John Johnson, Senior Vice President at Monoflo International highlighted the growth of the company sharing, “Our growth is about more than just increasing the number of facilities and machines in our operation; it’s about providing value to our customers. Monoflo was built on a commitment to continuous improvement. When we see an opportunity to expand in a way that helps our customers thrive, it unlocks new opportunities for our sustainable growth as well.”
The new warehouse is strategically positioned between Monoflo’s two Virginia production facilities and immediately off Interstate 81, delivering freight cost advantages to customers. The new facility will also support customers who use Monoflo Logistics Services, a recently released solution from Monoflo. This service offers flexible short-term storage for customers to manage the inflow of reusable packaging to their sites.
“From the site selection to the design and development of the building, every decision we made in the execution of the new facility was driven by how we can best support our customers,” reports Evan Hinkle, Warehouse & Logistics Manager at Monoflo International. “We employ lean warehouse management best practices to accurately and efficiently store and move inventory and leverage our relationships with freight companies to deliver our customers’ orders on time and on budget.”
Monoflo operates three facilities in North America and employs over 325 employees across the United States and Mexico. This new storage and logistics facility is just one of many recent expansions as Monoflo continues to invest in infrastructure to meet the growing demand from customers across many industries, including, food and beverage, automotive, general manufacturing, and automated systems and warehousing.
Ben Waterman, Business Development Manager at Monoflo International shares, “We are continually looking for opportunities to provide additional solutions and values for our customers and gain organizational and manufacturing efficiencies. This project does this, and we are very excited about growing our logistics services to the next level and beyond.”
Monoflo is excited to continue its support in the local community, engaging ten local Virginia contracting companies to execute this expansion.
“We are very pleased to continue our investment and commitment here in Frederick County, a locale that we have successfully partnered with for nearly fifty years,” Waterman shared.
Once the transition to the new facility is complete, Monoflo plans to convert the current warehouse to additional manufacturing space, increasing production capacity and shortening lead times to continue to better support its customers and their project timelines.
Monoflo recently completed its latest expansion project, Stonewall Production, that involved converting 32,000 sq. ft. of its 150,000 sq. ft. warehouse space into production space and will be housing six additional injection molding machines. The Krauss Maffei machines are going to be manufacturing products in their automation product line, including Stack Only Containers that are in use in ASRS warehouses across the country.
What does this expansion mean for the future of Monoflo?
Ashly Hawkins, Operations Manager, said the expansion showcases the growth of the company stating, “The addition of Stonewall production has given us the ability to produce more products in growing market segments. By incorporating automated technology in the production cells, we are able to provide a more consistent product to our customers, which stems from the ability to control each operation from beginning to end.”
This is the second major production facility expansion completed in the last year, as the company completed the construction of a 22,000 square foot “Imboden” production hall in 2021. This investment included the addition of five production machines that operate 24/7 to support increased demand and offer decreased lead times to customers.
Headquartered in Virginia, with additional manufacturing facilities in Kansas and Mexico, Monoflo continues to invest in state-of-the-art technology and equipment to provide essential products to several top Fortune companies.
Monoflo International is putting the finishing touches on another facility expansion — this time, the construction of a new mold storage building.
Last week, the company moved into the final stages of construction at their manufacturing facility in Winchester, Virginia, putting the roof on a new 4,900 sq. ft space adjacent to their manufacturing building. The new addition will include a 60-ton crane to handle molds weighing up to 120,000 lbs. and will be outfitted with new equipment that will improve and expedite the maintenance process of these molds.
The new space will free up the areas that were previously used to store molds when not in use, creating more manufacturing floor space for new machines and robotics, increasing overall production capacity and decreasing lead times. The company plans to begin moving into the space towards the end of the month.
How Monoflo International redesigned the Bulk Container to offer a better product with significant cost savings to the automotive and manufacturing industry.
Challenge: Design a more durable Bulk Container and drive down costs.
Monoflo International, Inc. is a premier manufacturer of superior quality injection molded plastic products and one of the first transport packaging manufacturer in the United States to make a bulk container using high-pressure injection molding. Monoflo believed that the high-pressure injection molded product line offered its customers better strength, durability, and price. Though it was outperforming the competition, Monoflo knew its first generation “G1” bulk box had room for improvement in three main areas:
» Packout Efficiency
Companies in the durable goods manufacturing industry work with a variety of vendors and suppliers, so members in that supply chain follow recommendations and best practices set by the AIAG (Automotive Industry Action Group) to standardize processes and materials, like bulk container footprints. The AIAG determined that the optimum bulk container size to accommodate the needs of the automotive industry is a 48”x45”footprint. However, when loaded on a 53’ trailer, the standard bulk container footprint could leave over 290 cubic feet of unutilized space.
» Durability
The supply chain can be unforgiving. Regardless of the manufacturer, customers across the industry experienced breakage of the container’s wall hinges as a result of wear and tear and abuse. Broken containers are costly to continually replace, but if left in use, can leave the product they carry vulnerable to damages.
» Manufacturing Efficiency
Resources are finite. Increased inputs of time, energy, labor, and raw materials can collectively drive up production costs. In order to keep costs low and promote sustainability, Monoflo wanted to drive out manufacturing inefficiencies.
Solution: Monoflo’s redesigned “G2” bulk box.
Monoflo set out to reengineer its bulk box design and manufacturing process to better use the real estate in a 53’ trailer packout, improve the durability of the bulk box to withstand the rigors of the supply chain, and increase manufacturing efficiency to reduce costs.
Monoflo understood it was important that the new design maintain the same inside dimensions to be able to accommodate the same dunnage and products without disruption to current users, and needed to be fully compatible with the other containers used in the durable goods manufacturing industry. Through careful calculation and modeling, Monoflo engineers identified a way to move from a 48” x 45” external footprint to a 48” x 44.5” external footprint without impacting the dimensions inside the container or the container’s strength. The team strategically positioned the feet of the second-generation base to ensure the new model would stack with the legacy models. These changes enabled customers to fit two additional container stacks in a 53’ trailer packout.
The redesign also included modifications to improve the strength and durability of the bulk box, and offered a solution to the industry-wide hinge breakage problem. Monoflo engineers created a redesigned “Flex Hinge” without fiberglass or metal for easier assembly and disassembly, and repositioned them towards the center of the sidewall to protect from wear and tear and abuse. This also made the unit more easily repairable, providing customers the option to repair instead of replace damaged containers. The team also established an independent “T-Slot” connection between the bottom and the sidewall, offering a more precise alignment when assembled, and a box-style “Carcass Joint” to better absorb and resist impact. Lastly, using Finite Element Analysis (FEA), Monoflo implemented a “U-Channel” ribbing design down the sidewall load lines to improve both vertical and horizontal deflections and optimize stacking capacity.
Monoflo performed a comprehensive evaluation of the machines it was using to manufacture bulk containers. Deciding it was time for an upgrade, the company made a significant, multi-million dollar investment and hand selected only the best-in-class robotics and machinery to fully automate the manufacturing process of the newly designed “G2” bulk container.
Results:
» Decreasing the external footprint of the container by 1⁄2 inch meant that 252 units could now ship in a single truck, an increase of 20% from the previous capacity of 234 units. For businesses that move thousands of truckloads of product across the country each year, this translated into significant cost savings. Customers not only pay a lower per-unit price on their initial order, but are also able to transport more product with each truckload.
» The improved“G2”Bulk Container with the new “Flex Hinge,” “T-Slot,” and“Carcass Joint” features has the highest strength-to-weight ratio in the industry as well as decreased reports of broken hinges. The “U-channel” ribbing offers improved load distribution, translating into the highest overall load stacking capacity and increased wall rigidity, both when assembled and disassembled. These strategic design optimizations enabled Monoflo to create a stronger, more durable container with improved load distribution while reducing the overall product weight by 20%, meaning less raw materials consumed and lower freight costs throughout the life of the product.
» Monoflo’s technology investment completely automated the bulk box manufacturing process, decreasing cycle times by nearly 6% and creating a manufacturing cell cost savings that Monoflo was able to pass on to customers. The upgraded technology also includes a vision verification system to inspect minute details at critical stages of production, eliminating the risk of misassembled product and guaranteeing consistent, repeatable quality.
Every factor of the redesign, from the increased packout count, to the improved durability and repairability, and the ongoing freight cost savings contributes to a lower total cost of ownership to customers. The new G2 Bulk Container offers a better quality, more durable container for a lower upfront price and freight savings for the life of the product.
Monoflo announces the opening of a new business in Mexico.
January 2019 – Winchester, VA
Monoflo International, Inc., a premier manufacturer of superior quality injection molded plastic products, has announced the opening of a new business, Monoflo Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V. The new facility is located in Leon, Mexico in the State of Guanajuato and will enable the company to better service its growing plastic transport packing business in North America.
The initial focus of the Mexico facility will be to produce bulk collapsible containers using Monoflo’s industry leading design and technology on their injection molded 48 x 44.5 collapsible bulk container footprint. In addition, the company’s Virginia and Kansas facilities will support other products for their customers in Mexico, including hand held containers, pallets and smaller bulk containers.
About Monoflo International, Inc.
Monoflo International, Inc. is a premier manufacturer of quality, injection molded plastic containers and pallets for manufacturing and distribution needs. Monoflo leverages its decades of experience to provide innovative and cost-effective reusable packaging solutions to the general merchandise, food distribution, automotive and manufacturing industries.
Over $2 million invested towards sustainability initiative
January 2019, Winchester, VA
Monoflo International, Inc. just expanded its reprocessing and recycling operation to include a new, state-of-the-art reprocessing facility at their corporate headquarters in Winchester, Virginia. The manufacturer of reusable transport packaging invested over two million dollars in infrastructure and machinery to expand its recycling capacity, nearly tripling the amount of scrap material the company can process. The new facility dedicates an additional 57,000 square feet to reprocessing and recycling broken or obsolete high-density polyethylene (HDPE) products.
In addition to preventing tens of thousands of pounds of plastic from ending up in a landfill, Monoflo’s “buyback” program offers customers a way to sell off reusable pallets and distribution containers that have reached their end-of-life, regardless of the product’s original manufacturer. Additionally, Monoflo’s in-house process offers complete separation from dirt, debris, metals, paper, and adhesives, which results in a higher quality material that the company then uses to manufacture new product.
About Monoflo International, Inc.
Monoflo International, Inc. is a premier manufacturer of superior quality injection molded plastic products including bulk, foldable and food containers and pallets, bakery trays and dollies, and dairy crates. Monoflo leverages its decades of experience to provide innovative and cost-effective reusable packaging solutions to the general merchandise and food distribution, automotive and manufacturing, and specialty custom retail industries.
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